Report from a Townhall: The Difference

Went to my first August town hall this morning—actually was called by our congressman Jared Polis as more of a meeting in front of a local coffee shop but there were many more than the 30 people they expected. The local paper reported hundreds showed up with a video that made it look huge with lots of dialogue. (http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/aug/07/polis-mobbed-morning-coffee-chat-health-care/
A few anti-health care reformers in attendance, a couple anti-reform signs, some out-of-towners, a couple of whom tried to intimidate.

Rep Polis answered a few questions from the crowd before meeting with small groups for short conversations. The last question came from a self-identified conservative who respectfully spouted questionable statistics that sparked intermittent angry reactions from one or two people in the crowd to which the rest of the crowd urged “Shhhhhh.” “Let him speak.” Later I noticed anti reform people engaged in conversations with small groups of pro reform people. Again, I’d hear intermittent charged voices, often though not always, defused by civil responses.

We had a few police standing at a distance with a non-threatening or threatened stance, almost a reassuring presence.

Talking with an OFA field organizer, we reminisced about the ‘happy’ factor we experienced in our work for Obama’s candidacy during the Primary and Presidential campaigns—how our solidarity in believing in hope overwhelmed hostility and attacks. Remember the times ugliness surfaced? There were many trying and painful days back then that foreshadowed the quality of the opponent we face now—the opponent Barack Obama warned us we would need to be organized to face when he became President.

I’m not yet sure what self-righteous screaming and mean spirited insults are accomplishing that work for one side or the other. Will they scare us off? Lead us to sink to the ugliness in ourselves? Just doesn’t sound like a long-term strategy of the powerful but more a crying of the weak. In fact I think it is serving to alarm supporters of health care reform and motivate us to get up again and push hard for our voices to be heard. They are helping us mobilize--more people are asking me what they can do.

So I say to those fomenting this craziness: Though I admit you scare me, I’ll lean on my fellow volunteers to help me resist the weakness of fear and self-righteous anger in reaction to mean spirited insults and threats. We won during the Presidential Campaign with reason, compassion and hope and endless hours of hard grassroots work. People were drawn to that work partly because it felt so good to stand alongside others who imagined that things could be better for everyone. As President Obama said on election night, “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep…. I promise you – we as a people will get there…Yes we can.” http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGx3Kc

One way I learned during the campaign to manage my fear and anxiety was to take action. And it helped even more when others were there with me. Please check your representatives’ websites for August events you can attend to make sure your voice is counted.

How do we get our way?

I’m watching the campaigns for and against health care reform—watching actions and reactions in myself, and others. Canvassing yesterday there were people whose opposition struck me as so mean-spirited, I felt like crying. I can’t yet even begin to describe my reaction to my fellow citizens being so hateful to me about an effort to get access to adequate health care for everyone. There was no room for discussion and in fact, I felt threatened or at least insulted.

I know I’m overly sensitive these days due to painful health insurance stories I’m carrying around in my mind. I almost thought I couldn’t continue and then a group of protestors against the military action in Afghanistan marched through and I heard them speaking with the same self righteous anger.

I’ve been there in self-righteousness. I understand the pull of it. The certainty leaves no room for fear of what will happen if we don’t get our way. We have to prevail. We are so right!

A friend once told me that he noticed that every time he indulged himself in self righteous indignation it came back to bite him with a reflection of his own behavior similar to what he had decried. I’ve had to eat my words a few times lately so as a practical measure, I’m practicing avoiding it, even in my emails to our senators who refuse to take a clear position in spite of promises that if we supported them they would support Obama’s agenda. Oh! Self righteous indignation is lurking here—sure could be a relief at this moment.

Instead I'm thinking back to so many times during the campaign when fear and doubt loomed because things weren’t going our way. And we won. Did we expect that once Obama got elected, it would be quick and easy to get our way? As much as we are literally fighting a life and death issue for many people, insurance companies and other corporations are also fighting for their existence, as they know it. They know how to put up a fight.

And its an old, an even ancient, fight. We can learn from so many who have gone before us.

1. Saul Alinsky, a grandfather of community organizing and recently a subject of many hateful web posts, his 12 Rules for Radicals and lately, this rule in particular:

RULE 9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists' minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization).

2. Biblical story of David and Goliath that is ubiquitous in our culture but still surprises me with relevant details. Check out this New Yorker piece by Malcolm Gladwell: “How David Beats Goliath: When Underdogs Break the Rules.”
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell

Or just the story from the Bible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath or http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/p/davidandgoliath.htm

Whatever your battle... health care, education, environment, arts, financial systems, jobs, human and animal rights............
imagine this (metaphorically of course)

Just Beat It

At least once every day, I get freaked out about the horrible possibilities of what I'm seeing in our country and the world. A year ago, I was scared what would happen if Obama didn't win. I never believed he really could win and at the same time there was this glimmer of hope that made me take action to the point where it eventually took over nearly everything else.

Now I'm getting another glimmer at this time when the enormous forces we are up against are increasingly visible. I have more understanding of what Obama meant last year when he said once he got elected, we would have just begun the work that we had to do.Things look so serious to me. I see Obama walking a very strategic path through extremely dangerous fields and people. Hard to convince people of this, hard for me to really get it. But over the last months, the crises haven't stopped coming--every couple days, another.

What really scares me is bold-faced evidence of what I have hoped wasn’t really true. http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009062626/2044-novel-comes-true As George Carlin said, "Anytime you hear businessmen debating 'which policy is better for America,' ' don’t bend over.'"
Seems like the corporate powers used to give us more crumbs so it was easier to go along. Like frogs in boiling water? My father knew it back in the 60's, when it arguably wasn't even as big yet. Eisenhower warned against it in the 50’s. There is power that is beyond the government and that is what Obama is navigating with unbelievable brilliance--just as he did in the campaign. I know it isn't always to see so its easy to lose faith and hope.

This is a real fight and for now, it is for health care. I am starting to get it. Obama needs us to organize and show power, to have influence at least on those close to power. The people of Iran are doing it. In Honduras they were about to get a chance to take a step (if I understand the situation correctly).

I have hosted or helped host nearly every house meeting they requested. For me, these were usually dissatisfying events where people were unclear what they were supposed to do to have an effect and just expressed their opinions and interpretations and what they wished Obama would do. I believe that experience was not true for everyone who hosted house parties. It was not true for the people in Longmont, where with a few of my Boulder team members, we joined the Longmont OFA Day of Service this past Saturday.

What we did was go to different parts of town and get out the word about CHIPS+ the county health care program for children and pregnant women who don't have coverage. As of yesterday, only 30% of those who are eligible are enrolled. A lot of people don't think they'd qualify or they didn't when they applied but they would now. We worked in pairs; Subu and I took Main Street. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Surprisingly to me, Main Street was nearly deserted. The basic stores that people need are not there and there is not one chain. It is mainly restaurants and second hand stores. All pretty empty. Some permanently empty. We did manage to make contact with about 10 people on the sidewalk and in a couple stores and gave out information and had conversations that made me feel our common humanity. Not a single person didn't need that information, for themselves or a relative. Every single person was inadequately covered, most with no insurance. A couple times I needed to communicate with Spanish speakers. For me it took courage to take the chance of using one of my few Spanish words to actually try to communicate instead of just moving on. It felt that important. We did have brochures in Spanish.

So, a quiet downtown and whoever was in town needs health care coverage.

We also went to the park where everyone thanked us for offering the information whether they needed it or not. One family was so grateful as their coverage has increased beyond their means. The income eligibility is not as low as you might assume--not poverty, more edge of middle class.
I got a glimpse of our possible power to make a difference though I’m still struggling with a familiar lack of motivation. After the primary, after the election, I was so relieved that I didn't have to make phone calls or knock on doors or have patience with people. I wanted to be relieved of the heavy responsibility of doing my part in this struggle, which is too big for my imagination. I am resisting the overpowering sense of recognized urgency, responsibility and openness to the possibility that we people might be necessary to make a difference. I miss the fun part -- Alex and the other young field organizers, the camaraderie with fellow volunteers. I met people Saturday who were pretty inspiring and wonderful to be around. I'm starting to get glimmers.

Our voices cannot be heard if we don't get them out. I have some time to make phone calls this week. Nearly everyone could find time to call or email a representative and two senators. Otherwise I need to live in denial or give in to despair. I hear my father saying, “While we don’t know for sure if our effort will work, we know what will happen if we don't even try…” In my heart, I am still an idealist. Could I take this on again? Will anyone join me? I miss our old team.
We are now being asked to make phone calls this week to ask people to call their representatives and senators to support the genuine public option for genuine health care reform that is: available nationwide; on day one; and accountable to Congress and the voters (For more details on how to contact your congressional reps: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/29/748022/-Lets-Crack-The-Whip-For-The-Public-Option!)

I am inviting people to an open house phone banking party on Thursday 6-8pm where we can each use the OFA on-line tool to make 25 calls. Of course you can do it on your own, but remember how much more fun it was to have people to talk to about your calls? Join us virtually if you are out of town!

I don't know if you cared for Michael Jackson but I am sadder than I can understand. Whoever and whatever he really was, I know that many of his songs were about making it a better world and there is something about him dying as he did that feels like the end of a voice that expressed longing to heal some sort of wounded hope and flawed love. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/29/philippines-prisons-micha_n_222169.html

As I'm trying to find the spark, the belief and willingness in me to dive in again, I realize that my deep reaction to Michael Jackson's death could be a reflection of the loss of my own hope and love that had filled me when I immersed myself in the campaign. Maybe the only way to stop this ache is to open up again to that hope and love that goes along with effective action for a bigger cause. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqxo1SKB0z8

I'm thinking about Buckminster Fuller's metaphor of the trimtab, which is a very small piece on the bottom of the rudder of jets and ships that when turned slightly creates a vacuum that turns the rudder that then turns the direction of the whole ship. He said, "Call me trimtab."

"I'm asking you to believe.
Not just in my ability to bring about change in Washington...
I'm asking you to believe in yours."
Barack Obama