He did it again last night – Barack Obama once again transfixed the nation with his message of hope and change at a time when so many Americans, as well as our neighbors around the globe, have lost faith in our country. Reuters reports that this convention speech may have set a viewership record, with one quarter of all U.S. households tuned in. And I, as an Iraq war veteran whose life is forever changed as a result of my combat tour, could not have been prouder to cheer him on, there at Spud’s Pizza Parlor with the couple dozen others who showed up for our watch party.
Now, Spud’s isn’t your most liberal place, a detail that was only brought to my attention by one of our attendees who mentioned it in the RSVP. My first clue should have been the previous evening, when I went over there on a last-minute recon, making sure everything would be suitable for our group. Several of the young servers approached me, curiously, and demanded to know why they should “vote for this guy.” Oh, that got me on a roll, even though just as I began to respond, my cell phone signaled me that my house alarm had been tripped! Ignoring the alarm, I rattled off a number of convincing reasons why Barack is the man for the job right now, then politely excused myself to see to the problem at home.
Wouldn’t you know it, one of those young people was at the front desk last night, sporting a hand-lettered “Go McCain!” t-shirt. I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit under my breath – yes, we like it like this, invading “enemy territory,” preaching not only to the choir but to voters of every ilk. Just wait till he starts speaking, I thought to myself with a secret smile.
So we settled in to our assigned area – not the cramped little game room, as they had originally arranged. Turned out they didn’t know how to change the TV channel in there (huh?), so they relented and put us into a raised platform area within the main dining room. I’m sure the manager must have been fuming, because during my previous evening’s visit, when I inquired about possibly moving it into a similar raised area in the bar due to overwhelming response, she snapped that we would be in the game room, and that was that.
I passed around the sign-in sheets and stickers and went over a few admin notes while everybody chatted and watched the preliminaries on the screen. And then, the time came, and folks got quiet to watch a moving little documentary on his life.
Finally, Barack came onstage, lights shining, music playing, and all of it outshone by his million-watt grin. “Thank you, thank you,” he repeated over and over for what seemed like two minutes, as the crowd refused to quit cheering long enough for him to start his speech. But at last, they quieted down and listened.
I won’t go into every detail of what he said. My focus at the moment is how I, as a combat veteran, heard the remarks of our next commander-in-chief.
And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
I was in the front yard talking to my neighbor this morning, and the conversation drifted to last night’s speech. My neighbor had begun by saying, “Yeah, well, I think I might be starting to lean toward him….” I did my best to regulate my passion as we talked, mostly about the war and how it’s ravaged our country, but also about the economy, our standing in the world, and other critical issues facing us. Some people harbor the mistaken notion that anybody who disagrees with the current administration or its policies must be anti-American. Not at all, I assured her: “I love this country, and I love our military, and it saddens me to no end to see how this president seems bent on ruining both! We’re so beaten down by Iraq that we cannot even answer the up-and-coming threats cropping up on the horizon, and THAT puts us in great peril! It is time for a president who will at least put us back on the right track, even if he can’t solve all our problems in one term….”
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Wasn’t it John McCain who promised that as president, he would ensure that oil independence would “prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East”? Hmm, well that’s just one candidate talking, but if it’s true, how does he think it makes me feel about my combat service that people treat as such a noble thing? And how would it make me feel about him, who AGREES with Bush’s policies 90 percent of the time, and who thinks it’d be fine to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for “maybe a hundred” years?
Yes, we do need to wean ourselves from foreign oil, and Barack is committed to that goal, with clear plans for achieving it. As a conservationist, I applaud his proposals as outlined in his speech. But as a veteran, I am deeply disturbed and insulted by John McCain’s implication that my sacrifice and that of so many of my comrades was chiefly to protect our nation’s oil interests. AND, as Barack pointed out, McCain has done nothing concrete in support of his stated intention:
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
Barack gets it right when he talks about the wrong way to do things:
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
I, like most of my fellow veterans, was proud to answer the call to duty and take up arms in defense of my country. It is what we raised our right hands and swore to do, and we did it willingly. In my case, I was singled out at the staging area, getting ready to board the plane, sitting on my duffel bag like everyone else, because someone in the medical facility had discovered a slight discrepancy in my civilian medical records. They wanted to hold me back to resolve it, and send me on to meet my unit later. “No way,” I replied, with a disbelieving chuckle. “I’m ready to go, and I’m going with my unit.” Little did I know the real – or made-up, as the case may be – reasons for this invasion.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
Nor did I understand the nature of the enemy we were about to confront – but who could blame me? Neither did my superiors as far up the chain as I could tell. The TACSOP (tactical SOP) that was supposed to be my “bible” over there had nothing to do with the reality on the ground. We made it up as we went along. The two months of training at Ft. Dix (during their worst blizzard in 26 years, I might add – wonderful preparation for the desert!) was a complete waste. The scenarios we rehearsed bore absolutely no resemblance to anything we had to do in Iraq.
And let’s not even talk about the equipment. I was issued a medium flak vest because they were all out of the small size. When I shouldered my weapon repeatedly, I’d get bruises on my biceps from where they’d hit the edges of the armholes, and the collar went up so high it would push my helmet down over my eyes in a prone firing position. My M-16 was famous for misfiring, and one range NCO disassembled and inspected it, and summarily ordered it off of his range for safety reasons. I could not get it replaced – they had no other weapon to issue me. No weapons cleaning kit, either, and the clothing sales store at Ft. Dix never had them any time I was able to check. When we got to Kuwait, I had to casually mosey on over to the Rangers’ tent across the way every morning and beg to borrow their weapons cleaning materials.
AND, my unit made me turn in my atropine injectors in Kuwait, before sending me to join a different unit in Iraq! When I arrived at that unit, the first sergeant asked to see my atropine, and I had to tell him I’d been made to turn it in. “They sent you to IRAQ with no ATROPINE???” he blustered. Yep, it was true. I don’t know if they were short on it or what, but that was still at the very beginning of things, when we weren’t sure whether NBC was going to be a factor.
Yes, Senator Obama, we will proudly serve, especially knowing that our commander-in-chief would never send us into battle lightly, without a clear mission, under false pretexts, under-equipped and ill-trained. You, Sir, will command the respect of our troops, and we’ll give 110 percent for you, knowing that you’ve got our back.
The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.
When I went to war, I was not a Republican or a Democrat, or even an Independent. Politics repelled me, and I stayed far removed from it, beyond casting my ballot every four years (which led to my amusing but sincere question upon being named PCO: “So I understand I’m responsible for organizing a precinct caucus – what’s that, some kind of meeting, right?”).
When I got home from Iraq, I had little hope left. My experience with this no-win, aimless war and the pathetic way my unit had treated me before, during and after (I was what is known in the Reserves as a “cross-level,” meaning I deployed with a unit I didn’t actually belong to), along with some very callous and insensitive remarks from various civilians upon learning of my role in the conflict, left me with a deep sense of despair. I had just put my life on the line, every day for 367 days, for THIS? It felt unreal. I didn’t even know why I had come back.
One day I read in the newspaper that Barack Obama had announced his candidacy for the presidency. “Barack Obama?” I thought. “Who’s that? Is he even American?” So I Googled him when I got home, and came up with his campaign website. I clicked on his announcement speech. Now, normally it’s difficult for me to focus my attention continuously on one thing – you learn that in combat, always keep your eyes roving, never sit still too long, be aware of your situation at all times, watch your back – but for that half-hour or so, I was stone-cold riveted. His speech left me teary-eyed. Wow. If this guy can do half of what he says he wants to do, he NEEDS to be president! But like he said himself, and continues to say, he can’t do it by himself. It’s going to take each and every one of us to get involved. So, I clicked a link on his website, and here I am today, having run (and attended!) my first precinct caucus, given the Obama persuasion speech at my legislative district caucus, running weekly meetings as well as speech watch parties and similar events, and talking to everyone I know about Obama. Because at last, here is something I can do that will really do something good for this country I love! All the blood, sweat, and tears I shed in Iraq didn’t do a thing to make our nation safer, healthier, or more prosperous – in fact, just the opposite. But now I finally have the opportunity to make a difference for GOOD for America – this country I love, red, white, and blue.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, we gathered a few onlookers at Spud’s, people who just stopped to watch the speech with us. Some were very quiet, some pounded on the railing enthusiastically. All, I am sure, will remember this night for time to come, because this was indeed history in the making. It is not too late for our country – we are still the last best hope.
Hello,
I live in Washington State, and we had our caucuses Feb 9. Now we want to do whatever we can to help other states in their Obama efforts. Could somebody send me a current list of the major news outlets in NC, so that we may write letters to editors? I am particularly interested in areas targeting military veterans, as I am an Iraq war veteran myself.
Thank you,
SSG Cheryl Kopec, Pierce County Veterans for Obama, PierceCoVets@gmail.com
From a recent message from Bill Richardson:
"...And while Governor Richardson left the field some three months ago, the debts we incurred in working to get his message out have not. Thanks to our many supporters, we have begun to whittle that number down but there is much more to do--and I'm hoping you will help us finally retire it all with one last contribution."
They're trying to pay off his campaign debts -- here's where we can say thank you for his courageous stand in endorsing Obama, and give Carville an apoplexy at the same time.
The minimum donation is $5. Therefore, we are proposing, as a show of solidarity, that Obama supporters donate at least $5.08, or any amount ending in $.08, to help him out and make him glad he did the right thing.
Contribution link is https://secure.richardsonforpresident.com/page/contribute/closebooks?source=z1761
Show Richardson and the rest of the party that we don't forget those who've stood up for what they really believe, despite enormous pressure to the contrary. This is how we change the way Washington works!
And be sure to pass it on, too, if you are on any other blogs, forums, MySpace, Facebook, etc.
Cheers,
~~Cheryl
On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky8Hvq-F0U
Pass it on, especially to your Spanish-speaking friends!
I was deployed to OIF-1 with the US Army. I served proudly and am now retired, with a VA diagnosis of PTSD. I have been asked by several members of the Obama community to relate, in writing, my experiences of going into combat with substandard equipment and preparation, in rebuttal to the Pentagon's questioning of that allegation by one Army captain and Obama supporter. I want to do it, but I don't even know how to start, and every time I start trying to think about it deeply, I begin weeping. I need someone to "hold my hand" through this, because I think it's important that the campaign know there's someone solidly in his camp who can personally recount some of the horrendous lapses in supply and support during that phase of the war. I just need a good opening line and maybe some suggestions on a direction or something.... I don't just want to list a hundred bullet points -- who would read that?
Phone: 253-536-1618, IM luckycharmwa at Yahoo.
Thanks,
Got up today with a start, my first thought being, “It’s caucus day!” Oh my Lord, the day is finally upon me…. I haven’t contacted nearly the number of people as I had hoped in my precinct. Haven’t rehearsed a speech. Haven’t thoroughly studied the handy guide from the campaign that I received just last night. My eyes were wide, my hands shaky, my blood pressure and pulse at record highs when I took my vitals this morning. “Calm down, Cheryl,” I kept telling myself. “If you have a heart attack or something, your district chair is gonna be pissed! Oh, and so will Obama!” I tried everything – praying, reassuring myself that all would be well, trying to resign myself to failure in the event of a loss. Somehow I got myself through the morning in that state, wolfing down some oatmeal and fruit while downloading a few last-minute talking points. Finally it was time to leave.
I arrived almost an hour and a half early, but there was already quite a crowd building. I noticed many Hillary buttons and signs, and suddenly felt very small and vulnerable. Where were all these people coming from? Had they been hiding? Until today, I don’t recall ever seeing a Clinton bumper sticker or t-shirt anywhere in town! A helpful lady up front was welcoming people and helping them find their precinct. She wore an Obama sticker, I noticed with relief. At least we didn’t have to worry about her turning away supporters and telling them they were in the wrong place, like we’ve heard happened elsewhere. Another lady who seemed to be “official” told me that the caucuses would be “in there,” pointing to an adjacent room, but the doors weren’t open yet. I explained that I was a PCO, and she mentioned Walt was in there already setting up for the whole district. “Does he need any help?” I asked. Of course he did. And I was in.
There were three other people in that room, in fact. I walked as cheerily and confidently as possible up to the stage, where Walt and Bernice were going through some boxes and folders. “Bonjour!” I called out. Bernice turned to me, placing a quivering hand on my forearm, and said, “I was just telling Walt I can’t do this.” I recognized the look in her eyes – stark panic. Just what I’d been feeling all morning, myself. “It’s okay, Bernice, I know how you feel,” I began, but she cut me off. “Oh no, I’ve decided I can do it, but when we get to the tally part, I’m going to turn it over to Anton.” Okay, good, she had a plan – she wasn’t giving up entirely!
“What can I do?” I asked Walt. “Put me to work!” I wanted to be involved in the setup process to familiarize myself with the room, the layout, and the sequence, and ask any last-minute questions before the fun really began. Another guy was going around all the tables placing envelopes on them, one table per precinct. Bernice and I pitched in and followed him, removing sign-in sheets and placards from the envelopes. We ran out of tables.
A few more PCO’s trickled in and began setting up their tables as I worked on writing in all my affidavits. I was starting to breathe a little easier by this point. There was no turning back now, no doing anything over, no squeezing in an extra phone call, visit, flyer, etc. It was finally happening for real, and it was kinda the same feeling I had during my first RPG attack in Iraq. From here on out, you either make it or you don’t, and it’s half luck and half quick wits and skill.
Stepped out to use the restroom right before we began, and passed Traci on the way. “How ya doin’, Traci? You makin’ it?” She just looked at me, sighing heavily and slowly shaking her head. Yeah, I knew that feeling – I most certainly wasn’t the only one after all! “Believe me,” I assured her, “I’ve been feeling like that all morning!” Of all the PCO’s, only Beckie was in light enough spirits to crack a joke. This was some pretty heavy business….
Finally the doors were opened – two huge garage-type doors leading into our convention room. And the people poured in – waves and waves of them, wending their way between the tables looking for their precinct. Suddenly I was glad that one guy had been so careful about placing the envelopes in sequence! At first, no one came to my table. Hmm, this might be easier than I expected, I thought, if profoundly disappointing. But no, they kept coming, and coming, and coming. We had to put chairs on top of tables for people to get through. And even when the large room seemed packed to capacity, still more were trying to get in. Good thing the fire marshal wasn’t around!
About ten people finally wound up at my table – four for Hillary, the rest for Barack. And I had my six affidavits, one for Hillary and five for Obama. We were looking good so far…. Walt finally called everyone to order, and a cheer went up when he remarked that for the past week, they’d been getting projections on caucus turnout, but obviously somebody grossly underestimated the numbers! And then, with everyone signed in, it was time to get started.
That part was easy. I had a script to work from, and simply read off what I was supposed to read to everyone. Someone volunteered to take minutes, and someone else to figure the delegate tallies. So the tally guy counted the sign-ins, and I double-checked them and carefully explained the formula to everyone while he crunched the numbers. Around that time, we got a latecomer, so then the numbers had to be adjusted. I wasn’t sure if that was allowed, but Walt soon announced that there was no cutoff for sign-ins or voting. So far so good – I hadn’t broken any rules yet!
Then it was time for speeches. I had a prepared speech with me – I had actually “borrowed” someone else’s, having been far too scattered this past week to sit down and focus on drafting something coherent myself. So I volunteered to make the first speech, raising my voice to be heard above the din of the crowd, the three or four Clinton supporters across the table leaning forward to catch what I was saying. It was supposed to be a one-minute speech, timed by the secretary (a Clinton supporter), but by mutual agreement we collectively decided to just play it by ear. About three quarters of the way into the speech (and it was a pretty good one), I decided to abandon my prepared script, and launched into a passionate diatribe against the Iraq war – it has driven us into frightening levels of debt, decimated our military, and actually strengthened al-Quaeda! I had made pretty much all my points when the secretary motioned for time, so I ceded the floor to the next speaker. Another Obama supporter, he spoke even more passionately than me, and seemed to know his political stuff. Good job.
None of the Clinton supporters had anything to say, although when pressed (after everything was all signed, sealed, placed back into the envelope, etc.), one guy offered something about “experience.” Allrighty then…. However, another of them did actually change his vote after the two of us had spoken! Way cool… it wasn’t enough to change the delegate tally, but I was even more gratified to know that my one Clinton affidavit wouldn’t have changed it, either!
So when all was said and done, we wound up with 3 Obama delegates and 1 Clinton delegate. Now was the hard part, I thought – how many of these folks would actually volunteer to take it a step further? Since we were wedged in between other precincts like sardines, we couldn’t very well adjourn to different areas of the room like we were supposed to, to elect delegates from our respective factions, so we just did a quick-and-dirty right where we were. How many Clinton supporters volunteer to be a delegate? One. Great. That’s how many they needed. No volunteers for alternate. How many for Obama? Four! One more than we needed. I volunteered to sign on as an alternate, but the guy next to me who had given a speech said, “No, you need to be a primary. I’ll be the alternate.” Fine by me!
So we won our precinct 3-1 for Obama, and even got all our delegates and an alternate! As we were wrapping everything up, me getting all the paperwork in order and the others holding a lively debate on Obama vs. Clinton, a guy approached me from the side, touched my envelope, and asked if I was finished with it. He was wearing a Hillary button. Snatching up the envelope, I smiled and said I’d turn it in to Walt when I was ready. Overall, our caucuses had gone pretty smoothly, none of the funny business I’d been told to watch out for like some places had reported, but I wasn’t taking any chances, not after working this hard to win this precinct! The man was holding a notebook with a spreadsheet on the screen, and said he just wanted our results. Oh, okay, so I gave him those, but would NOT let him touch my paperwork! LOL
Whew. So now the caucus was finally over, and I could breathe easy, knowing I had accomplished all of my objectives – filled all the delegate slots with a majority for Obama to go to the next level, at least from my precinct. Next step should be a piece of cake compared to this!
Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18743880@N07/sets/72157603881785045/detail/
In case anyone, like me, didn't get to see the live broadcast, C-SPAN has the whole thing here:
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=Campaign%202008%3A%20Barack%20Obama%20%26%20Ophra%20Winfrey&link=rtsp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.c%2Dspan.org%2Farchive%2Fc08%2Fc08%5F120807%5Fobama.rm
In tonight's debate, Barack said he would support a federal smoking ban in public places "if local efforts proved inadequate" or something to that effect. Yet he wouldn't criminalize abortion?
When talking to an anti-abortion person about Obama, I often point out that he is not "pro" abortion, but that he just doesn't believe in criminalizing everything that may be immoral. He prefers to tackle the problem at the source, and recognizes the troubles that could arise should all abortions be criminalized nationwide. But this statement about smoking might just shoot down that entire argument. Sure, the argument could be made that second-hand smoke affects others in the vicinity as well, so it goes beyond the individual. But abortion opponents would simply counter that abortion kills a potential human being, and not even second-handedly.
This kind of gets into why I have traditionally considered myself politically conservative. I don't believe government should regulate everything, not even everything people think is bad for us. Why not let the economy dictate policies? Ban supporters are quick to point to statistics showing that businesses' bottom lines actually improved after enacting smoking bans -- well, why not let businesses make those decisions for themselves, if it will be so good for business? Why does government even need to get involved?
I am disappointed in this debate answer. Anybody got a clue why he said this?
The Website Feedback's listserv just received this message: "With the newest design of the website, when a person goes to the main homepage there is no way to find your page or your group. You must go to the action center to find the personal menu. I have been getting emails from people who can't find their page, our group, even the store. Perhaps it is getting a little busy. Valerie"
I replied via listserv:
"
Someone wrote to the listserv requesting that campaign DVD's be made available for a fee for distribution to interested voters. Great idea! But in the meantime, I have forwarded that message on to someone I know locally who creates DVD's of debates and television appearances, so that arrangements can be worked out if desired. I'm also sending him the link to this blog so he can monitor responses.
Also, I heartily encourage you, when talking to people about Barack, to get their email address, or at least a phone number! Failing that, give them your own email address -- I've printed up business cards for my "Pierce County Veterans for Obama" group, and always carry several with me to hand to people. If you can get in email contact with them somehow, you can send them any of hundreds of YouTube videos, depending on their individual interests and concerns.
Some great YouTube collections are here:
Some of my favorites from Jonathan Loving -- can't miss his "smackdown" series!
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=lovingj1
HUGE collection of 181 videos, and very up to date
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=BarackObamadotcom
A few more
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Veracifier&search_query=obama&search=Search
You can also do a YouTube search for Obama, but be aware that many of his rivals' supporters have tagged their videos with his name, so you may get a lot of irrelevant results (although upon checking just now, it appears this problem may have been addressed -- maybe somebody complained!)
Hope this helps,
Maybe it'll take some of the pressure off the ORRT listserv. I look forward to visiting often!
Pierce County Veterans for Obama would like to hold a Barack birthday party Aug 4: get permission from a popular local hangout to set up at a table with a cake, balloons, DVD's playing on a laptop, flyers, stickers, buttons, etc. -- and of course, a donation jar. We'd like to be able to keep enough to cover our up-front costs and send the rest of the donations to OFA. However, this is getting real tricky. I've contacted the FEC, our regional OFA rep, and our county Democratic party chair, who all give me different advice.
The FEC says we'd need prior approval from OFA to keep back our overhead costs. However, my understanding is that if the campaign directly advises us in any way, we come under a whole set of even more restrictive and confusing rules, which we'd like to avoid.
Our regional rep says that instead of holding it at a public venue like that, we should have a potluck block party. This would be even more difficult to coordinate and pull off, and we would still like to be able to accept donations, and would have even greater overhead expenditures: event publicity, table rental, plates, plasticware, napkins, etc. This doesn't solve the problem.
Our county Dem chair says, "I think that if you log the contributions, subtract expenses and donate the balance (with your calculation page) to the campaign that would work fine." However, since this directly conflicts with the FEC's advice, I am leery of that approach. Besides, would we have to specify that donations benefit the Obama campaign, or our group, Pierce County Veterans for Obama?
Does anybody know of an authoritative, clear source of guidance on this issue?
Thanks in advance!
I see that this amendment has passed the Senate with an overwhelming majority, 87-1, with 12 not voting. Sen. Obama is among those who didn't vote -- anybody know or guess why not? Just curious -- I can see Obama-bashers seizing on this as an example of "soft on terrorism."
I recently received email indicating that our local grassroots groups may not use Obama's name in our group names. I checked it out on the FEC website, and found this:
Sec. 102.14 Names of political committees (2 U.S.C. 432(e) (4) and (5)).
(a) The name of each authorized committee shall include the name of the candidate who authorized such committee. Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, no unauthorized committee shall include the name of any candidate in its name. For purposes of this paragraph, ``name'' includes any name under which a committee conducts activities, such as solicitations or other communications, including a special project name or other designation.
(b)(1) A delegate committee, as defined at 11 CFR 100.5(e)(5), shall include the word delegate(s) in its name and may also include in its name the name of the presidential candidate which the delegate committee supports.
I know there are a lot of groups here that use Obama's name, and I myself have started Pierce County Veterans for Obama. Is this illegal? Who can shed some light on this subject?
