Banding McCain for Live TV

Jul 7th, 2007 5:30 PM UTC
By Matthew Bartlett

Sen. McCain was making a major policy speech in Concord on Friday so I went with some ONE members to represent the bottom billion people in the world.

When I first started wearing the ONE band, everyone would ask me what the white band was on my wrist. But now, after launching ONE Vote ’08 here in New Hampshire, whenever I go with ONE members to attend candidate events people always flash me their ONE bands! It’s great to see how so many people have taken to the message, and mission of the ONE Campaign and ONE Vote ’08 no matter what candidate they support.

ONE member Jayne Millerick and I spoke with the senator about the Farm Bill and how US cotton payments distort, and devastate African agricultural markets. Sen. McCain seemed very supportive of efforts to reform the bill, and allow the poorest people on Earth the chance to bring their goods to market. We even discussed recent efforts to cap the excessive cotton payments, (many ONE members know this effort as the Grassley-Dorgan Amendment). It was a great exchange.

I gave the senator a ONE band and he put it on immediately. He even wore it for the rest of the day and during a CSPAN broadcast. In fact, the local paper, the Concord Monitor, got a photo of Jayne and me talking with him.”

TAGS: ONE Vote 08, The ONE Blog