Plunderbund

Thank you for posting this.

I participated in this event in Columbus. We went to Deborah Pryce’s Columbus office on Weds at noon to celebrate the ad and to ask her to return the money she got (campaign contributions) from Haliburton-style war frofiteers. Our beef? At the time that the country was riveted by the news that our troops lacked adequate body armoe, her vote went to oppose holding compainies proftiting from the war inappropriately from being held accountable. She chose Haliburton profits over our troops. She went with the Republican aganda of corporate profits over the needs of the people in her district. Ohio has a disproportionate share of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our representatives should be doing everthing they can to protect and support these people.

This was a vintage MoveOn event — more than 20 people at Pryce’s office on a weekday at noon — a mix of middleaged, midddle class types and young activists. A Viet Nam era vet (bronse star recipient too), Alan Woods, delivered a message eloquently and powerfully.

There were 2 Dispatch reporters there — one freelance. There may be an article this weekend about MoveOn and how it has grown in the district. The reporter spent a lot of time with Alan Woods, a little with me (mea culpa: I got there LATE because of a stupid traffic snarl).

There were some Delaware people there — I told them about Drinking Liberally, and about Kerry’s visit to Delaware — maybe they will show up.

I have signed a lot of onlime petitions — and I had noticed that MoveOn often hit issues that I care about. I also notices the MoveOn people at polling places in “04. I chatted with them — a great group — people I liked and wished I knew better. So I got talked into hosting an event (oppsing the NSA wiretaps), then into being the spokesperson for the “Caught Red Handed” campaign, and into being part of a Coulumbus Council for Democracy Now. I had to work some to get up to speed for this, but it was an interesting experience, and I believe that we are making a real difference.
For the first ad (the oil and energy industry ad) we had a conference call with the national press. I prepared but nobody asked me a thing — and then channel 4 refused to run the ad, because Pryce said it was unfair. NBC is owned by General Electric (very Republican) so some people thought that was the reason. I think it may have had more to do with the local station being sold. In any case, the covereage that resulted from the ads beingg refused was bigger than what we would probably have gotten if they’d just taken the money and run the ads.

We also delivered hundreds of letters from people in the district on the issue. MoveOn has more than 3 million members, and 11.700 live here in central Ohio. They don’t all come out for every event — but they are a BIG group.

The second ad was the Medicare Part D ad. We had help from a national media company — great posters and press releases — but nobody came to our event — EXCEPT a bunch of disparate MOveOn people. What was suppose to be a press conference turned into something else. We had a retired speaker affiliated with aunions, who knew way more than I did about the issue (and I had read a lot). He and I fielded questions and faciulitated a discussion. People deicided to write letters and stay in touch (which they did).

Later we had a Medicare event at Pryce’s office. We presented her long-suffering press secretary, Rob Nichols, with an oversized check for over $100,00 (indicating what she has gotten from big pharmaceutical companies) and gave him letters from constituents. There were two things that stand out in my mind about that event. First, the letters from constituents were trult compelling. We had letters from senior citizens, their children,social workers, caregivers and concerned citizemns. Many cited specific details about the problems with this plan. We read some together before presenting them, and were truly moved.

The other thing that struck me was who showed up for the ebent. Again, it was at lunchtinme on a weekday. We had all sorts of professional pewople — nobody with extra time on their hands, but people who cared enough to put this on busy schedules. They spoke to Rob Nichols in our informal meeting — and I was impressed, as I think he must have been. I am still in touch with many of the people from that meeting, who want to keep working on getting better representation for our district, MoveOn is not partisan — it is issue driven, and I think that resonates very deeply in the district these days.

Initially I was hesitant to get involved. My husband, and some pretty savvy political people here in Worthington said that MoveOn is seen as radical and too agitational. I have not found that to be the case. My take? “Something’s happening here.”

[…] Oh, and speaking of “special interest groups”…check these out! […]

Oh! You mean that liberal media…

Cross-posted with permission from Buckeye State Blog The right loves to yak about the liberal media, well consider they had no problem showing Deb Pryce’s illegal ad, nor Republican Mike DeWine’s doctored ad - but when it comes to Move On, it’s a wh…