Issa Decker, a laid-off schoolteacher in Marin County, Calif., expected only a few people would sign her petition on Change.org demanding extra weeks of unemployment benefits from Congress.
"I thought it would get 30 or 40 friends' signatures," she said. Instead, as she put it, "It went viral."
Decker posted her petition online on March 12. Two months later, it has more than 26,000 signatures. It's the most popular user-generated petition Change.org has ever seen. It's partly a testament to the huge problem of unemployment, partly a testament to the extremely dedicated online community of unemployed people.
"Some petitions have gotten more signatures, but those are petitions we do more promotion on," said Change.org's Matthew Slutsky. Change.org is a for-profit site built on "rapid-response social action campaigns" every week. "In terms of touching a vein, this has really taken off."
The petition starts by chastising senators and representatives: "You should be ashamed of yourselves." It goes on to blame Congress for the recession's record unemployment and ends with the cri de coeur of the long-term unemployed: "ADD A TIER V."
Read on.
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