[North-NV-Greens] [Recount-news] Fwd: Happy New Year, 2005?//Upcoming events//Contact Senate

Sat Jan 1 20:12:51 PST 2005

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>The Cobb-LaMarche Campaign
>Working to Make Every Vote Count!
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>----- Forwarded message from Ted Glick -----
>     Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 13:03:06 -0500
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>Future Hope column, January 1, 2005
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>Happy New Year, 2005?
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>By Ted Glick
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>             It's hard to even write the words, much less say
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>them. The staggering toll of dead, injured and devastation
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>wrought by the Christmas tsunami in south Asia is
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>heart-breaking. And this is on top of the Bush electoral
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>"victory," the war in Iraq, recent U.S. obstruction of
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>international efforts to rein in global warming, plans to
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>privatize/decimate Social Security and more.
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>             It reminds me of a line from a poem I once
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>wrote:
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>             "Where do we look
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>             for strength
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>             in times like these-
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>                         hard times,
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>                         struggling times,
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>                         fighting-seemingly-
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>                         insurmountable-odds
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>                         times?"
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>             I had some answers in the poem:
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>             "To one another. . .
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>             "Spiritual traditions. . .
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>             "Children, grandchildren, neighbor children,
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>friends' children, students. . .
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>             "And some of us
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>             just muddle along,
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>             doing the best we can,
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>             learning from history,
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>             understanding
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>             the historical truth,
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>             the law of physics
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>             that for every action
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>             there is a reaction-
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>             that oppression
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>             breeds resistance-
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>             that,
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>             as Dr. King said,
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>             'The arc
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>             of the universe
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>             is long,
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>             but it bends
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>             toward justice.'"
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>             As I write we are seeing concrete evidence of
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>this "law of physics."
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>             For the last two months, since right after the
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>seriously flawed Presidential election and John Kerry's
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>seriously problematic immediate concession speech, a
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>grassroots, pro-democracy movement has been growing. There
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>were two initiatives that gave leadership to this movement:
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>the citizen's hearings on voter disenfranchisement in
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>Columbus, Ohio on November 13th organized by the League of
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>Pissed Off Voters, Common Cause and the Election Protection
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>Coalition, and the Green Party's Cobb-LaMarche campaign
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>which initiated, raised money for and provided the
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>organizational muscle for the (seriously flawed) Ohio
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>recount. Without these two efforts, it is likely that the
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>mushrooming pro-democracy movement would have stalled at the
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>starting line.
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>             Since that time a growing number of important
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>developments have taken place:
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>-the active leadership and involvement in this movement by
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>Representative John Conyers and Rev. Jesse Jackson;
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>-the very successful Progressive Dialogue III meeting in
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>D.C. which founded United Progressives for Democracy and
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>called for a Winter Democracy Campaign;
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>-the actions by Electors in at least five states, Vermont,
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>Massachusetts, Maine, California and North Carolina, who,
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>for the first time in history, turned the heavily scripted
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>and ritualized electoral college proceedings December 13th
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>into a forum calling for congressional investigation and
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>legislative action;
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>-the national organizing by No Stolen Elections and other
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>groups to put pressure on U.S. Senators to get them to join
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>with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on January
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>6th, refusing to automatically pass through the Ohio
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>Electoral College vote;
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>-the organization of demonstrations on January 6th in D.C.,
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>beginning with a rally at Lafayette Park in the morning,
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>followed by a march to Capitol Hill to link up with another
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>rally there;
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>-the Save Our Votes March from Baltimore to D.C. January 4th
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>to 6th organized by 51capitalmarch;
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>-and, last but by no means least, the announcement just
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>yesterday by We Do Not Concede that disenfranchised voters
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>from Ohio will board a bus and/or caravan, leaving from
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>Columbus early on the morning of January 5th and going to
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>Washington, D.C. to lobby Senators and join with the January
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>6th demonstrators.
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>             Those who are feeling depressed and pessimistic
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>about the political situation should join with this
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>mushrooming, hopeful, grassroots-driven, pro-democracy
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>movement.
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>             We should all be doing everything we can on
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>Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week to put
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>heavy pressure on U.S. Senators. By Thursday they should be
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>feeling like they must have felt back in October of 2002
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>when a tidal wave of grassroots pressure led to 156 members
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>of Congress voting against the legislation giving Bush the
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>green light to invade Iraq.
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>             The U.S. Senate needs to be hit this week with
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>the equivalent of a political tsunami. If it is, come
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>January 7th, Bush's "political capital" may have taken a
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>major hit, and the political terrain for advancing the
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>pro-democracy agenda and all other progressive issues will
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>have been improved, perhaps significantly.
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>             This is no time for cynicism or despair. It's
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>time for action. This week, every day. And it's time for
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>people to make last-minute plans to get to Lafayette Park in
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>D.C. on the morning of the 6th. History is calling. Let's
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>start the new year off right.
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>             For contact information for U.S. Senators call
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>the Capitol Hill information number, 202-224-3121.
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>             For a calendar of all the events happening this
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>week go to:
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>http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2005/01/calendar-of-upcoming-
>events.html.
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>             To learn more about what happened with the Ohio
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>recount go to www.votecobb.org.
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>
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>             Ted Glick is the outgoing National Coordinator
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>of the Independent Progressive Politics Network
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>(www.ippn.org) and is very active with the Winter Democracy
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>Campaign. He can be reached at futurehopeTG at aol.com.
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>Yahoo! Groups Links
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>----- End forwarded message -----
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand