Archive for January, 2007
Cat Club owner Slim Jim Phantom hosted a rockin’ awareness event Thursday night, bringing together inspiring bands with messages about extreme poverty and global AIDS. Volunteers Amy, Page and Beth took part in creating a friendly and informative environment, welcoming new members to the ONE Campaign.
Band members and fans sported the ONE t-shirt including Jim’s ten-year old daughter, who fashioned the ONE shirt as a dress! Thanks to all that came out to support the ONE awareness event at the Cat Club. Special thanks to former Stray Cat Jim Phantom and his family for being enthusiastic ONE supporters!
(pictured above: Amy Quinn, ONE Volunteer, Stephanie Handler, ONE Field Organizer and Slim Jim Phantom, Cat Club owner)
Saturday morning was a cold one here in New Hampshire. I was up early as Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in town to give a speech in Manchester and greet some Granite State voters.
In the back room of a downtown theatre, I waited for my opportunity to speak with the mayor and let him know that when he comes to New Hampshire, he should be talking about global poverty and disease.
While I was waiting in the room, I ran into a few friends and ONE supporters at the event. Everyone was still talking about the president’s State of the Union speech and what they were doing to ensure that the president’s words become a reality. It seems that our issues and our message is really getting through to a lot of people here in the state.
Then the mayor walked in the room. He was surrounded by security, press and NH voters of all ages. When he finally made his way over to me, I was able to briefly speak with him and talk about what the ONE Campaign means and how we as Americans want more action to fight AIDS and poverty in the developing world. The mayor also brought up the State of the Union and when I gave him our ONE band, he put it on immediately!
I was proud to use my voice on behalf of the billion people that do not have a voice in the world. Here in New Hampshire, primary season has started much earlier than ever before, but by organizing and coming together as ONE, I am confident that we will make sure that the next President of the United States knows that we can and will make poverty history.
So put your white band on, bundle up, and speak out!
On Friday I went to the North Country of New Hampshire to a place called Bretton Woods. At Bretton Woods, in 1944 at the Mount Washington Hotel, the leaders of the free world gathered for a huge international conference on global economic stability.
After the greatest generation fought long and hard in the Second World War, they realized that poverty and disease in the world were not in country’s interest. So they held a conference at this hotel and created the IMF and the World Bank. These institutions, still called the Bretton Woods Institutions, were not designed to create economic prosperity, so much as they were a call for economic stability and security around the free world.
It is now up to us, the next great generation, to renew and realize the promise of a better world for all. An additional one percent of our money, spent wisely in effective ways like PEPFAR, the UN Global Fund and the Millennium Challenge, will help to reverse the spread of AIDS and make extreme poverty history. It will help transform a continent, and save the lives of millions.
Our efforts with ONE are rooted in science and in medicine; we are rooted in good will and in patriotism. But it is also important to recognize that our efforts are also rooted in history. It is important to look back and recognize the sacrifice that other generations made, and learn from the wise lessons they have passed on to us.
You can read from the plaques outside the Gold Room at the Mount Washington Hotel where the historic documents were signed, and American global leadership was proven to the world.
From Bretton Woods, NH, to Africa, and from the Greatest Generation, on to our generation, the promise of a better world lives on. We can do this…we are going to do this. Write letters to Congress, call down to DC, send an email to your elected leader. Prove what being an American is to the world.
Right now, Representatives Barbara Lee, Tom Lantos, and Donald M. Payne are circulating a “Dear Colleague letter asking President Bush to fully fund poverty-fighting aid in his 2008 budget request, saying:
“Despite greatly expanded efforts to address HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, all three diseases continue to grow and continue to kill in staggering numbers – with 6 million deaths attributed to these three diseases last year alone. Need based estimates indicate that nearly $30 billion is required in 2008 to provide prevention, care and treatment for these global pandemics. The United States has been a leader in addressing these three diseases, but the scale of these pandemics requires that we do even more.”
The letter requests $7.69 billion for the president’s fiscal year 2008 budget request, specifically, $5.1 billion for AIDS, $1.4 billion for the Global Fund, $750 million for tuberculosis and $440 million for malaria.
So far, 56 representatives have signed on. If you don’t see your representative’s name, call and ask him or her to sign the Dear Colleague letter asking President Bush to fully fund poverty-fighting aid in his 2008 budget request.
The deadline to sign is today.
Representatives who have signed the “2008 Budget HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Dear Colleague letter:”
- Allen (D- ME)
- Berkley (D – NV)
- Berman (D – CA)
- Blumenauer (D – OR)
- C. Brown (D – FL)
- Butterfield (D – NC)
- Capps (D – CA)
- Carnahan (D – MO)
- Carson (D – IN)
- Christensen ( D – Virgin Islands)
- Crowley (D – NY)
- Cummings (D – MD)
- S. Davis (D – CA)
- Delahunt (D – MA)
- Fattah (D – PA)
- A. Green (D – TX)
- G. Green (D – TX)
- Grijalva (D – AZ)
- Gutierrez (D – IL)
- Hare (D – IL)
- Hastings (R- WA)
- Holt (D – NJ)
- Jefferson (D – LA)
- EB Johnson (R – CT)
- Lantos (D – CA)
- Larsen ( – CT)
- Lee (D – CA)
- John Lewis (D – GA)
- Lipinski (D – IL)
- Lofgren (D – CA)
- Maloney (D -NY)
- McDermott (D – WA)
- McGovern (D – MA)
- Matsui (D – CA)
- Michaud (D – ME)
- Millender-McDonald (D – CA)
- G. Moore (D – WI)
- Nadler (D – NY)
- Olver (D – MA)
- Pastor (D – AZ)
- Payne (D – NJ)
- Rangel (D – NY)
- Rothman (D – NJ)
- Linda Sanchez (D – CA)
- Schakowsky (D – IL)
- Schwartz (D – PA)
- Shea-Porter (D – NH)
- A. Sires (D – NJ)
- Solis (D – CA)
- Stark (D – CA)
- Waters (D – CA)
- Watson (D- CA)
- Waxman (D – CA)
- Wexler (D – FL)
- Woolsey (D – CA)
- Wynn (D – MD)
For months, Weldon Kennedy, ONE’s “Internet Generalist” (read: ONE’s “Invaluable Internet Extraordinaire”), has woken up early to train for this coming Sunday’s Miami Marathon – all to raise money for the fight against HIV/AIDS.
This morning, to show our support, we presented Weldon with homemade ONE head and wrist sweatbands to wear for the 26.2 mile race. With great admiration, we wish him the best of luck!
Hi All.
I just returned from the final closing ceremony of the 2007 World Social Forum. It was an incredible day.
This morning, friends from the “Negi 1 Development Youth Group” brought us to the Huruma slums so that we could see how an inspirational alliance of young people have come together to transform their community. Since the group was formed in 1997, they have brought running water, microfinance, sanitation and community policy to their community – all based almost entirely on their own ingenuity and resources. They are a true example of what will and partnership can do.
From there, we marched through the surrounding Nairobi slums to the city center. Although we were all exhausted by the time we arrived, we were exhilarated. As an impressive line up of speakers spoke to the importance of issues such as debt cancellation, trade justice and improved resources for development – marchers danced and sang around Uhuru (Freedom) Park.
At one point, I was caught up in a sea of some 500 hundred women with AIDS singing a song I had often sung when working with Uganda’s AIDS Support Organization’s traveling music and drama group years ago. (I even ran into an old friend from the troupe.)
Needless to say, it was an incredibly special moment and a perfect way to end this forum. That said, I am now, perhaps more than ever, looking forward to returning home to continue pushing our movement forward with all of you!
In less than two weeks, President Bush will submit his request for the 2008 budget , a document that will shape the conversation about global poverty for the entire coming year.
Please take a moment to send a letter to President Bush asking him to fully fund the fight to end extreme poverty in his 2008 budget request.
During the president’s first six years in the White House, the U.S. government made great strides in the fight against global poverty, including tripling direct humanitarian and development assistance to Africa, creating the Millennium Challenge Account, and founding life-saving HIV/AIDS and malaria initiatives. But, even as America has increased our efforts, the scale of our response is still outpaced by the scale of these challenge. Tuesday, during his State of the Union address, the president re-affirmed his commitments to the fight against extreme poverty.
As ONE members, this is a critical moment to make sure that the White House’s bold vision can be realized.
Please take a moment to write to President Bush asking him to fight for developing-assistance aid in his 2008 budget request.
