Laconia with Obama

Jul 3rd, 2007 12:30 PM UTC
By Matthew Bartlett

Presidential hopeful, Senator Barack Obama came to New Hampshire yesterday to meet with voters and talk with them about his ideas for our country. I went to Laconia, NH, with a few ONE members, in ONE shirts, and (RED) shirts, to make sure that the world’s poorest people – that live on less than a dollar a day and die needlessly from “stupid” extreme poverty – were represented at the event.

During Obama’s stump speech, he said that America was ready to lead on global challenges and spoke about fighting HIV/AIDS and global poverty. It was good to hear Senator Obama talk about these issues on the campaign trail, but even better to hear the enthusiastic response from the crowd when he mentioned it.

After the event, the crowd, (and secret service), swarmed around the senator and it was hard to reach him. But as he made his way, I yelled out to him “Thank you for not forgetting the bottom billion people in the world”! His head shot around and he turned at me and thanked me. I told him how important it was to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa. He extended his hand to me through the crowd and I made sure to slip him a ONE band that he immediately recognized.

Later in the day, ONE member Stefany Shaheen was able to attend a private house party with Senator Obama and noted that he repeated the call for America to fight global AIDS and abject poverty. He said that as Americas, we are expected to lead the world in these challenges because of the beneficial force for good that our nation represents around the world.

In New Hampshire and all across America, people are realizing that we can save millions of lives in dire places like Africa. Through targeted aid, responsible debt relief, and improved trade conditions, we can stand -not as a parent, but as a true partner in development- with new and struggling democracies in Africa that are willing to fight corruption and take steps to put resources in basic education and survival healthcare.

In 2007, we know how to do this, good people on both sides of the oceans (and both sides of the aisle), are making brave and bold decisions to lift millions out of poverty and create a better and safer world for all. We can make poverty history, and it starts with you.

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Field Organizer

TAGS: Barack Obama, ONE Vote 08, The ONE Blog