Despite hot sun and a long wait the Health Forum turned out well - of course, there were the expected disruptions from a diverse population - doubtful that they were all from CD 29
There continues to be confusion about where the Health Reform Effort is right now in C ongress - what is the process that will be followed until final legislation - how does the House work and how does the Senate work etc -
OFA can play a major role in having its members let their opinions known to their Congressmen and Senators as well as continue a respectful dialogue with concerned citizens.
The job ahead seems daunting but won't we all be thrilled when health reform is enacted in 2009!
We are contacting all CD 29 supporters to turn out in strengh next Tuesday nite at Adam Schiff's health forum at 7 pm - ( would suggest getting there early to help and to find parking)
Adam and opponents need to realize how strongly CD29ers support Health Care Reform with the public option.
OFA has plans for all of August and they will be publicized -
The first one is the week of August 10 when voters are requested to stop by Adam's office and display their support for Health Reform - we are hoping for a visit every 2 hours from Monday through Friday at their Pasadena office
Others can send FAXES or deliver petitions! we need to have a strong and unwavering presence.
Monday June 22 from 7:00 P.M-8:00 P.M
235 HILL ST. SANTA MONICA, CA 90405 IT'S A CHURCH
AT THE CONER OF HILL AND 2ND PARKING THE CHURCH LOT ON HILL
COME OUT N JOIN ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA IN SHOWING SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENETS OBAMA HEALTH CARE PUBLIC OPTION
During December in response to the Sylmar fire in the East San Fernando valley, we led a clothing drive and delivered 29 bags of used clothes in good shape + 1 new quilt, received by a young woman who had lost her home and was due to deliver in January. She could not have been more grateful.
December 23 - held a community health forum and produced an excellent document and forwarded to those who could not attend as well as our Congressman Adam Schiff.
January - USA Days of Service - we colledted non perishable food from neigbors and delivered every thing to a local church.
February: 2 different thrusts
Major effort is a house party this weekend to talk about the recovery/stimulus plan. we expect over 25 participants in South Pasadena.
Second early effort is to help elderly people stay in their homes by collecting information on resources and needs - our hope is to attract enough volunteers to help those who need small errands - visits etc - we are planning a 3 month time period to determine feasibility and would welcome inquiries.
1 of 3
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcr9uAqeUqs
2 of 3
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ajcEEfeZYFc
3 of 3
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=3bSj2aWpsQ0
Don't know what we will do if this man does not become our president.
For the past 20 months I have made telephone calls on behalf of the Senator from Illinois and worn his t-shirt to walk the dog and put a bumper sticker on a "I'll never have a bumper sticker on my car" car. I've engaged in discourse way outside my comfort zone of thoughtful friends. I felt during these months that if we could "just get him nominated as the Democratic candidate"... then we could take the White House. I viewed the Clinton campaign as this huge, near insurmountable hurdle. And then. Yes, we did! I couldn't get over it, in fact, my husband and I alongside our kids, wept here & there each evening during the DNC because for the first time in years, we felt the gravity of what could and might happen in this country. Knowing that John McCain couldn't win it on his own, I pined with curiosity about who he would select as VP; oh please make it Romney I hoped... the White House would surely be ours. And then along came Sarah Palin and all that assuredness that I had about ‘just winning the nomination' stalled. I can see it in women's eyes all around me (in spite of the fact that I live in blue-state California, and blue Los Angeles...) she fascinates; she is exactly the political candy she was selected to be and it’s wrenching to see and smell the intrigue that she has created. It is my sense that Sarah Palin is now the x-factor in this campaign and I think of those "17 million" that Mrs. Clinton never lets us forget about and I lay awake at night.
I am giving what I can yet again today, because I believe now that this is a contest of strategy and intelligence and leaving nothing to chance. Thank you David Plouffe for opening up the hood for those of us who want to know, in detail, what is happening and how we can best help. I appreciate that we are not underestimating Florida, and that our campaign gets Nevada and Colorado as emergent powerhouses in the battleground vernacular. I appreciate being treated like a part of this campaign and here is more money that I can’t afford to give away just now, because I believe. Not only do I believe in the Senator’s ability to bring grace & intelligence back to the oval office, but on an executive level, I believe in David Plouffe. David Plouffe who just hasn’t gotten it wrong yet. Take my money young man: spend it getting African Americans in Florida to the polls that morning, spend it finding the cracks in Texas and Ohio, spend it on ads that don’t stoop. No matter how close this race gets in the coming days, please keep my meager nickels on the high road. The high road to hope.
Jennifer Bedford
45, wife & mother
South Pasadena CA
HIT LINK NOW! GIVE MUNNY!!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/fagotsforobama
These are Tracy Chapman's lyrics and a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBM7jeheEMs
The whole worlds broke and it aint worth fixingIts time to start all over, make a new beginningTheres too much pain, too much sufferingLets resolve to start all over make a new beginningNow dont get me wrong - I love life and livingBut when you wake up and look around at everything thats going down -All wrongYou see we need to change it now, this world with too few happy endingsWe can resolve to start all over make a new beginningStart all overStart all overStart all overStart all overThe world is broken into fragments and piecesThat once were joined together in a unified wholeBut now too many stand alone - theres too much separationWe can resolve to come together in the new beginningStart all overStart all overStart all overStart all overWe can break the cycle - we can break the chainWe can start all over - in the new beginningWe can learn, we can teachWe can share the myths the dream the prayerThe notion that we can do betterChange our lives and pathsCreate a new world andStart all overStart all overStart all overStart all overThe whole worlds broke and it aint worth fixingIts time to start all over, make a new beginningTheres too much fighting, too little understandingIts time to stop and start all overMake a new beginningStart all overStart all overStart all overStart all overWe need to make new symbolsMake new signsMake a new languageWith these well define the worldAnd start all overStart all overStart all overStart all over ...
McCain has spent the past few days blaming Russia for the conflict in the region. As the Jed Report points out, however, McCain is now backtracking and saying that he “will decide in subsequent days…who was right and who was wrong.”
Maybe McCain is right...this looks like great leadership.
What a dope.
Ganz was born in Bay City, Mich., and grew up in Fresno and then Bakersfield.He entered Harvard in 1960 but after two years took some time off. When he returned to Cambridge, he found that one of his roommates had joined Students for a Democratic Society and another had joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.He volunteered for the Freedom Summer of 1964 in Mississippi and was in training when volunteers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner disappeared. They were found dead several weeks later.Ganz decided to forge ahead -- and found his life's work."I had friends involved in SDS, and they would have these big ideological discussions, which never had any appeal to me," Ganz said. "What worked for me was to work with the people, going around and meeting people."As a way to connect with the black community, the rabbi's son taught adult Sunday school in Mississippi -- Old Testament only. Ganz returned to the Central Valley in 1965 and soon joined Chavez's fledgling farmworkers union, where he helped organize workers, lead boycotts and negotiate contracts until internal divisions led him to quit in 1981.He then moved into political organizing full time, targeting infrequent voters.The strategy turned out 180,000 new voters, primarily in low-income Latino and black neighborhoods, who helped Sen. Alan Cranston win a tight reelection battle in 1986. In 1991, 28 years after he left, Ganz was back in Cambridge, where he earned a master's degree and, in 2000, a doctorate and then marked another transition: from student to teacher.The challengeGanz stands at the front of a Harvard lecture hall, a diet Dr Pepper on the table in front of him. About 80 students fill the room, some from the Kennedy School, others from the Divinity School."Today we get into leadership," Ganz says. It is a skill most needed during times of uncertainty, he says, and best done by forming teams."Do not try to organize your project alone," he says, a titter moving through the crowd. "Get other people to help you. . . . It's not so much about exercising your own leadership as it is developing the leadership capacity of others. That's where the power comes from."For the next 80 minutes, Ganz lectures a bit but also poses questions. He doesn't nudge the students toward any specific engagement, but it's clear that several have the political bug.For a class project, Norena Limon, 25, of Chino was planning to skip a few days of classes to help Obama's grass-roots efforts out of state.Limon represents the long-term challenge for the Obama campaign -- and for Ganz: how to harness and nurture the enthusiasm of the young and the idealistic, whose energy could dissipate if Obama fails to win the White House.Ganz has faith that the seeds have taken root. If Obama loses, many of the disenchanted will disengage. But others will stay involved as community activists. They will organize others.Forty years after history slipped through Ganz's fingers, he feels optimistic again."I just love the fact that hundreds of organizers are going to be unleashed on the country," he said, sitting with his coffee mug at the kitchen table amid all those stories. It's Marshall Ganz's army, and it's marching your way.scott.martelle@latimes.com
