Politics
Entries related to things political.
Who can fight poverty?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/22/2007 - 10:27It is good to see a major media outlet talk about the issue of poverty in America, even if the article is based on a false premise. The article “In Aiding Poor, Edwards Built Bridge to 2008”, June 22, suggests, “the main beneficiary of the center’s fund-raising was Mr. Edwards himself”.
No, the main beneficiaries were the thousands of students who went to hear Sen. Edwards as he visited college campuses around the country and found the hope and the inspiration to address problems of poverty in our country. The main beneficiaries were residents of New Orleans who saw students Sen. Edwards led to help with the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The main beneficiaries are all of us that have stopped and thought a little bit more about the issue of poverty in America, thanks to Sen. Edwards.
The problem with the New York Times article is manifold. It suggests that the rich cannot care about poverty, that throwing money at a problem is the only solution and that candidates cannot care about issues.
A Day in My Shoes
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 06/21/2007 - 20:08Yesterday, Anna Burger of the SEIU spoke during the final plenary session of the Take Back America conference. I was tired and browsed various pictures from Wordless Wednesday. Burger started talking about Walk A Day In My Shoes, a project by the SEIU to get candidates to spend a day living the life of one of their union members. I like that project a lot. We all need to spend more time getting a sense how people outside our immediate circle lives.
This takes me back to one of my old rants, which is about the progressive bloggers. So many of them seem to spend their time talking to one another on certain blogs, but how often do they walk a day in the shoes of others? Anyway, how do you do that online?
Well, I think Wordless Wednesday is a great starting point. I kept scanning pictures of things that are important, beautiful, interesting, or some combination of the above to the bloggers that participate; flowers, rainbows, children, the stuff of daily life. I stopped at Mommy’s Busy to see if there was any news about Faith. I stopped by at Bee’s, who describes herself as a conservative with liberal friends (hey some of 'em aren't too bad - honest!). I visited Sarge Charlie. Sarge and I probably don’t agree on a much political stuff, and that’s probably putting it mildly, but he does have a great picture that people interested in politics should check out. He writes great stuff about his family and about the men and women that serve our country.
When Ms. Burger finished speaking, it was Gov. Dean’s turn to speak. I suspect Sarge might not think the most of Gov. Dean, but the Governor said something that I thought was really important and ties together these thoughts. Immediately after Katrina, the DNC suspended much of its fundraising operations. They felt that it just wasn’t right to be out asking for money from people when the money was most needed on the Gulf Coast. They encouraged staffers to go down to the coast and volunteer. Two of the staffers ended up staying with a couple Southern Baptist women. They were concerned that these Southern Baptist women might not think much about people working for the Democratic Party in Washington, DC. However, after they all worked together, side by side, helping with relief efforts, both the DNC staffers and the Southern Baptist women learned to appreciate each other, and that’s what we need more of.
I hope Sarge and his buddies stop by this blog from time to time, at least on Wednesdays. I hope they go over and visit Stacie’s blog to see how Faith is doing, and to offer up a little prayer for that family. I hope some of my liberal friends stop by and visit Sarge’s blog, and send letters of support to our troops in response to some of Sarge’s posts. Maybe by doing that, our Wednesdays can go beyond being Wordless to being Wonderful.
(Technorati tags: tba2007, takebackamerica)
Take Back America's Illusions
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/20/2007 - 11:03The sidewalks are wet from the rain that fell over night. I am exhausted and must have slept through the rain. It has cut down some of the heat and humidity that was so oppressive last night which makes the walk to the Metro station a little more tolerable, however my backpack and the blister that has formed on my foot slows me down.
I had an interesting talk with one friend yesterday. She asked if I had seen anything interesting, new or exciting. I mentioned Elandria from the Highlander Research and Education Center as being the best that I heard. My friend observed that there wasn’t much new in her speech. I noted that for me, finding out about Highlander was new, but I had to agree. At all of the conferences like this there needs to be someone to bring up the issues of the poverty, race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on, in a personal and meaningful way. Elandria is the one who did that here. Perhaps others did as well, but I didn’t hear them, or they did it in a session where their comments were so impersonalized that it faded into the background political rhetoric.
I explored this in more detail over drinks last night. The guy I was talking with spoke about the decline in trust in the public discourse and the increased focus on the private discourse. It was all well and good, but it sounded a bit impersonal, part of the failing public discourse.
How do I explain to the people here why Faith’s story is so important, why so many of the ‘Mommy bloggers’ that I read are so much more important than all these progressive blogs? We talk about authenticity. It is a loaded term. All the politicians try to sound more authentic. However, our political discourse discourages real authenticity. Heaven forbid that a candidate should show real tears for the oppressed.
Take Back America, the Self Organizing Sessions
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 06/19/2007 - 15:31This afternoon, I’m helping with the Self Organizing Sessions at the Take Back America conference. The idea was based on unconferences like RootsCamp. The first sessions got off to a late start because of Obama and Edwards running late.
The first sessions were Betrayed!: How the Failure to Care for the 21st Century Veteran is Endangering Families and Jeopardizing Communities and Winning Hearts and Minds: Why Rational Appeals are Irrational if Your Goal is Winning Elections. They were both well attended and ran a little late themselves due to their late start.
Fortunately, there was half an hour between these sessions and the following sessions, so the second set have started pretty close to on schedule. They are Prevent Unwanted Presidencies (And Congresses): To-Do List For An Honest '08 Election lead by people from the Election Defense Alliance and Web 2.0 and the Next Generation of Online Voter Registration, from Working Assets. They are talking about a voter registration API and Widgets that other sites, such as blogs will be able to embed in their sites. I caught a few minutes of this session. They had 63% of the people that started the registration process on their site actually get registered and get out and vote. I look forward to seeing the API and seeing where I can use it.
At 4:30, there will be a session called Make Something Pretty--Use Your Art to Advance a Progressive Agenda and a session called Hip Hop Artists and Activists: Politically Empowering a Culture of Resistance .
I chatted with some of the folks from the hip hop group and they having a special Hip Hop Organizing meeting this evening, Tuesday at 6 PM in room 1090 at the Hilton. They want to get as many people and organizations to show up to discuss both direct action now as well as long term planning.
This gathering seems to particularly capture the spirit of the self organizing sessions and I hope a lot of people attend.
(Technorati tags: tba2007, takebackamerica)
And the circus begins
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 06/19/2007 - 11:45About an hour before the Sen. Obama is scheduled to speak, the advance teams start getting their volunteers out in force. The lobby where people check in is swarmed with advance teams and supporters of both Obama and Edwards. Players put on their candidates T-shirts, similar to preparing for a friendly game of softball. Stickers and buttons abound, and the teams scurry to find the best place to put up their posters.
Those who aren’t at special locations head inside to find seats before they get too filled up. Outside, Politico has a poll for attendees of the conference, and one of their questions is to see if the speeches cause people to change their opinions of various candidates. It will be interesting to see the results. I suspect that many people already have their minds up.
So, what does all this jockeying for position really do? Will it impress the boys on the bus and get slightly better earned media? Is it merely protecting against earned negative media? Perhaps an important part of the circus is to encourage the supporters, to help them feel like they are part of something special, to help them feel that their actions make a difference.
Even if that is all that it does, it serves an important purpose. All of us need to do things that make us feel like we are making a difference.
(Technorati tags: tba2007, takebackamerica)
