Penny Coleman has a Great Point

The widow of a Vietnam vet who killed himself after coming home writes a poignant op-ed about the rate of suicide among war vets--statistics more Americans should be forced to hear. She wrote a book about "that most secret death" called Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War and I'm thinking of picking it up... In just a couple of sentences at the conclusion of her article, she clarified some things about military service and pinpointed why the way we talk about suicide bombers has always troubled me. Read this article!

Honoring the Fallen

Veteran's Day was Monday, and I just discovered that the NY Times has created a multimedia presentation of photos of service members who have died in Iraq. Individual faces are made up of squares representing each of the others... and it's also searchable by name or hometown.

Also check out this Military Times database site that gives quite a bit more information about these brave men and women. The count they have now--as confirmed by U.S. Central Command is 4,307.

A bit of good post-election news

Although, the only person I voted for this year who actually won happened to be a Republican (don't ask), the Human Rights Campaign reported that Democrats have taken control of the Virginia Senate for the first time since 1997. Here are some more details.

I'm also thrilled that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Unfortunately this measure only protects folks based on sexual orientation (and not gender identity) but it's a HUGE start.

And we all needed a bit of good news, didn't we.

Increase the Visibility of Mountain Top Removal

CNN Heroes has nominated Larry Gibson, as one of 4 in the Defender of the Planet category. Gibson has been fiercely fighting mountain top removal from Kayford Mountain, West Virginia and you can watch the CNN clips from the original show here and here. Then you have until noon on Monday, October 8 to vote for him.

According to the rules, "the top vote-getter in each of the six CNN Hero categories will compete in an online vote starting Monday, November 12, with the winner honored at 'CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute'," which will take place Thursday, December 6. So assuming we spread the word and get him the win in this round, stay tuned for the next vote!

For more about Larry Gibson's work and to find out how to get involved, check out MountainKeeper.org.

Crafters with a Cause

I've always been into artsy things. I still sell recycled crafts like record clocks and marble jewelry and domino coasters at the local farmers market--and years ago I even started a webzine called Craftygal with some friends in Rochester, NY. But nothing warms my heart more than crafting with a message... so I was thrilled to hear about a project by the International Fabric Collaborative.

Jennifer Marsh, an MFA student at Syracuse University (and creator of the lawnmower cover above), is collecting 3 foot square fiber panels from crafters around the world who are concerned about our dependence on oil. And with them she plans to create what's essentially a giant cozy for an abandoned gas station. Yep, she thinks big.

The deadline to submit a panel is March 15, 2008 and I'm definitely going to participate. If anyone else would like to join me, and Courtney Weida who gave me the scoop, please contact me (Taryn Chase) and we'll try to set a time to get together and discuss!

UPDATE!
Jennifer Marsh will be giving a lecture here at Radford University at 4 p.m. on Friday, November 9 in 203 McGuffy Hall. Future fiber workshops (knitting, crocheting, quilting, etc.) to participate will also be discussed!

Recycling in Radford

Radford University student Mary Hickman has started an online petition to implement a curbside recycling program in the City of Radford.

She writes:

Those who represent the city of Radford are currently considering renovations which would include new sidewalks, bike trails, parks and landscaping. However, no funding has been provided in their five-year plan for much-needed improvements to the recycling program. I spoke with Larry Amy, who oversees recycling for the city (540. 731. 3605). He told me that Radford's streets are too narrow for a curbside recycling program. He also said that there are no future plans for improving the current recycling program.
Tell the city that you want curbside recycling and you want it NOW. Tell them that if you had this program, you would take advantage of it. Yes, there are obstacles that bar the city from creating a curbside program; however, with hard work the challenges can be overcome. The city of Radford is expanding as more students come in every year. Shouldn't our recycling program grow, too? See the city's five-year plan for improvements here.

Please consider signing and/or sending the link to the petition to others.

Also, I'd be curious to hear if other folks have more information about the history and obstacles of recycling in this area...

Memorial for the Mountains

Everybody's probably heard of the Google Earth program by now--someone you know has downloaded it to show you the satellite image of your house or office, with familiar cars in the parking lot--kind of eerie really. Wave hello to Big Brother.

But with the new version, not only can you also view the skies and explore the galaxy, but ILoveMountains.org has created a Memorial for the Mountains that allows you to locate and learn about the 470 mountains that have been destroyed so far by mountaintop removal.

After you've downloaded the latest version of Google Earth, select the Featured Content Layer, click on Global Awareness, and check the box for Appalachian Mountaintop Removal. There's a tutorial here to guide you there.

Once you've explored a little bit, be sure to add the additional features, such as the shockingly numerous file markings for all the Sludge Dams and Before-and-After Overlays.

I'm relatively new to Southwest Virginia, but the massive scale of the destruction surrounding my new home feels like it's in my backyard after having seen the Memorial. Please check it out, and then let's talk about what we can do to stop it from growing.

Taking it to the streets

First off, I want to thank Rick Robers for coordinating the educational booth about Fair Trade for the Radford Farmers Market on September 1. We were able to share information, as well as offer free samples of Equal Exchange coffee courtesy of Annie Kay's, and sell several paintings, handwoven hats and jewelry--proceeds of which will go directly back to the Haitian artisans who made them.

I also wanted to tell everybody about a few events coming up:
On September 15, 2007, the ANSWER Coalition and other groups are gathering in Washington D.C. for a large antiwar protest to coincide with the report by Gen. Petraeus on progress in Iraq. If folks from the NRV are looking for a ride, there will be a 54 passenger bus (chartered by the Peace & Justice Coalition, Code Pink, and Grandmothers for Peace) departing Blacksburg, VA at 6 a.m., stopping at the Park & Ride in Christiansburg and also in Roanoke at the Days Inn at the Hollins exit. It will depart DC after the march about 5 p.m., make a stop for dinner, and return to Blacksburg by about 11 p.m. The cost is $50. For more information and to see if there are spaces available, please contact Rosemarie Sawdon.

A group called Iraq Moratorium will be starting an "escalating series of actions" to demand an end to the war on September 21, 2007--and every third Friday after that. Locally, a group will congregate at Radford University, where a table will be set up on Hurlburt Plaza from 4 to 6 p.m. For more information, please contact Michele Ren.

Lastly, this Saturday, September 8, 2007, the Radford University Green Team will join with MoveOn's Radford Operation Democracy Council to offer climate change information at the Radford Farmers Market booth from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Also, David Simpkins (who I personally think is the New River Valley's own Neil Young) will be playing live music from 10 a.m. to noon. Come on out!

UPDATE: Just received the unfortunate news that David Simpkins won't be playing the Farmer's Market this Saturday--that gig has been rescheduled to September 29... but MoveOn will be there then as well. If you can't wait til then, you can also catch him at Coffee Buy the Book (10 W. Main in Pulaski, VA) on September 14 at 6:30 p.m.

Stand Up in September Vigil

I'm so proud to report that on Tuesday, August 28, 2007, more than 40 people came out to the MoveOn.org "Stand Up in September" event.

Along with hundreds of other groups across the nation, we held candles and read the 2007 war toll calendar, listing how many soldiers died each day and where they were from.

The response from passing cars was extremely positive--according to one attendee's count, 48 to 4. And one voice in particular caught everyone up short, that of a little girl, shouting, "Bring my Daddy home!"

I've posted photos from the Radford Vigil (and the 8/25 Radford Farmers Market booth highlighting Mountain Top Removal education) and photos from other MoveOn vigils can be found here.

Thanks again to everyone who made it out--I was so overwhelmed by the support and the passion found right here in the New River Valley. Stay tuned for the next opportunity to get involved!

What is the cost of the war to our district?

I just wanted to say thanks to all the Council members who volunteered this weekend at the Radford Farmers Market for the "Cost of War Report" event.

Without you (Rick Robers, Tim Jackson, Melissa Londry, Teresa Volante, Laura Spielman & special guest, Sue England) we wouldn't have been able to hold such a successful event--signing up 13 new members to the council and generally spreading the word about how much the war in Iraq has cost Virginia's 9th district...

$679 Million so far, if you were wondering! That would've been enough to pay for healthcare coverage for 188,286 people (or 338,920 kids); Head Start for 94,124 additional kids; or 10,258 new elementary school teachers. I know, it's hard to fathom. Email me if you're interested in reading the full report from MoveOn.org (with data provided by the National Priorities Project.)

So if you're outraged and you want to do something about it, join us on Tuesday, August 28 at 7:45 p.m. for a candlelight vigil in Radford, VA. Go here for more details on how to convince Congress to "Stand Up in September."

Also, look out for a blurb about the Cost of War event in the upcoming August 23 issue of the New River Voice!

Toxicity

Another little video for you. This is the trailer for the Robert Salyer/Appalshop film, Sludge, which our group got together to watch recently. It's amazing to all of us that something of this magnitude could happen (a spill many times larger than Exxon's and in the middle of a town) and still get very little national press. Also frustrating that the company responsible got nothing but the teeniest slap on the wrist. Highly recommend this film!

Now for a little Venezuelan TV...

This is a little addendum to my last post (and will probably only be truly meaningful to those of us who know Rick) but fellow council member Melissa managed to find a YouTube video of our dear Rick chatting with President Hugo Chavez! The video is a tad long but Rick is introduced around 1:47 and is first on-screen at 1:49. Then zoom ahead to 2:46 to hear Rick address President Chavez. After which the camera pans to Sean Penn around 4:38... Yay Rick!

Dispatches from our own International Activist!

Excerpts from a recent email Rick sent from Venezuela, where he's traveling with a delegation of activists convincing School of the Americas. Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela would no longer send personnel there for training in January 2004, but the organization Rick's there with is joining together with allies there to convince other countries to cease their support as well. Without further ado, here's the latest exciting news from Rick:

Arrived safely and everything is going well.

You are not going to believe this. The second day we were here we actually attended a panel meeting with Hugo Chavez. There were about 1500 people there but we were in the front row. At the conclusion, he introduced our delegation and went name by name. After he finished he randomly picked my name...he goes:
'Rick Robers....who is this Rick Robers from Dublin, VA? What does he have to say to us today?' I am going completely nuts as I am getting ready to speak to Hugo Chavez and address the crowd. I basically said it was nice to be here, that not all Americans dislike Chavez or the Venezuelan people and I look forward to the day when our government will find the wisdom and courage to open the dialogue and works towards peace....there was much applause, I look to my left and Sean Penn (I promise I am not making this up) who was a special guest of Chavez is looking at me and clapping...he is about 10 seats down from me. Chavez addressed me saying thank you but he does not have much optimism with Bush. It was unreal.

That afternoon, Lisa (our trip coordinator) tells me she got a call from the Vice President's office: he saw our dlegation on national TV and wants to meet with us. We meet with him (just our delegation) for about 2 hours the next day. He introduced himself to us each individually and stops when he shakes hands with me and says "Ah yes, I saw you on TV yesterday"...it was crazy!

Here is the part where I would normally say I am making this stuff up, but I am not. My head is still kind of in a tailspin. Okay, much more of the trip to share, but I have to run. I apologize for sounding self indulgent, but I had to share this story. It was an unreal opportunity.

Everything else is going well. We have been meeting tons of neat people and seeing some amazing things. We even spoke on a Caracas radio station. OK, hope you are all doing well. I miss you guys. Will try to write more later but it is doubftul I will have internet access...
Peace...Rick

Let me point out again--this is little Rick from Radford! We can accomplish great things if we put ourselves in a position to be heard!

Rural Juror

Although Radford has been declared a "Metropolitan Statistical Area" together with Blacksburg and Christiansburg, there's no denying we're rural. And according to this Small-Town Philanthropy article I just read, educated people still have very ignorant views about what to do with us:

Richard Foster, vice president for programs at the Kellogg foundation, says when Kellogg conducted a poll of individuals and state and federal legislators about rural America a few years ago, it found that people had "bipolar" views.

The first, he told a recent conference on rural issues: "People living there are hard-working people, they're self-sufficient, self-reliant." They turn to their neighbors when they need help and are too proud to accept outside aid.

The second: "Everybody's name is Bubba, and they're not intelligent at all." They operate methamphetamine labs and produce high rates of teenage pregancy and youth drug abuse and "really don't deserve our help."

"In either scenario," he said, "there's not a lot of help coming to rural America."

And what do we need help with? Here's a short list of rural challenges from the Carsey Institute--many of which hit pretty close to home:

Loss of population, especially young people, as manufacturing industries decline in the face of technological change and overseas competition.

Migration of immigrants, primarily Hispanics, to take low-wage farm and food-processing jobs.

Renewed interest in coal production as a result of rising oil prices, risking environmental degradation.

Movement of retirement-age people and others to rural areas for "quality of life" reasons, bringing new skills but also contributing to real-estate sprawl, driving up housing costs, and requiring additional health care and transportation.

Chronic poverty in regions such as central Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta.

If you think non-Appalachians are going to find these issues obvious and come to the rescue, good luck. What we need are some loud voices, people!

Political Science

The Union of Concerned Scientists has announced that Jesse Springer is the winner of their Science Idol: Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon contest. I think it's pretty apt. Check out the link to view the nominees and/or order a calendar!

McGovern: Can we let him govern?

Recently our group gathered to watch Robert Greenwald's Uncovered: The War on Iraq, released in 2003 and documenting "how the Bush administration hoodwinked the American people into supporting an unnecessary war." It was a sobering reminder about how fear and manipulation got this country where we are today... The awful war continues, and although some of the players have been swapped out, our government still manages to hemorrhage money to contractors while leaving our soldiers ill-equipped and without a coherent purpose.

On a positive note, we were introduced to Ray McGovern, a former CIA officer turned activist who, in the film, tore apart Colin Powell's war "justification" presentation to the UN--and in 2006 confronted Rumsfeld with his lies. In a panel on the media that was one of the DVD's extra features, he compared watching the intelligence agencies become the administrations fabricators to seeing a loved one violated. This man worked for the CIA for 27 years and yet returned his Intelligence Commendation award in protest of torture. I only wish we could clone this guy and bring some accountability back to DC. It's just so frustrating that most of the American people don't even know his name. Here are some of his writings, if you're interested in further reading.

Facebook as political mirror

A professor of mine used to quote the old adage about statistics being like a lamp-post: more often used to lean on than to shed light. And although statistics never show a complete truth, I believe they can be revealing.

For example, I was recently checking out the Network pages on Facebook. There's a statistics section that lists its members' favorite books/movies/interests etc. Another thing logged is Political Views.

For the Radford University Network (12,973 people) the stats looked like this:
52% - None Listed
13% - Conservative
12% - Liberal
12% - Moderate
5% - Other
3% - Very Liberal
1% - Libertarian
1% - Very Conservative
1% - Apathetic

Surely Virginia Tech folks are more interested in politics, I thought. But no, apparently not. Of 45,065 people you get:
52% - None Listed
13% - Moderate
13% - Conservative
11% - Liberal
4% - Other
2% - Apathetic
2% - Very Liberal
1% - Very Conservative
1% - Libertarian

Tim & I had the opportunity to hear Daniel Spiro speak this weekend, and he asked the audience to imagine the US population, first removing the apathetic (who don't care enough to enter the conversation), and then removing the dogmatic (for whom dialogue is irrelevant)... Then he asked how many are left who are willing to work toward common ground?

This thought weighs heavy on me and it's my goal (and, I believe, the goal of the Radford Operation Democracy Council) to bring more people into the Dialogue Camp, as it were. I honestly don't care which side of the aisle you come from--we're not politically affiliated, after all. What I want is for citizens to become a part of the process.

Conversation, anyone?

"I thought that if you had an acoustic guitar it meant that you were a protest singer"

A couple more lists for the music lovers out there:

Spinner.com's 20 Protest Songs That Mattered

PopMatters' Say It Out Loud! 65 Great Protest Songs

I'm sure Rick & Tim can point out the ones that are flagrantly missing... but can anyone name the song/band I stole this entry's title from? (Without using Google, that is!)

Mouth made of money

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on an interesting phenomenon in Giving Till It Hurts... And one author's analysis will make sense at least to those of us who grew up being taught to tithe 10% of our earnings in church. There may just be some logic to the old adage that the more you give, the more you seem to get in return.

Nonprofits say they are receiving an increasing number of “stretch” gifts, donations seemingly out of proportion to the givers’ resources. To the shock or chagrin of friends and family, these gifts often require donors to make sacrifices or at least live more modestly than their income would allow...

Arthur C. Brooks argues in his book “Who Really Cares,” which identifies the forces behind American charity, that people who give in a way that pinches are happier and, surprisingly, end up wealthier. According to Mr. Brooks’s analysis, a dollar donated to charity led to $3.75 in extra income for the donor in 2000. “They often create great discomfort among their families, but when people give there is substantial personal transformation,” says Mr. Brooks, an economist and professor of public administration at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. “They tend to work harder,” leading to greater prosperity, and in the long run, he says, “this leads to more success, both financial and nonfinancial.”

Many of you probably volunteer your time, but I ask you, as I ask myself: Are we feeling particularly poor today? Maybe we should consider giving at a sacrificial level and see what happens...

Earth still living... for now

*Cue dramatic doomsday music*

Just kidding, this post is actually a light one: Whether or not you attended the Radford ODC's hoppin' Live Earth gathering, chances are you didn't get to see more than the highlights of the Live Earth concerts. Well now you can check out the music in much more detail.

I personally recommend Missy Higgins (Australia), especially the song "Steer"; David Gray & Damien Rice (UK) doing "Que Sera Sera"; and if you must catch Toni Collette & the Finish (Australia) out of curiosity like I did, try "Children of the Revolution."

If you get a chance to watch some of the coverage, please post comments listing your favorites (and ones to avoid!)

And Sicko was its name-o

Recently went to see Michael Moore's new documentary, Sicko, about the broken US healthcare system. It was both amusing and moving at different times--and if you've ever pondered becoming an expatriate, just might push you over the edge--but I hope you'll see it for yourself and decide.

Moveon.org put together a flier for the film and fellow council-member, Rick, broght a few with us to hand out afterward. Basically it asks people who are outraged by the film to contact their presidential candidate of choice and tell them not to be bought out by the HMOs so they can change the system. (The number is 1-866-459-6050 if you want to do that, too!)

I'm very new to this brand of activism and this was the first real "action" I'd taken, so I was a bit nervous about walking up to strangers and looking like some kind of radical. I had to keep telling myself it wasn't that big a deal--I wasn't going to get arrested and I wasn't even pushing a particular candidate, just involvement!

So I was pleasantly surprised at how well we were received. Most people were grateful to have something they could actually do personally, and even the people who hadn't seen the film yet wanted to take one for later. My heart was totally warmed by one older gentleman who actually shook my hand and thanked me, telling me to keep up the good work. I realize not everyone will be so gracious in the future, but it was extremely encouraging. Thought you'd all like to hear that positive news!

Now here are a list of related links you might enjoy as well:
Michael Moore on Olbermann
Michael Moore on the Daily Show
My friend Carrie's idea to make healthcare sexy

Get Up, Stand Up

As part of Operation Democracy, I think it’s important to remind people that the United States is still a democracy. It’s a rather flawed, representative democracy where our lawmakers are more beholden to corporate interests than their constituents, but it’s still a democracy and the Constitution is still supposed to rule as the law of the land.

So as part of Operation Democracy, I believe we need to ring the bell long and hard to alert people to the erosion of democracy and to their rights as outlined in the Constitution. Just Friday morning I was reminded of yet another egregious attempt at some sort of theocracy or dictatorship by the Bush administration.

An article in The New York Times Friday began with this paragraph:
“President Bush struck an aggressive new tone on Thursday in his clash with Congress over Iraq, telling lawmakers they had no business trying to manage the war, portraying the conflict as a showdown with Al Qaeda and warning that moving toward withdrawal now would risk ‘mass killings on a horrific scale.’”

Um, what? I’m no legal scholar, or any other kind of scholar, but even I know that Article I of the U.S. Constitution outlines the role and powers of Congress and it says in Section 8 of Article 1:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; …
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress

As I read in this article:
“The suggestion that the president should have unilateral power to make war was decisively rejected at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. As delegate Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts put it, he ‘never expected to hear in a republic a motion to empower the executive alone to make war.’ Instead, the Framers agreed that Congress would have the power to declare war.

“It’s true that the Constitution makes the president the ‘Commander in Chief’ of the US Army and Navy. But as Alexander Hamilton noted in Federalist No. 69, this does no more than make the president the ‘first General" of America’s armed forces. And generals don't get to decide which countries we go to war with.”

So can someone explain why Bush has always tried to circumvent Congress in this war? And what may be more disappointing is why the heck has Congress allowed Bush to take away its war powers? (What a woeful disappointment this Congress has been thus far!)

But after Bush’s fiery speech Thursday, the House did vote pretty much along party lines to require that the United States withdraw most combat troops from Iraq by April 1. That’s a good first step. Now it’s important for the Senate to follow suit. Stand up now and tell your Senators to approve the bill as passed in the House.

But even if that should happen, I’m sure Bush, in his constant push for authoritarian rule, will laugh off the actions of Congress, and the will of more than 70% of the American people, and veto the bill. But that just means that we have to be that much more passionate in reminding our representatives that they have been elected to serve us. They cannot simply ignore the will of the people or the Constitution itself with no repercussions.

And speaking of ignoring the Constitution, how about Dick saying the Vice President wasn’t part of the executive branch? Um, I think these people make up the executive branch.


And look whose picture is there, it’s smirking Dick.

Seriously, if I want to find out who is part of the executive branch, it doesn’t take a lot of research. You could just click here.

Why, look Dick’s there, too.

I know the Constitution is considered void for this administration, but most of us still consider it to be the law. And look there in Article II, the part specifically about the Executive Branch. Who is that mentioned in the very first paragraph? Why it’s the Vice President!

The list of violations of the Constitution of this administration are long. I hate to even think about our loss of habeas corpus.
Habeaus Corpus
habeas corpus n. Law A writ issued to bring a party before a court to prevent unlawful restraint. Source: AHD
"The basic premise behind habeas corpus is that you cannot be held against your will without just cause. To put it another way, you cannot be jailed if there are no charges against you. If you are being held, and you demand it, the courts must issue a writ or habeas corpus, which forces those holding you to answer as to why. If there is no good or compelling reason, the court must set you free. It is important to note that of all the civil liberties we take for granted today as a part of the Bill of Rights, the importance of habeas corpus is illustrated by the fact that it was the sole liberty thought important enough to be included in the original text of the Constitution."

Operation Democracy and ALL Americans have the right and responsibility to remind this administration that this is still a democracy. It is not a dictatorship. And despite the last seven years of evidence otherwise, no one should be held above the law. It is time for us to stand up and not let this administration continue to get away with its high crimes and misdemeanors as it has done for seven years.

And to end this on somewhat of a light-hearted note. You need to check out the act of this Bush impersonator (some questionable language, if you happen to be at work or something...) What's scary, though, is that I truly believe the guy has nailed down exactly as Bush thinks.

Boomers return to idealism?

According to a report by a community foundation concerned with "civic engagement of older adults," half of the baby boomers surveyed said they plan to volunteer upon retirement. If that trend is bigger than just Denver, Colorado, it will definitely mean good things for political action. After all, as the Rose Foundation CEO stated:

"...this is the generation that harnessed its own power early on, whether it was around civil rights, women's equality, the war or other issues."

Maybe they can teach us youngsters a thing or two about the art of the protest... So if you're out there, remember--you don't have to retire to have time for Operation Democracy!

Edwards for the earth

MoveOn.org has released the results of the Virtual Town Hall on Climate, and John Edwards came in at #1, followed by Kucinich & Clinton:

Sen. John Edwards 33.10%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich 15.73%
Sen. Hillary Clinton 15.71%
Sen. Barack Obama 15.03%
Gov. Bill Richardson 12.60%
Sen. Joe Biden 3.06%
Sen. Chris Dodd 3.01%
Sen. Mike Gravel 1.78%

Perhaps more interesting to me, though, is how the ranking differed among people who attended Parties for the Planet:

Sen. John Edwards 25.5%
Gov. Bill Richardson 20.2%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich 17.5%
Se. Hillary Clinton 13.8%
Sen. Barack Obama 10.2%
Sen. Joe Biden 6.2%
Sen. Chris Dodd 3.6%
Sen. Mike Gravel 3%

Specifically I'm curious about how much better Richardson came in because that's who made the biggest impression on me personally.

For those of you who couldn't make it and/or didn't get to vote, here's the transcript of the highlights that we saw. And if you did see or vote and want to share, I'd be eager to hear your thoughts on this disparity...

It's gettin' hot in herre

It's a safe assumption that the current administration despises Al Gore at the moment... First, An Inconvenient Truth was wildly successful, winning 2 Oscars and 16 other awards, grossing nearly $24M at the box office, and generally being critically acclaimed.

Then the Live Earth concerts are a success--at least by number standards: Millions of people attended the shows and thousands more organized parties to tune in--MoveOn.org members had more than 30,000 participants at 1,300 Parties for the Planet in 50 states. We even hosted one here in Radford!

But while this sounds great and can almost convince you that most people are on board for change, we can't forget that until our legislators listen and enforce higher industry standards the fight isn't over.

I was reminded again this morning when I read about the former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona's testimony to the oversight committee in the NYTimes article, Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised:

On issue after issue, Dr. Carmona said, the administration made decisions about important public health issues based solely on political considerations, not scientific ones.

“I was told to stay away from those because we’ve already decided which way we want to go,” Dr. Carmona said.

He described attending a meeting of top officials in which the subject of global warming was discussed. The officials concluded that global warming was a liberal cause and dismissed it, he said.

“And I said to myself, ‘I realize why I’ve been invited. They want me to discuss the science because they obviously don’t understand the science,’ ” he said. “I was never invited back.”

So don't sit back and assume Al Gore's army will fix it--get involved!

Taking the leap into activism

Like many of you, we were tired of feeling helpless. Tired of complaining to each other--after watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report--about how the government is corrupt, and most of all tired of hearing people say they have no power, that they're "waiting on the world to change" (no offense, John Mayer). You see, that's how they get us to lie down: they create a climate that makes us afraid to speak up and convince us to believe there's no hope, that the machine will go on with or without us. The last thing they want us to do is use our voices.

We know, because we thought the same things: maybe if we lived in DC or San Francisco we could do something, but who's going to listen to us tucked away in a this tiny valley at the far corner of VA? And then we realized that if we remain silent, we ensure that no one will.

Signing online petitions at MoveOn.org can only accomplish so much. And after all, we see injustices locally--and problems that need passionate solutions... Maybe it's just a matter of growing up, but we realized that if no one else is stepping forward, maybe that means it's OUR TURN.

So we've decided to start an Operation Democracy Council right here in Radford. If you live in the area and feel it's time to get involved, please join us or search for a council near you.

In the meantime, we'll be posting entries about our progress--one small group's fight to make a difference where they are.