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Table of Contents * featured articles Opportunities,
Petitions and Feedback Commentaries from Our Members Liv Grohn
on Community Organizing* Ray McBain
on Political Priorities* Michael
Menkin on Physicians for National Health Plan Liberals and Democrats Links to
the Beef Is the
Reid-Pelosi Strategy Working? * State and Local Links to the
Beef What to
Expect from Our 2008 Legislature? * Nation and World
Links to the Beef A Personal Cap
and Trade System? Global
Warming Is Not Linear. It Is
Exponential. By Wrecking
Our Economy, We Can Slow Immigration. Our Liberal Spirit Our Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and Competent Spending ·
Investment for Productivity ·
Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income and Retirement ·
Environmental Protection and Energy ·
Personal Security and Equal Rights ·
Justice and Peace Everywhere ·
International Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives
oppose all of these. Let’s End Our National Nightmare Let’s Restore Our American Dream Quote of the Week You can't
have everything. Where would you put it? Stephen
Wright
Calendar of Events
Wednesday, January 9 at 6
PM at
Thursday, January 10
at 5-7 PM at Joseph Vance Building (1402 Third Avenue, Seattle) – Open House (food, Drinks, music and
more) for Sightline Institute,
Climate Solutions, Earth Share, Fuse, guenthermedia.com, Northwest Seed,
One/Northwest, Progress Alliance, Washington Budget and Policy Center,
Washington Conservation Voters, Washington Environmental Council, Washington
State Tax Fairness, Win/Win Networks and other advocacy organizations.
Saturday, February 9 at 10
AM at
Saturday, March 22 at 10
AM at
Precinct Caucuses - Saturday February 9, 2008
Legislative District Conventions - Saturday April 5, 2008
County Conventions - Saturday April 19, 2008
Congressional District Conventions - Saturday May 17, 2008
Washington State Convention - June 14 & 15, 2008 - Spokane, Washington
Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback
Opportunities
Join GoPetition to easily create your own
petitions. Great tool for advocacy groups.
Join
Working America in alliance with labor union members
Wellstone Action will offer its Advanced Management Training
School in Seattle on April 25-7
Order Democracy
in America ‘Precinct Organizing’ and other Night School Training videos
Order Sightline’s
2007 Cascadia Scorecard. See other
research that they share with our politicians.
Buy a
calendar which counts down to Bush leaving office.
Order Lester Brown’s Plan
B, #3.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization.
Petition EPA to
grant states permission to regulate auto emissions.
Feedback Needed
Concerning Our Website
Do you have any suggestions for
improving our newsletter. Issues and
sources which should receive more attention.
Please email me
your suggestions. Dave Thomas
Commentaries
From Our Members
Email from Liv Grohn About
Community Organizing
You wrote: Most of
the political activists I meet assume that a major objective is to obtain
maximum publicity concerning intentions and capabilities. My background
is not politics. It is community organizing which makes a very different
assumption. We seek to quietly create an infrastructure, which enables us
to perform. Without advance publicity, when we perform something that no
one believed could happen, it appears as a miracle which surprises them and
catches their attention. We avoid raising expectations and creating
vaporware. Our credibility may come more slowly, but if it comes it is
much more deeply rooted in a product rather than a dream. Miracles entice
people to become involved.
I
couldn't agree more wholeheartedly and would like to add:
The hidden or unacknowledged reason that community organizing ultimately
works is because it is not just about accomplishing something, it is about
building relationships . Community organizing truly is an organic
process. It occurs quite naturally . . . but only IF one really
cares. And all too often, it feels like "political
activists" don't really seem to care.
When was the last time that you as an active figure in the party were called to
see how you were if you missed a meeting or major event? When I stopped
attending local meetings, I can tell you that not one "political
activist" checked in with me to see what was up and I know that to
be the case with many others in my community network.
Jeanette recently lost her mother, Richard's wife is battling cancer, my
children have been sick on and off all month and I'm not getting any sleep . .
. why are we annoyed and "write" Jeanette off as unreliable when she
isn't returning calls (when if we had a relationship we would know it's because
she is out-of-town dealing with her mother's estate?) . . . why would we write
Richard off as a "do-nothing PCO" when he isn't committing to walking
his precinct this summer (when if we had a relationship we would know that his
wife is battling another round of chemo?) . . . why would we say that an active
community organizer "really doesn't seem interested" in helping
organize the upcoming caucus' (when if we had a relationship we would recognize
that a mother of two small children with a husband who will be out-of-town
serving the public during a legislative session might have a bit too much on
her plate?) . . . Why would anyone with already full lives want to do anything
extra for someone (now or in the future) who seems only to want
something from us but doesn't seem to care about us as
individuals?
People's lives fluctuate. Some years we can do more than others.
The community organizer "gets" this. The community organizer
understands that abilities and time constraints ebb and flow through the
years. The community organizer cares about the individual regardless of
what they can "get" from them at any given time. It's ALL
about relationships. Relationships grow and build over time.
They are forgiving and understanding. They are two-way streets.
They are more than any one particular political agenda. The
community organizer/activist understands the give and take in a
relationship--they understand that where there is no investment in people,
where there is no investment in a relationship, one will not get much return.
So bottom line, if you don't like people, if you don't care about your
neighbors and community in very real, tangible, hands-on ways--people read
that, loud and clear. They understand and know it innately.
Community organizers LOVE the people they are working with--and THAT is why
they are ultimately successful in organizing. And sadly, when we fail to
care, we all lose much more than political advantages . . . we lose our
community.
I hope that you had a lovely holiday and enjoy your New Year's
celebration! Liv Grohn
Email from Ray
McBain on Political Priorities
Your
Political Priorities (not ordered
by priority):
* Fair Clean Elections and Open Government
* Fair Taxes and Competent Spending
* Investment for Productivity
* Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income and Retirement
* Environmental Protection and Energy Independence
* Personal Security and Equal Rights
* Justice and Peace Everywhere
* International Cooperation and Leadership
My Political Priorities
(most important first):
* Stop waging war
* Ensure personal security by enforcing
the laws now on the books
* Begin by repeal of the PATRIOT Act.
* Provide health care for everyone in
the USA
* paid for by taxes (single-payer), including increased taxes on
the very wealthy
* and by savings due to cutting out the
private insurers, negotiating with drug companies, etc.
* Promote unionization by repealing and revising laws unfavorable to unions and
to joining unions
* Provide a means for undocumented immigrants to become citizens
* Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income and Retirement
* International Cooperation and Leadership
* Fair Clean Elections and Open Government
* Fair Taxes and Competent Spending
* Investment for Productivity
* Environmental Protection and Energy
* Justice and Peace Everywhere
Ray McBain
Response from Dave Thomas: All
priorities are important and should be addressed simultaneously to the extent
possible. But Fair Elections and Open
Government, Fair Taxes and Competent Spending and Withdrawing from
Email from Michael
Menkin on Physicians for a National Health Program
You may be interested to know that the Physicians
for a National Health Program support Dennis Kucinich and say he is the only
candidate with a real national health program. Their website is www.pnhp.org Michael Menkin
Letter by Dave Thomas published by
Responding to my
letter, a writer suggested that liberals don’t have new ideas. Try these:
1.
Pay as you go instead of borrowing and spending.
2.
Restore budgetary sanity instead of starving government by rewarding
campaign contributors with tax cuts and pork.
3.
Substitute a progressive revenue-neutral flat income tax applicable
only to income above the medium.
4.
Increase competitiveness and employment by replacing the job tax
(FICA) with a revenue-neutral value added tax (VAT), which would be no more
regressive.
5.
Stop over-competing militarily and under-competing economically.
6.
Reduce our national debt and increase productivity to keep social
security viable instead of privatizing and reducing benefits.
7.
Spend 2% more of our national production to provide effective
efficient cost-controlled Medicare to all, give every child a well-paid great
teacher in a fixed-up school and every full-time worker a living wage.
8.
Provide early learning programs to all who qualify, VA type vouchers
for college students and life-long training funds.
9.
Replace our chaotic mess of training and income-security programs
oriented to satisfying congressional power grabbing with standardized programs
for all.
10. Fund scientific
advances to increase our competitiveness, create jobs and