3/18/07 Minneapolis, MN
Today in Minneapolis, Obama supporters gathered together with signs and "Obama '08" literature to participate in the March for Peace with thousands of other citizens. It was a beautiful, peaceful protest where we met many diverse people from a variety of different groups. I travelled to Minneapolis with my children, ages 12 and 14, and met some friends from Obama Minnesota and our own St. Croix Valley Citizens for Obama. We met in the Uptown area and marched over a mile right down the middle of Hennepin Avenue, stretching for blocks, to a rally in Loring Park where we heard some speakers including a few words from Rep. Keith Ellison.
It was an experience to inspire deep emotions and lifelong memories. What moves me the most as I think about today is that if it wasn't for my friends at Obama Minnesota and the event on barackobama.com, I would only have heard about the march after the fact on my local evening news. One of many highlights was a very stimulating conversation I had with an activist from an anti-war group about not just following blindly behind a candidate, but getting involved in the issues we care deeply about. I also watched my children distribute literature and talk about the war, Obama and why they support him, and then learn from other participants why they were marching. I am so thankful to finally have a candidate and a campaign that I can feel good about exposing my children to, for the honesty and the integrity and the grassroots tools.
One other thing the Obama supporters noticed right away, there were no other candidate groups or campaigns represented. We looked for them. And kept looking for them. We wanted to engage them in substantive debate about the war, and learn from them about their candidate's viewpoints. They just were not there. Everyone I offered Obama literature to took it, and talked with me, but none of them inclined to discuss any other candidates. This is why the Obama campaign really is a different kind of politics; this is a concrete example of how it is my campaign, and my children's campaign, and my friend's campaign.
Pamela Wicklund
I'm finally beginning to get my gears turning.
Maybe finally getting my Obama '08 Tshirt and bumper stickers yesterday
had something to do with it. I downloaded all the document and image
files from the Link style="text-align: left">I printed out about 450 of the Obama_Small_Flier.jpg on heavy card stock
and 200 Obama_positionpaper.doc, put them in a box and arrived at Galtier Plaza at 7:30 PM. At first I felt a little bit of the "What am I doing here?" jitters.
I invaded two caucus meetings, spoke in glowing terms about our Candidate and freely distributed the material. There were reps from the Clinton and Richardson campaigns there who spoke before I arrived.
I was feeling hot. I'm in the groove! I lost my shyness. I found acceptance.
I talked about the steps of the old courthouse in Springfield.
I mentioned Ames, Iowa, Cleveland, Ohio and Selma, Alabama
and how the common thing at each event is that more people than they expected showed up.
I wished I had the list of ALL the precinct caucuses so I could visit them all!
I still have many more fliers and cards and I am looking forward to the next
event so I can spread the word some more!
I received an email requesting a donation.
So I DID IT! $50 .00 I will give more next payday. That amount gets matched by someone else's equal amount which doubles the effort.
Barack says this campaign is not primarily about him. It's about YOU. And me.
All of us have a stake in the success.
We make it happen with our own hands.
These donations make Barack independent.
It means he does not owe anything to any special interest group.
I challenge you to take charge in a similar way, however you can manage to do it.
Then pass it on to your friends and make the magic grow.
Peace and Love.
Hey, keep your stick on the ice.
Phil Church
Last night some of us attended the St. Paul City Caucuses where they held a presidential straw poll. The great news: Obama in a dead heat with Clinton! This is fabulous for our Minnesota volunteers, and for the young Obama campaign. Please post or comment your caucus experience. All results are:
Sen.Hillary Clinton 324 25%
Sen. Barack Obama 323 25%
Sen. John Edwards 176 13.6%
Gov. Bill Richardson 115 8.9%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich 77 6.0%
V.P. Al Gore (write-ins) 31 2.4%
Gen. Wesley Clark 17 1.3%
Sen. Joseph Biden 13 1%
Sen. Chris Dodd 6 0.4%
Gov. Tom Vilsack 4 0.3%
Sen. Mike Gravel 0 0.0%
Undecided 207 16%
Barb Smith and I had a great time meeting people, talking about Obama, even getting to know the Clinton supporter tabling there, who was in St. Paul all the way from southwest Wright County! There were 14 rooms and one of the caucus workers suggested we go room to room together to keep the disruptions to a minimum. I think I was very well received, but wish I had gone alone or had more people to speak, I kept my comments to less than 2 minutes. The Clinton supporter was cut off at 2.5 minutes many times. We only made it to 5 rooms before the last ballot call at 8:00. The other thing that could have gone better was the fact that she had 100's of talking point sheets that she distributed in each room. I had 60 that we passed out from the table. She had pins, stickers, signs; we didn't. But we had a great showing anyway! "No Gimmicks, just substance". Great job Obama Minnesota!
We met a lot of fabulous people lastnight! In summary, some of us do plan to attend the event "City of St. Paul Caucus- Presidential Straw Poll" as guests on 3/6.
Some of us are also planning on attending the Peace walk in Minneapolis on Sunday, 3/18, also an event on this site. Please message me if you're interested in carpooling.
We discussed the wonderful events that have occured recently including the Walk for Obama 1/13, GObama Announcement Party 2/10, and the Obama Book Club that started last week, new members are welcome, next meeting is 3/8. Also talked about preliminary ideas on how we want to be involved with grassroots ie: distributing leaflets, doorknocking, fundraising, parades, tables, etc. Tentative future meetings of our group might be the 3rd Mondays, depending on availability of meeting space. Also tentative is the forming of a group in the Hudson/River Falls WI area. Stay tuned!
Please talk to all your friends and relatives about this site and these events, especially those that may be interested but do not have computer access. All are welcome! We need to make sure everyone has access to get involved in grassroots as much or as little as they want, whether they have e-mail or not.
Thanks again, hope to see you all again soon.
Pamela,
Stillwater, MN
