Post-election organizing.
Our group host Gene and his wife Linda opened their home on a cool and cloudy Sunday (14-Dec-2008). We introduced ourselves, watched a short video, and then went around the room sharing with each other this issues that are important to us.
We decided that we wanted to take action immediately by delivering 10 pounds of food each to our local Food Bank in one week (December 21, 2008). We wanted to do something to support the Food Bank before the week of Christmas.
Since leaving the House Party we have kept in touch through email and two more people have joined the Group.
Check back here for more reports on Group activity.
Change is Coming!
Hi Paul, Wade, Roma and all O-activists:I've been paying attention to your organizing ideas, and have had some productive email exchanges with Wade & Roma. Although I've been a member of SF for Obama throughout the campaign, I no longer live there and wasn't able to attend the Post-Election workshop.As I've discussed with Roma & Wade, I am organizing with my Feminist community, and I'd like to find mechanisms for networking such that what feminists are doing to continue the O-movement are included in the big picture. I'd like to see Feminists included in the long list of political groups mentioned by Paul in his email, below. I'd like to see explicit mention of an already organized online Feminist Community which will have a voice in all progressive alliances and movements.I'm not asking that you sign on to a particular feminist agenda--just as it is in any political/consciousness movement, diversity exists to keep the conversation going, and push the ideas to be truly alive, creative and responsive to people who need help now.I'm organizing a Feminist Advisory Board for Obama and I've been writing about my ideas on Facebook, on my various blogs, on Twitter, and soon I'll be podcasting and vlogging about what I envision. My goal is to make feminism accessible to women and girls who don't identify as feminist, and to use existing online platforms for the invisibles of our country to speak about their needs "up close and personal." This is all about narrative, connection, identification, and what I'm calling subversonance...I don't speak for all feminists, nor do I want to. I'm speaking as a feminist who thinks that what the Obama campaign has set in motion is completely in sync with what feminists have already been doing and continue to do. I'm in the mix as just one of many feminists, but since I happen to feel a particular simpatico with O-activists, I'm comfortable communicating with all of you. Many feminists are still learning to love Obama, but I was on board while Hillary was still in the race, and I think Obama really gets what women's lives are like. Hurrah!So, here's what I'm asking of you, my O-sisters and O-brothers: will you have a seat at your table for Feminists? Will you open up your agendas so that you actually look to Feminists for leadership?I'm eager to hear your replies.yoursMadama
Hi Madama -Do you have a group on MyBO where others can join?If not, please take that step and start one up.CAN is all inclusive.I am sure all welcome such participation, with the caviat that we are Obama first, and within that, all interest and affinity groups tend to seek out and self organize.I am running on memory here: My recollection is that 60,000 groups formed on MyBO. 30,000 formed in the last 30 days of the general. I may be wrong on this, as others hold to different accounts. I tend to tune to Micah at TechPresident.comCAN will become a network of local teams of real people meeting face to face as real Neighborhood Teams. The focus of "within zip codes" makes action possible that has not been imagined before.I believe there is a huge need for feminist interest groups to form - and work cross-group to reach into all local teams to promote participation, education, and advocacy.Does this make sense to you?Please sign up, and list "0" attendantscoming to 11/29/2008, and that will help me keep you in the loop!All the very best to you!Paul CurrierSan Francisco
hi Paul--thanks for your reply. Although I've had a group on MyBo (ArtistsWriters4ZeitgeistObama/Interview4Obama) and have been active within Feminists for Obama, I just put in for a new group that better expresses my vision. The new group is Feminist Advisory Board for Obama, but it hasn't been approved yet.One of the things about the feminists is that we have already been doing the face-to-face for decades! The agenda has been feminist. The agenda will continue to be what women need, but as I've been fleshing out in my many writings on this issue, what's good for women is good for everyone.So, when I say that there is already leadership in the feminist community, I mean a huge network of activists that existed well before Obama came on scene. The task I'm setting for myself is to communicate with all of the groups and develop a mechanism whereby the face of feminism becomes better known, because imo, it is misunderstood.For instance, on Facebook I've started the group Feminist Advisory Board for Obama, and one of the members is a leader in the group Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, which sponsors activities on campuses. I am now networked with that group in a meaninful way, not only because Ebony Jackson is on board in my group and vice versa, but because we have chatted online and will do a phone interview that I will podcast. This level of netlinkage needs to co-exist with what I call shoe-leather activism, and they will both belong to a system that will sprout circuits. My ultimate goal is to penetrate into groups of women who are traditionally underserved in all ways, and with that in mind, I am now in communication with other feminists who have already been working on these issues.The key to all of this is visibility. I know how to network, how to interview, how to make a video, how to podcast, and other ways to bring people together in a meaningful group process, but in order to influence public opinion, we will need eyeballs. That's why I think it's so important that all activists stay in communication. However, we don't all have to have the same agenda. I envision a time when, for instance, you will need "votes" or "voices" on a particular issue, put out the call, and all linked activists will put out the call to their networks, and regardless of where we live, we can deliver a highly visible base of support for an issue. We really need each other. Feminists need support from Obama activists in order to expand their base, and Obama activists need feminists in order to penetrate existing, powerful networks of activist women who can bring in more women.Frankly, Paul, I think I'm describing something that already exists and that will happen whether or not we agree on every dot and dash! This movement is already moving. I've been calling it subversonance. People are bouncing off of walls with excitement and energy, and I am so busy connecting with people that I'm feeling over-connected! But there's no time to stop! This thing is rollin', rollin', rollin' and I'm typing as fast as I can think to keep up with the demand for authentic communication, new directions, new solutions. I also visited O-supporters in my neighborhood (an almost completely red town) and we are now linked...and will get together for Thanksgiving...and so it goes...I'm very excited about the future and happy to be among all of you O-activists! The Feminist Advisory Board for Obama on Facebook is open to anyone, and as soon as the group on BO is approved, they will be linked. I'm also signed up on techpresident, which looks great...and communitycounts.com...and velvetrevolution...and the list goes on...onwardMadama
*I wrote this at my nearly defunct blog the day after the election victory:
Victory '08 brings with it victory for H8
...not a headline I expected to write on the eve after the election of President-elect Barack Obama; a man I threw my support behind a year ago and for whom I have volunteered time to ensure this win. The last several weeks however (or was it only 2?) I switched gears after realizing that I was following the crowd to do things for him campaign and forgetting my issues at home. I started working with a local Dems office to defeat propositions 4 and 8. Closest to my heart was killing 8. Last night we were able to hear the election called for our man and even hear him speak before numbers emerged on our state's issues.
(*Text deleted for space consideration - essentially, I did a lot of work, door to door, to defeat Prop 8, taking the time to talk to people. I walked in the heat and in the rain and hit more than 300 houses.)
When the election was called for Obama we screamed. I screamed a lot. We hugged each other. I bounced. We cried. We laughed. I shared my contraband wine with someone in the crowd.
Outside all the passing cars were honking. A bus drove by and most of the passengers were gathered at the front of the bus; the bus driver blared his horn as he passed. A group of people skipped by banging on pots and pans from their kitchen. A family made up of what appeared to be a mother and 5 kids appeared at a hall-window in the old apartment building across the street and all of us gathered on the sidewalk waved hello to them and they waved back.
Back inside, we watched McCain's concession. Then Obama's speech. In a darkened club we all stood, facing the same direction, and listened to our President-elect address us for the first time and we roared. The girls get a puppy, we cheered. young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight - we flipped our Sh*t. We cried some more. We applauded and pumped our fists in the air. It was a good night full of all the excitement befitting the occasion. The djs began their set. We hugged again. We danced, laughter bursting from our lips.
CNN still streamed as the music pumped through the crowd and a handful of us were still keeping an eye on the screen.
And then the first numbers for Prop 8 came out.We stopped. Immediately. Completely.
For a decade I have felt queasy about America's leadership behavior and about our international image. I couldn't relate to those vehicle magnets that claimed: "Proud to be an American". I know lots of people in other countries and knew first-hand how they shook their heads over our national leaders. I couldn't find anything left to respect America for except its natural splendor and its characteristically compassionate and friendly people. I despaired of ever looking up to wise and thoughtful leadership at the helm of our nation again...the trend seemed stuck on Cruise Control!
Oh Lord how I was wrong! As soon as I recognized that a person had stepped forward onto the national Presidential campaign stage that appeared to have humane, well-thought-out, and big-picture values, I leapt onto the Obama bandwagon and became part and parcel of the grass roots efforts to get him elected.
It's the grass roots success that thrills me. It's that there was a revolution after all against the corruption and secrecy and venality that had the country by the jugular. We common folk were finally MOVED and INSPIRED to band together and begin influencing events without having to relocate to do so, thanks to IT technology. And now we've pulled it off! Barack Obama and Joe Biden, I can now exclaim with head high that I am proud to be an American, and I am eager to find out how I can continue to influence events and conditions in a positive direction.
The election of Senator Obama is just the first step to changing America.
You are invited to join the next movement that will make certain that Congress supports the policies, legislation, goals Senator Obama laid out in the Obama Campaign BLUE BOOK.
Please consider joining this new Obama Group (People of the United States 4 Obama) that will provide a venue to allow you to support a PRESIDENT OBAMA and make America the America that we all want long after the election in November.
It does not stop with the election of Senator Obama. That, again, is just the start.
Your comments, questions, suggestions, are all welcome at People of the United States (POTUS) 4 Obama!
I look forward to continuing this improbable journey with you all.
The link to the group is here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/PeopleOfTheUnitedStatesPOTUSForObamaPOTU
