Host a House Party, Save the World

Burning Tank © Grace Graupe-Pillard 2006

For a couple of years now I've been volunteering for MoveOn.org and recently got a "promotion". I'm now a Support Corps Manager, which means when you send an email to MoveOn.org it's likely it'll pass through my keyboard at some point in it's journey. I volunteer for MoveOn because although there are some very good progressive leaders in the Democratic Party, for the most part the party's leadership (aside from Chairman Howard Dean) is still beholden to many of the same multi-national corporations that fund the Republicans. That makes you, me, and all the rest of America's citizens last on the list of constituents.

So, I've thrown in with what has become one of the country's most powerful, progressive, member-driven organizations because they know how to get things done. So, now that I've explained my reason for supporting MoveOn.org I want to suggest that you, dear reader, jump into the heat of the action, the battle for the soul of our country, with me. That means I'm asking you to do any of the following very satisfying things:

1) Host a house party (a cozy event at your home where neighbors, friends, and progressives from your community, gather) to make calls to voters in 30 of the most competitive Congressional races in the country. This program is already hugely successful (though the real telling will of course be on November 7th).

You can attend or host a house party most weekends between now and the November 7th election.

The next one is a national potluck, October 7th and 8th.

The following weekend, October 14th & 15th combines phone calling with a viewing of Robert Greenwald's shocking new film, Iraq for Sale


















Light Show © Grace Graupe-Pillard 2003

Acclaimed progressive filmmaker Robert Greenwald just released his latest movie, Iraq for Sale, and it's a doozy. It's a blistering expose about war profiteering, and, five weeks before an election hinging on Iraq, it's a movie everyone needs to see.

There's no corporate distributor pushing Iraq for Sale into theaters, so we're holding hundreds of local screenings the weekend of October 14th and 15th (that's the weekend after next). And we won't just watch—we'll do something to end this mess by making calls to key voters through Call for Change.

2) Alternatively you can make calls to get out the progressive vote in key races, as your personal schedule permits by simply using your computer, a separate phone line (or cell phone) and your sense of purpose. It's MoveOn.org's revolutionary "virtual phone bank" program called Call for Change

3) Too shy to call voters on your own? Not a very good party host? There's hope! You can still help by donating to MoveOn so that other members can make those calls on your behalf. Donate here. It might be the most well-used $20.00 you ever spent.

Why bother? Who cares? Whatsinitforme? Well...your actions in this election could help save someone across the world from ending up wounded, or killed by our government. That's a damn good reason to make a few phone calls don't you think?
















Wounded © Grace Graupe-Pillard 2005

More background about MoveOn.org from this excellent article in Alternet

What makes MoveOn's organizing model so threatening to those safely ensconced inside the Washington Beltway is that MoveOn, unlike its counterparts on the right, is largely bottom up, driven by constantly polling their members about which issues to focus on and which campaigns to support. To a great degree, that makes it immune to the conventional wisdom about what is and isn't important (and what is and isn't possible). Democratic strategists can whisper to Washington Post columnists that opposing the war in Iraq is bad politics, and that becomes the conventional wisdom. But MoveOn has to move with its membership. It has active campaigns for clean voting, clean election financing and renewable energy, all issues that are important to progressives, but to which the Democratic Party itself pays maddeningly little real attention.

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