On May 20th, do something you’re used to doing. Spend $20.

Admittedly, it doesn’t sound like much of a crusade. But our call to action comes with one caveat: You have to spend your 20 bones at local businesses.

The Tidewater News is committed to our area businesses, and is teaming up with them in an effort to help jumpstart the local economy. We believe this effort, originally conceived and shown to be a success in Aiken, S.C., will work here as well.

Several participating businesses (see the full list on Pages 8 and 9) will be offering specials on May 20. And this newspaper is giving everyone who spends a Jackson ($20) in participating stores a chance to win a Benjamin ($100).

Conversely, a tip of the hat to the anonymous Web poster “politicaljunkie,” who correctly stated that a pervasive attitude of spending more than one can afford (and, we should add, a pervasive attitude of borrowing more than one can repay) spawned the Great Recession.

But spending a double sawbuck isn’t going to break the bank, and no one is going to be accused of living beyond their means by putting 20 bucks down on local merchants’ counters. Collectively such an effort will help keep local businesses afloat, keep workers employed, and foster an air of optimism that could help the get the economy back on track.

And that’s really what everyone wants.