Making a Difference: sometimes it takes a lot, sometimes it doesn't

For those of you who weren't obsessively checking the web last night for the latest news on the Connecticut Senate race: LAMONT WON!!! For those of you who don't know Ned Lamont: LIEBERMAN LOST!!! The grassroots progressive beat Bush's favorite DINO (Dem in name only) and will be the Democratic candidate for Senate.

Lieberman is planning on running against Lamont as an independent, and if he does, he might win, but even if that happens, this is a big win. It sends a message to all the waffling Dems in the Senate and House that the grassroots, netroots, progressive activist have come to play and we're playing to win.

Now what Lamont is doing is a big effort- it's taking a lot of time and money and courage and most of us don't have the combination of the 3 to do such a thing. But I did something today that only took a couple of minutes, cost me nothing besides cell phone minutes (again, just a couple) and helped create a change for the better.

I called Barbara Boxer and Diane Fienstien and asked if they were supporting Lamont and if they would be willing to ask Lieberman not to run against him. Boxer had already offered to campaign for Lamont (hoping to win back points will her supporters who were pissed off by her campaigning for Lieberman in the primary- but hey at least she's doing it) DiFi's staff member told me that she hadn't made a statement, and hadn't decided whether or not she ever would make a statement. Nothing like strong leadership in one's Senator to fill one's heart with pride! I left a message that as a member of two Democratic Clubs, both of whom support Ned Lamont, I would hope that DiFi would be a true Dem and support Lamont. I mentioned that many Dem clubs have mixed feelings about supporting Di Fi and this might send the message that it was OK to support non Dems in the general election. So that was at 9:45. I then e-mailed my East Bay for Democracy group and reported on what I had learned and urged them to call DiFi and pressure her to support Lamont. When my friend Jim called sometime before 11:15 DiFi had come out with a statement that she would "support the Democratic candidate" So my call, joined with many other similar calls moved her in the right direction.

The bad thing about having spineless leaders is, well there are lots of bad things about having spineless leaders.... but my point is, the GOOD thing about having spineless leaders is that it takes very little pushing to make them bend your way. So push a little and see how fun being powerful can be!.

An inconvenient post

Ever since I saw an inconvenient truth the weekend before last, I've been meaning to post about global warming, but frankly it's a daunting subject.

So I'm just going to say go see the movie. I was worried it would depress me, but it was pretty inspiring. The part I found most hopeful was when Gore showed how we have all the knowledge and resources to solve this crisis. All we lack is the political will. So that's what we need to work on.

For ideas on what you can do to be part of the solution go to the movie's take action page and the stop global warming website

To help build up the political will, you can:

Send a wake-up call to Washington with Environmental Defense

Sign the League of Conservation Voters' petition demanding Global Warming leadership now

Californians can ask the governator to support a mandatory cap on global warming pollution

You can also help candidates who will be part of the solution replace politicos who are a part of the problem. Donate the time and money that you can, host a house party where your friends can find out about the candidate and possibly inspire them to donate their time and money. The candidate I've been giving most of my time and money to is Jerry McNerney, an expert on renewable energy working to get Dick Pombo, environmental enemy #1, out of office.

You can also e-mail these ideas to your friends or send them to this blog.

Just do something. It feels much better than just stressing out.

Starting Off Easy

Before I gas on more about my evolution in activism or start the long and complicated discussion on figuring out our true calling as activists, I thought I'd let you in on some fairly simple ways you can work for change.

Join MoveOn and True Majority

These two groups allow you to be a political activist from the comfort of your computer as well as occasionally informing you of opportunities to do more. They do a good job of picking some of the most important and timely issues and organizing group e-mailing to congress (you can e-mail your congressperson or Senator with just a click of the mouse- they even write the e-mail) They also organize call-in campaigns and will send you the # to call and give you notes to use in your call. These groups send far less e-mail than most of the single issue or candidate driven lists I'm signed up with and they seem to be more effective.



Give Money to Candidates or Propositions

You don't have to be rich to donate. You can donate $5 and it still will help- especially if you ask 5 friends to also donate $5. Of course donate more helps more, but seriously if all you can afford is $5, go for it. You'll be surprised at how much more involved giving even a little will make you feel in the process.

Don't limit yourself to candidates you can vote for. Representatives in Congress affect your life no matter what district they come from, so you have a right to help a good candidate from any district or state.

A truly good grassroots candidate to donate to is Jerry McNerney.
Not only is the real deal - no corporate ties, a renewable energy expert, and someone with more integrity than I ever hoped to find in a politician, but he is running against one of the worst and most powerful people in congress: Dick Pombo. Pombo is evil. Pombo has been voted #1 enemy of the environment by several environmental groups. He was also voted one of the 12 most corrupt members of congress (I think he actually made the top 5...and that's no easy task nowadays...you've got to really work at it...and I'll give the guy credit, he does)

If you are worried about California becoming the next Florida or Ohio (and you would not be crazy or alone in that worry- this is one of those times were there probably actually *is* a conspiracy) then you'll want to make sure we have a good Secretary of State. Debra Bowen is the perfect person for the job. She has much knowledge and fights the good fight. I hope that after she terms out at Secretary of State, she will become the first woman governor of California.

There are of course other good candidates who can use your money. Find someone who you feel really good about and support them. Write about them here.

Do not, I repeat, Do NOT send money to the DCCC or the DSCC. If you do, you are letting the candy-ass insiders decide who is worthy of support. These are the people who will most likely support Lieberman even if he loses the Democratic primary in his state, because they'd rather stick with what they know than change things for the better or even win the frickin' majority.

The DNC is actually doing some good things with their money now- I'm not saying it's all perfect now that Howard's there, but they are setting up 50 state strategy that could turn the party around. So if you don't want to pick a candidate, but would rather help the party as a whole, then they're the ones who should get your money.

If you'd rather give to an issue than a candidate, I would recommend Prop 89
the clean money and fair elections act. No matter what your cause, clean and fair elections will make things better.

Giving to single issue groups tends to be less effective for those causes than giving to candidates who support a broad range of progressive and populist causes or giving to a proposition that will actually change something if it passes. The single issue groups tend to be stuck in the 70s strategy-wise and that's why they've been losing ground. I'm not saying they don't deserve to be funded or they don't do some good, it's just that the evidence seems to show that part of the reason the right-wing has been more effective at pushing forward their agenda is that they do it through electing people that support them rather than giving money to lots of different single issue groups.

Start Now

Never let the fact that you don't feel like you can do enough stop you from doing something. Every little thing you can do helps a little and if a lot of people did a little bit more, a lot more would get done.

Leading a good life in bad times

Let's face it, the past 6 years have not been the shiny happy years that we all (well some of us) hoped the new millennium would bring. Before it even started we had the first stolen election (ok, that sounded naive, I know there were stolen elections before, but this was the first stolen Presidential election in the US that I was forced to witness). Then came the seemingly endless stream of horrible things. There are too many to list. so I'm not even going to mention the obvious ones here.

Suffice it to say that these are the times that make you think back on the "good old" Nixon years and realize the guy wasn't *all* bad. These are the times when you look at the crazy conspiracy guys on the street with the big signs filled with tiny writing and think to yourself, "actually a lot of that makes sense." These are the times when it takes a certain amount of courage to read or watch the news. I mean even the weather is scary, and sadly the weather report is now often one of the most reliable parts in the news offered by the corporate run media.

So what do you do when everything seems so seriously and deeply messed up and wrong and scary and it seems impossible to get things back on track?

How does one lead a good and happy life during times that seem neither?

I'm still figuring it out, but I think I'm getting closer to the answer as I go along.

At first I tried denial (oh, shit....I just realized this might wind up following that "stages of grief" thing- which has been done to death....I'm not doing it on purpose, I promise). I couldn't stand thinking about the fact that the election was stolen and that Bush was President, so I didn't. I joked that Martin Sheen was my president. I stopped watching or reading any news if I could avoid it at all. Of course I heard things, so I had some vague idea of what was going on....but mostly I stuck my fingers in my ears and went "la, la, la, la, la" I'm not proud of this, but it's how I coped. I excused this behavior with the fact that I taught young children and I couldn't be there for them If I was paralyzed with fear and depression, so really I was choosing to be ignorant "for the sake of the children".

I didn't realize how deep my denial went until 9/11. When I heard about it one of my first thought after "Holy Fucking Shit!" and "What the hell do I say to the kids in my class?" was that I should listen to some news to get my facts as straight as possible. Here is where I scared myself: in my mind, the person who would tell me what happened was CJ from the West Wing. Yes, for a split second I was actually thinking that Jeb Bartlett was going to be dealing with this. Then reality hit me like a ton of bricks. George Bush is in charge of dealing with this. Which brought me back to "Holy Fucking Shit!" I wasn't Clinton's biggest fan, didn't even vote for him the second time, but at that moment I wanted him to be President again, just like I want my mommy when I'm really sick. Realizing that none of this was going to help me take care of the children that day I pushed all thoughts of who was or wasn't President out of my head and focussed on getting enough info to be able to answer questions that came up and figuring out how to reassure them with out lying.

So now there was a big old crack in my wall of denial. I tried even harder to avoid TV news and carefully picked out what I read to avoid becoming scared and angry. But the fact is I was scared and angry. Of course there was no way to avoid what was going on. Everyone, even the kids in my class, were talking about it. Listening to one of the 2nd grade girls rage against the impending war, I saw how helpless she felt. I realized that while she actually was helpless, I wasn't, at least not entirely, and I should probably do something. I had been using the excuse of being a teacher to make myself feel like I was doing my share. Now I realized that teaching these children, wasn't enough if I was sending them out into a world where this kind of stuff was happening. A few days later I turned on the TV to put in a DVD. Bush was giving a speech. I have no idea what he was saying, because I turned the TV off and pretty much curled into fetal position.

Then it hit me. I was being a coward. I'm smarter than Bush, I'm a better person than he is, and I used to be much less of a coward. I'd never been one to stand by and watch when someone was being a bully. I'd stand up, say something, and if necessary I'd throw down. That's part of who I am. But I had to face that wasn't who I had been for quite some time. Suddenly, the real me was back. I was ready to throw down. I was going to do something to help get Bush out of office.

I'll write more about what I've done since that day in other entries, but suffice it to say I've been pretty involved in politics since then. This has not only made me feel better but I've actually seen things change because of the work I've been a part of. Yes Bush is still President and most of the Democrats in Washington are still clinging to status quo when the status quo obviously is broken, but things are changing and I've been a part of that. So now when I see Bush on TV or read about one of the thousands of horrible things happening in our world, I no longer have to turn off the TV and curl into a ball. I stand up. I say something. I throw down. And I know I'm not the only one. So I have hope. Things are messed up right now. Things have been messed up before. Things will be messed up again. But people are working to change things for the better and things will change for the better. This also has happened before and will happen again.

One of the things I want this blog to do is to help others find their own way to throw down. I'm not here to scold anyone for what they haven't been doing. I did so little for so long that I would be a huge hypocrite if I did so. I just know that a lot of people wish they could do something, but feel like they can't. I'll also be sharing my struggles with finding a way to keep on working for change without short changing the rest of my life. If you've been working on that too, please let me know, because I can use some help as well.

This blog, which is mine, is mine

So I'm finally starting this blog. It's not all set up yet, but I finally had to face the fact that if I waited until it looked like I want it to look, I was never going to actually start writing. So here it is, this blog that is mine.

My vision is that it will be a Whedonesque mixture of battles between good and evil, witty banter and true drama, sprinkled liberally with literary and pop-cultural references. It might wind up more of a schizophrenic mix of topics, filled with run on sentences, but a girl's got to aim high.

I'm hoping that if you have any thoughts about what you read here, you will comment , because as much as I love the sight of my own rambling, I love reading good online conversation even more.