Hello All,
I’m happy to report that service events in support of the community are alive and well.
On Saturday, August 22, several local grass-root organizations collaborated on the service event, “Supplies For Change”. The donation drop-off areas were located at Shaker Square; an immensely popular location for the community. The organizers of the North Union Farmer’s Market generously donated a tent for us to receive donations in the morning. The Coral Company opened the doors of the former Obama Campaign headquarters for us to use this space in the afternoon.
In summary, cash donations exceeded $260. In addition, we collected a vast variety of useful school supplies that filled many bags and boxes. The items were donated to the Adlai Stevenson School, a K-8 school in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the monetary donations were used by the CMSD to purchase school supplies for Audubon School on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.
The organizers of this event thank everyone for their generosity and support. “Supplies For Change” may become an annual event, and we look forward to your continued interest and support.
All the best,
Maureen
ohio_voter_44120@sbcglobal.net
Barack inspires me to do greater things with my life!!!!!!!!
That's the kind of leader this country truly needs. One who rises above it all...
and makes us want to do the same!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi everyone I'm an artist from Columbus and want to let you know that I will be at the Akron Arts Expo the weekend of July 26 & 27 in booth #2. I have been making and selling Obama jewelry since March. I will have some at the festival so come on down and check it out!!! for a preview go to my website:
http://www.barackobamajewelry.com
One of Barack Obama's bills in the Senate is the endorsement of the Global Poverty Act. With a pricetag estimated at $65 billion - this is nearly as large as the budget for the Department of Education. While I applaud the idea, the money involved is simply not acceptable to me. I urge you all to take a look at this bill and write to your respective congresspeople urging them to vote against it.
John McCain has been challenging Barack Obama on whether he will accept public financing in the general election. I hope that Barack Obama will accept public financing. As proud as I am of the grass roots donations from everyday people, I look at the expense of these campaigns and I'm appalled. Like the war in Iraq, there are so many better ways that we could have spent that money - ways that would have lasting effects.
Barack Obama has talked about change, and I want him to hold true to that mantra - I want change to start now - and taking lobbyists out of the equation is only the start.
Today, for a change, the weather in Ohio was nice. I drove down to Akron to do some canvasing and had a lot of fun doing it. There were a lot of great volunteers out there, and the support people were excellent. It took 5 hours, but part of that was becuase we took a neighborhood that was a little far away and we had to drive to it.
Canvasing granted me a free ticket to see Senator Kennedy speak at the Alpha center. That was pretty cool, but I took a pass. Poor Mr Kennedy just couldn't compete with a grumbling stomach and the thought of a cheeseburger in my stomach!
Go Ohio!
Obama is still having trouble capturing women's votes. So here is my idea for getting the word out this February. I've been handing out flyers in the city for some time now, but this week I'm going to hand out about 24 individual flowers to women on the street, and wish them a Happy Valentine's day. I think that even though it's only a few women, that the word of mouth will be very effective. And you can get flowers from the street vendor so inexpensively! I'll let you know how it works!
Obama's campaign has gained a type of momentum that can only be called historic. The "big Mo" is definitely on our side. But history has shown us, through tulip-mania, dot-com bubbles and housing hysteria, that we should always be wary of the madness of crowds.
So while I was internally delighted to see the record breaking fundraising and huge increases in the poll numbers, there were warning flags going off in my mind..."Check the facts", they were saying to me, "take a step back, and look at this again."
There are a lot of things that concern me. For starters, I'm a lifelong Republican, and I'm voting Democrat! A change like that demands some introspection. Do I really like the idea of health care for everyone in the US? After goverment has demonstrated such success with our ability to manage Social Security? After we've shown such finesse in managing FEMA? After any number of colossal failures when large government has been involved?
No. I really don't like the idea. My soul screams out against adding more government, when I want less, less and less of it.
Am I happy about the proposed policies for immigration reform? No. To me, illegal aliens are criminals. Supporting them means that my friend and co-worker who entered the US legally must wait longer for his chance to become a citizen. I hate this.
Do I support a withdrawl from Iraq? From a financial view, yes. We cannot afford it. But after seeing my 19 year old cousin enlisting after 9/11 and fighting in Afghanistan, can I look him in the eye and say he and his fellow soldiers don't deserve the right to a victory after what they've sacrificed? No, I can't.
So what am I doing in this campaign? Why am I standing on streets in Pennsylvania handing out fliers on my lunch break? Why am I calling strangers at night to ask them to support Barack Obama?
Because one man had the strength of character to run a campaign without funding from lobbyists. He did not listen to the tired mantra that said you can't get elected without their money and support. He reached out to Americans one by one and together we changed the face of politics. Yesterday we were able to see once again that the people matter. And that when we join together we have within us the power to make change happen.
Why am I spending my own money to hand out buttons and stickers and signs?
Because, every day, there are millions of people who examine a problem in their respective field and they see a disaster looming. And over the years, we've turned those people into the "naysayers" and the "doomsday prophets" and we've stopped listening to them. We don't raise issues because our bosses and managers see them as problems - instead of opportunities for prevention. We've become adept at fixing problems, but utterly incapable of preventing them with anything that resembles finesse or skill.
And that is why one thing matters in this race more than it should. One decision makes a difference in where my allegiances lie. One man, whose very name made it controversial for him to take a stand against the war in Iraq, had the integrity to do it.
Had we listened to him we could have saved $1 trillion dollars. This is a staggering amount of money - enough to double the budget of the Deparment of Education, Homeland Security, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and the National Science Foundation with plenty of money left over.
So while I don't agree with everything that this campaign stands for, I hope that I know foresight when I see it. I think that I understand the strength of character required to take difficult positions. And I hold deep respect for the integrity of the person who showed me these characteristics on a national stage. He has earned my trust and I will support him in his bid for the presidency.
I truly believe that the devil is in the details. So for me, there are a series of subtle differences that mark the difference between the Obama and Hillary movements. If you go to Hillaryclinton.com you'll notice that on the right hand of her site, is a link to "States". Yet only 20 of the states are listed. I'm sure that this is because these are the upcoming election states and areas where she has offices. But it's striking that the other states do not appear at all.
Barack Obama's site, I'm quite proud to say, includes my home state of Ohio. We may be late in the process, but we like to be included. Many thanks to Barack Obama, for acknowledging the entire 50.
