IMPORTANT Update: March on Washington
Don't make plans just yet for the March on Washington for Health Care. The date is in flux because of a conflict with people's schedules. Robert Reich had suggested Sept. 13 as the date of the march, but unions such as AFL-CIO are holding their national conventions in Pittsburgh that same day.
Stay tuned ...
That is all.
Stay tuned ...
That is all.
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And let's meet up in more than one city!
August 20, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, let's actually March on Washington.
August 20, 2009 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Washington is a tad far from Berkeley, but i agree a humongous crowd on the Mall will send a message. Are you organizing this?
August 20, 2009 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm trying to help, but so far don't see much will on the part of the usual suspects: unions, H-CAN, Healthcare Now!, Elliot Gould. I am definitely having my doubts this will ever happen.
August 20, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
P.S. I've spoken with some othese players already and there just isn't the vision to to do it yet. Part of the problem is there are enormous logistical and financial hurdles to cross in a very short time. Typical million-person marches have taken as long as a year to organize.
As I said, stay tuned. Still working on this ...
August 20, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right. So don't off half-cocked. Organizing in late August for an event in September is self-defeating. It's a great idea if you get it right. You'll get welcome publicity well in advance of the actual date if you do something credible.
August 21, 2009 1:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thought I heard on Rachel Maddow's show last night that Freedom Works is planning a big march on Washington for the 13th of September. The tid-bit was about how much money they are charging affiliated organizations to participate and hand out literature at the event.
-- ARG
August 20, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for keeping us posted. Likely is too far from AZ for me to go to DC, too - but, there's benefit in both strategies.
August 20, 2009 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Make sure . . .
. . . you check out my Cafe blog for the President's remarks today in his 53 minute address to Organizing For America Forum on Health Care.
Keep up the good fight Ripper!
~OGD~
August 20, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just got an email that there is going to be a Charlottesville health care rally. Guess when it is scheduled for? Monday from 12 noon to 4 pm! I emailed them back, and wished them luck, but between the short notice, and the hours, it is not a very smart time to do a rally. The only people who could come are retirees or the unemployed, who seem to be among the ones who have drunk most of the fearful KoolAid.
I don't get it!
August 20, 2009 7:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
If it was a Republican email, do you think they would have the same reaction? That's a major part of the problem.
August 21, 2009 12:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks again for your work.
August 20, 2009 8:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm very reluctant to say what I'm about to say, but I'm going to do it anyway. I think it's important to face facts as you see them, and every now and then tell what one sees as a hard, unpleasant truth. You can sort of see in the course of this thread what ails the 'progressive' side of this debate: The committment just isn't really there - at least not to the vague, nebulous, and ever-inconstant 'solutions' that are actually under discussion in Washington.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to disparage the genuine efforts of people like Mr. McCord (I'm sure there are thousands of others) who have done their best. I'm just saying it doesn't seem to me that the broad-based energy exists on this side (yet? perhaps) to really fight it out to the end. There is some kind of inherent defect in our side of the argument that is not only NOT inspiring our side very much, it's simultaneously inflaming the (minority?) opposition to new heights of united inspiration.
I'm just one person, of course. I can certainly be proven wrong, and I sincerely hope that I am. But when I think back to the thousands and tens of thousands who showed-up for Obama during the campaign, I can't help but wonder what happened to them, and what they thought was going to happen if he got elected. This 'campaign' certainly doesn't look much like that one.
I was not an early Obama supporter, but he won, and he's OUR Democratic President. I can recall saying way back there that I may have come late to the party, but I would stick it out to the end. I surmised that I would be there, "...long after most of you have gone back to your video games...". I'm starting to think I may have been right about that, as well.
August 21, 2009 10:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Agree with you completely, one_wilson, although I can't determine what the problem is. Is it because there is no single, individual "enemy" like John McCain or Hillary to "oppose" Obama's agenda? In other words, is it that the opposition is too amorphous? That would work with your video game reference, where there are individual enemies to easily fend off one at a time.
August 21, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink