9/11 National Day of Service Tomorrow

For eight years, the non-profit organization My Good Deed — a group co-founded by Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk, a volunteer firefighter, during the September 11th attacks — has petitioned the federal government to declare September 11th a national community service day to honor the lives of those who died in a positive and constructive way.

Jay Winuk has said of the initiative, "As a 9/11 family member, I cannot think of a more inspiring, appropriate and constructive tribute to my late brother and all those who perished, were injured or rose in service — to rekindle at least for one day each year the remarkable spirit of compassion and service that unified our country."

In April, Winuk finally got his wish, when President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which officially declared September 11th a National Day of Remembrance and Service.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who helped draft the provision of the act that proclaimed the national service day, explained, "September 11 should not only be a day for mourning — it should be a day to think about our neighbors, our community and our country. We can take a tragic day in our nation's history and turn it into a force for good."

President Obama issued a proclamation today urging Americans to participate:

Our democracy is strengthened when we uphold the freedoms upon which our Nation was built: equality, justice, liberty, and democracy. These values exemplify the patriotism and sacrifice we commemorate today.

In that same spirit of patriotism, I call upon all Americans to join in service and honor the lives we lost, the heroes who responded in our hour of need, and the brave men and women in uniform who continue to protect our country at home and abroad.

If you would like participate in a volunteer activity tomorrow to honor the lives of those lost on September 11th, 2001, and the service of the brave firefighters, police officers and EMTs who ran toward danger that day, you can find a National Day of Remembrance and Service event near you at Serve.gov or 911dayofservice.org. And if you have a great volunteer project planned for tomorrow, please tell us about it in the comments!

MOMocrats Live Chat: President Obama's Health Reform Speech

Want to tell the G.O.P. to stop stonewalling on health care reform? Please join MOMocrat @cyn3matic's act.ly petitions on Twitter:

Orrin Hatch

John McCain

Chuck Grassley

Re-Fired Up: A Health Reform Vigil in St. Louis

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a town hall meeting held by my Senator, Claire McCaskill, in a rural Missouri town on the outskirts of St. Louis.

It depressed me.

Health care reform opponents screamed and heckled and interrupted the Senator, again and again. Some health care reform supporters got frustrated and started yelling back. At one point, a white man in the audience snatched a poster of Rosa Parks from a black woman in attendance and crumpled it and ripped it and stomped on it and shoved the woman when she tried to take it back from him. The man cited the "no sign or banners" rule imposed by the university hosting the event as his defense as security escorted both him and the woman he had taken the sign from out of the building; meanwhile, several anti-health reform protesters blatantly displaying "Don't Tread on Me" Gadsen flag banners were allowed to stay without incident. That depressed me.

A fellow blogger was called a "babykiller" for wearing a pink Planned Parenthood t-shirt and had a racial slur tossed at her to boot for being black while wearing said t-shirt. That depressed me.

A man standing outside with the St. Louis Tea Party protesters held a sign equating President Obama to Hitler:

(Photo courtesy of Michael Bersin from Show Me Progress.)

That made me want to weep for education, America, manufacturers of cheap men's hair dye, and all humanity.

California Congressional District 29: Congressman Adam Schiff's Health Care Town Hall

In case you were wondering, I attended the town hall held by my congressperson a little more than a week ago, and noticed no one in attendance packing heat. I joke here, but I take any vigilantism or talk of intimidating people with arguments made in the presence of a gun seriously. That's not reasoned debate, that's bullying.

Alhambra, CA. August 11, 2009.

The town hall was originally scheduled to be held inside a library, but so many people rsvp'd that it ended up being held outside on the blocked-off street outside the library. It garnered a lot of attention as it was one of the few scheduled in Los Angeles for the week of August 10, 2009.

Netroots Nation: Day Two Highlights

Howard Dean on Health Care

The second day of Netroots Nation opened with a discussion of health care with Howard Dean.  Dean was interviewed by Tanya Tarr and Mike Lux in a town hall format.  Many audience members wore hardhats handed out by the United Steelworkers Union to show support for union efforts on health care reform.  During his talk, Dean referred to his new book, Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer. Dean asked, "Who do you want controlling your health care, you or your insurance company?" He noted that insurance companies are not in the business to provide health care, but to make money.  They are a reflection of the free-wheeling Wall Street culture that led to the current recession.

Netroots Nation: Day One Highlights

Last weekend, MOMocrats Cynematic, LawyerMama, PunditMom, Julie and I traveled to Pittsburgh to take part in the annual Netroots Nation Conference. We spent four days attending panels, plenary sessions, and  parties, and participated as speakers on two panels.  It was an exhausting and exhilarating time, and we could go on for days about the great people we met and the stories we heard.

I wanted to share some of the highlights of my first day at Netroots.

The Myth of Post-Racial America Panel

This discussion, led by Keith Kamisugi, focused on the myth that since America has elected an African-American President, we are now in a "post-racial" period.  The first part of the panel was a screening of a part of the film "9500 Liberty," made by panelist filmmaker Annabel Park, whose documentary delves into a community initiative in Prince William County, Virginia to allow racial profiling, specifically of anyone suspected of being in the United States illegally.  She said that when they started making the film, she and her co-producer, Eric Byler, thought that they were making a film about illegal immigrants, but it turned into a film about race and the incitement of fear into a community.  The film illustrates how misinformation and agitation can take control of an issue and lead to disastrous ends. 

Why Obama is right not to openly pick a side in the Iranian election conflict

Women protest Iranian election results - Photo by Farhad Rajabali. Creative Commons license. Source: Flickr.

When protests erupted across Iran over the weekend in response to disputed Presidential election results, the Obama administration issued some very delicate statements.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people."

On Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden said, "There's an awful lot of question about how this election was run. And we'll see. I mean, we're just waiting to see. We don't have, we don't have enough facts to note— to make a firm judgment."

And President Obama himself issued no official statement until today, when he said:

Obviously all of us have been watching the news from Iran.  And I want to start off by being very clear that it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be; that we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran, which sometimes the United States can be a handy political football— or discussions with the United States.

Having said all that, I am deeply troubled by the violence that I've been seeing on television.  I think that the democratic process— free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent— all those are universal values and need to be respected.  And whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they're, rightfully, troubled.

Iran's current president, conservative hardliner Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's claims to have won the election in a landslide— despite pre-election polls that showed him in a neck-and-neck race with his more moderate opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi; despite widespread reports of voting irregularities on election day, and despite anecdotal reports from several communities that their own records from election day do not match the officially released national results— beggars credibility.

And the current regime's iron-fisted reaction to the post-election protests— expelling international journalists from the country, blocking foreign television and radio broadcasts, blocking text messaging and access to certain websites across Iran to disrupt communications, and arresting and shooting at protesters— totally undermines whatever credibility the Iranian government had as a supposedly democratic state. 

Not to mention the fact that, given our country's recent history of turbulent and frustrating relations with Ahmedinejad, our own government leaders almost certainly expect U.S. interests would be better served if Mousavi were declared the true winner.

So why the careful wording? Why hasn't the administration denounced Ahmedinejad and come out in loud, open support of Mousavi's backers, who are currently battling fierce government opposition to demand their right to free and fair elections?

Because if Obama wants Mousavi's supporters to succeed, the last thing he should do is explicitly declare his support for them. 

Thank You

 

To all those who have served bravely and honorably to protect their fellow citizens, and to all those at home who have supported the men and women of our armed forces, we at MOMocrats thank you this Memorial Day.

Unite for Hunger and Hope

Bloggers Unite and Heifer International have teamed up to raise awareness about world hunger today with the Unite for Hunger and Hope project. Bloggers Unite invites bloggers everywhere to join the effort and write a post about world hunger.

Previously on MOMocrats.com, we have featured several organizations that fight hunger and poverty both in developing countries and here in the United States:

Share our Strength fights childhood hunger in the U.S. by raising public awareness about hunger, organizing fundraisers, and awarding grants to hunger organizations and food pantries. MOMocrats partnered with Quaker Oats last year help to raise money for Save our Strength. 

Meds and Food for Kids is an organization that saves children from starvation in Haiti, one of the countries hit hardest by last year's spike in global food prices, by providing families with nutitional supplements created using locally grown ingredients; the group also teaches the local Hatian farmers who provide ingredients for their product new and better agricultural techniques and food safety methods. MOMocrats interviewed the founder of Meds and Food for Kids, Dr. Patricia Wolff, last December. 

Unicef also fights childhood hunger and poverty worldwide; in January, MOMocrats interviewed Dr. Brandao Co, UNICEF's chief of nutrition in Afghanistan, a country where agricultural production has been devastated by two decades of war, and current conflict makes it difficult for agencies to move food and medical supplies to the communities that need them. 

You can help fight world hunger by joining today's Bloggers Unite event, by donating to or writing about one of the organizations listed above, or by donating nonperisable items to your nearest food pantry.

Congressional Candidate Jeff Cherry Speaks Out about Local Tea Party

I was just leaving the local Tea Party, fairly satisfied with the photographs and film footage I'd gotten. I was also feeling faintly befuddled by all that I'd witnessed. A man walking in front of me expressed out loud exactly what I'd been thinking, "This is really just a Libertarian rally." I quickly said, 'Would you say that on camera?" The man, Jeff Cherry, a Republican candidate challenging Ron Paul for Congress in 2010, said he would. We stood in a parking lot, sun overhead, cars and motorcycles and wind noise challenging us, and Mr. Cherry expressed his opinion about the Tea Party and answered all of my questions.

I don't believe in the liberal media bias myth, but we are open and transparent here---this is actually the liberal media, right here, on this Web site.

Nevertheless, I believe intelligent people, whether we agree or disagree up front, can only achieve and accomplish through conversation and open-mindedness.

So to be clear, I have not edited this video. It is the honest, true and complete conversation between me and Mr. Cherry. And guess what? I think he makes quite a few good points, some of which I truly agree with---even though we are completely on different pages when it comes to social policy.