I'm writing from the Take Back America conference in Wash. D.C.-- my fourth year attending. The attendance this year is way up, a record, exceeding 3000. As usual, it does not disappoint. Everywhere you turn there are smart, passionate, energized activists, dynamically engaged in making a difference. Most of the people's badges list organizations, but even the folks without badges, when you get their story, are deeply involved in and committed to making a difference.
This year, more than previous years, I see at least half a dozen people I've talked into coming to the meeting, locals, who I go to protests and work on local activism projects with. They tell me how energizing and inspiring it is. That hits the nail on the head. I come to this conference to meet people and my first day, do pretty well, getting a chance to talk with three new senators-- Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and Sherrod Brown, congressman Keith Ellison, head of DFA Jim Dean, publishers of In These Times, Commondreams, The Progressive, Wayne Madsen, had breakfast with Thom Hartmann, talked with a whole lot of bloggers, "made face" with a number of our writers I'd never seen before... met people from at least a dozen different advocacy organizations... and retired to my room with at least 40 business cards representing great conversations and connections. And that doesn't include re-connecting with all the old friends
At our booth, we have a digital projector showing our front page and the new directory and cloud tag with cloud tag control panel--- which our readers will have access to any day now. I meet up with our Voting Integrity Editor, Joan Brunwasser, who has been an AMAZING volunteer, making a huge difference, and she's having a great time. She reports that she's been making great contact, recruiting new writers for the site. That's one of our big goals here-- getting people to know about us, getting writers to write for us, to cross post to OpEdNews.com.
It's kind of funny, after four years of coming to the meeting, after growing to where we have over 400,000 people visiting the site each month, there are an awful lot of people who have never heard of us. That's to be expected though, and I'm grateful that there are plenty who do know of us, when a few years ago, No-one knew of OpEdNEws.com. Then, I'm sitting at dinner with Thom Hartmann, an old friend, and the other people at the table have no idea of who he is, and he's the number one progressive talk show host in America. What can I say. There's lots of waking up to do. That's what the people here do.
After getting our booth set up in media row, I drop in to hear the opening plenary, catching Eli Pariser of Moveon, the Keith Ellison, the new, first Muslim ever in elected to congress.
Elison, from Minnesota, is an out of the closet progressive, liberal activist. He's great. Best line-- "politicians have to feel the heat to see the light."
Rep Jan Schakowsky, from IL, is another great liberal, progressive who tells us that it is our support and energy that energizes them, that it is the people who end wars, that we can't depend on congress to do it alone.
At lunch, over 2000 people listen to reports on the progress of the Appollo energy alliance. A few years ago, the announced the project-- to move the country towards renewable energy sources and off its dependence on fossil fuels. And the news is that there has been a lot of progress. Phil Angelides is one of several speakers
In the evening, Katrina Van Den Heuvel moderates a panel of new populist senators- Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and Sherrod Brown. She points out that these are real progressive politicians-- new blood who can make a real difference. They tell us about their interests and issues, then answer questions. They are SO inspiring, so impressive. We need more of this kind of politician. It shows we don't have to settle for machine democrats who go along to get along. We deserve leaders who represent our true progressive interests.
Hartmann says, as I type. "We don't elect leaders. We elect representatives. We have to be the parade. We are the parade." The idea is not to let politicians jump in front of parades we create. We are the parade. We get them to be a part of the parade we're directing, envisioning and making happen.
Thom Hartmann says, "The difference between southern slave owners and us is that they had to look at the faces of their slaves. We have exported it. It is promoted almost exclusively by transnational corporations and the WTO."
Bev Smith, radio talk show host, says, "Conserve means to keep as is, liberal means to spread it around."
Bev Smith asks, "How may of you have called the manager of a radio station and said "I don't like what you are playing on your station. Tell them, You don't have fair and balanced programming on your station. Tell them you'll stop buying products they advertise. "
Hartmann reinforces, "It's amazing how rarely the radio station hears from people."
Two more days to go-- today, I'll hear Mike Gravel, Gov. Bill Richardson, then on to a a blogger panel, then Barack Obama, then John Edwards. The evening will be a dinner honoring Barbara Boxer, with Seinfeld's Jason Alexander as MC.
Now, back to the conference.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
. . . reporting back for those of who can't be there. It's particularly heartening to know there are congresspeople who vote with their principles, not their pocketbooks.
Hartmann's advice is good. We call our congresspeople and write to publications, but we don't contact radio stations, which are entrenched as any media.
by
RussWellen (29 articles, 195 quicklinks, 50 comments)
on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 11:33:52 AM
Please pay particular attention to Mike Gravel and Bill Richardson; Let me know which of the two is the true progressive and is he electable? In the past I've been for Jerry Brown, unfortunately he was not electable as President nor, I'm afraid is Dennis Kucinich. I need to find a progressive who is electable,who is he?
by
Ken (21 articles, 27 quicklinks, 26 comments)
on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 1:01:30 PM
I read your article on Take Back America & many other articles you have written. Some deserve more recognition than others. But all do have substance.
Where your missing the boat, is the fact you still back one party & tell others looking for direction to do the same thing. Your still asking people to follow like blind sheep being led to the slaughter.
If your truly dedicated to taking back our country & getting the majority of corruption out of Govt. Your going to have to unite dissatisfied Americans from both parties. This party division will only allow the corruption to continue & grow stronger.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are to lazy to do their Patriotic homework & check out each candidates voting records & what he or she stands for. They depend on people like you to do it for them & tell them who to vote for. It's sad, but true.
Now let's be honest for a moment. Neither party lives up to what they used to stand for as Conservatives & Liberals. Though they put on a good show. The majority of our elected reps dance to the same tune. The name of that tune is MONEY & POWER. They have become nothing but puppets with the same puppeteers pulling the strings on both parties.
If you really want to unite Americans & lead them back to real Freedom. You should be telling all of them to register Independent for starters. Next start choosing candidates from both parties who truly have the best interest of Americans & our Freedom as their priority. Screw this following one party like blind sheep. That's why we are in the trouble we're in today with our elected reps ignoring what we want from them.
Lets face it. No one party can run this country successfully. It takes the contributions of both parties to reach acceptable outcomes. As Independents, we can hand pick who we want to represent our best interests. We can't do that following one party any longer. Independents will also send a message to all of the candidates telling them we hold them responsible for their own actions.
You should also be paying more attention to getting rid of these corruptible voting machines to assure Americans they can really choose who gets elected.
Do you really think there is no real reason there are more candidates running this time & all starting early? Open your eyes & look at issues not being in focus in the media right now. Yes, I'm talking about these damn voting machines. All these puppets have you & I focused on them to buy time so we aren't focused on getting rid of voting machines so easily manipulated. We should shift our focus on getting rid of them before it's to late. Who is dancing in front of the camera right now makes no difference until next year. This year should be for getting rid of those voting computers.
By the way. The Democat's don't have one Candidate worth spit to vote for at this time. All of them are full of hot air & promises they won't keep. Look at their voting records.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Mr. Mitch Sprague
by
aCowboy53 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 comments)
on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 1:18:44 PM
much hope up in leaders you should listen to what Prof. Francis Boyle has to say (mp3 interview), found at Free Range Thought in Media (also via Uruknet). His final point is the the people have to do it.
by
bluepilgrim (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 457 comments)
on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 2:07:11 AM
