Archive for July, 2007
This morning, New Hampshire Representative Paul Hodes endorsed Sen. Obama for president, and we made sure the poorest people on Earth were represented at the rally in Eagle Square in Concord.
Armed with ONE bands, a few ONE volunteers and I positioned ourselves on the top stairs to make sure our ONE shirts were seen by Sen. Obama and Congressman Hodes. But to our surprise, when they finally came out, both Sen. Obama and Rep. Hodes were already wearing ONE bands! Apparently some ONE members had already banded them, and Rep. Hodes’ wife Peggo ahead of time!
In his speech, Rep. Hodes talked about meeting Sen. Obama on a cold winter day in February in Eagle Square. Many ONE members who read this blog will recall that the ONE Campaign was there too, for a chance meeting Sen. Obama and how Rep. Hodes showed the senator his own ONE band while Melissa Skinner spoke with him about the need to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa.
During Sen. Obama’s speech he told the crowd that America was ready to work with the rest of the world on important global issues like stopping the genocide in Darfur and that we are “ready to lead on alleviating poverty and helping educate kids so that schools are built and they are not educated in hatred.”
There were a lot of people and Obama made his way through the crowd afterward. I was able to thank him for remembering the bottom billion people while campaigning up here in New Hampshire. I was also able to briefly talk with Rep. Hodes and thank him for wearing the ONE band back in February and today!
It is not everyday that you get to talk with a senator and a representative about the world’s poorest people. But here in New Hampshire, and across the nation, voters are realizing that ONE Vote ’08 is our opportunity to change the world and save millions of lives. By emailing, calling, and faxing Congress and by by creating a ONE Vote ’08 presence at political rallies, we are displaying a strong force and calling on our leaders to do what it takes to make poverty history.
The Fairness Amendment will be up first when the Farm Bill is on the floor this afternoon!
We only have one shot – so encourage everyone to make calls! (800) 786-2663
We especially need ONE members from California, Florida, New York, Michigan to call their representatives.
More when we have it.
-Erin Erlenborn, ONE’s Director of Government Relations
Those of us watching the House Agriculture Committee deliberations on the 2007 Farm Bill last week were privy to an elaborate show of smoke and mirrors. What was billed as reform was actually the opposite. Although we didn’t really think it was possible, the new Farm Bill proposed by the House Agriculture Committee actually takes our food and farm policy from bad to worse!
The proposed Farm Bill continues massive taxpayer support to the biggest and richest farmers, while doing little for small farmers, minority producers, anti-hunger programs, or the environment. It also continues to encourage overproduction and dumping of agriculture surpluses, such as cotton, on developing country farmers who are struggling to lift themselves out of poverty. THIS IS NOT REFORM. In fact, the Committee has sold out American family farmers to the highest bidder and left struggling farmers in poor countries in the dust.
Call me naïve, but I still have some hope that the House of Representatives is going to do the right thing and vote for a reformed Farm Bill on Thursday. In fact, a bipartisan amendment will be introduced to shift funds from trade-distorting subsidies to other priorities, such as food stamps, conservation, and programs that help minority and socially disadvantaged farmers. If approved, it will help us take important first steps on a new course toward real reform of family farm and food policy.
Together with a diverse group of allies, we’re calling on every member of the House of Representatives to vote yes on the “Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment,” which will shift funds from trade-distorting subsidies to other domestic priorities and it will help poor farmers abroad too!
Join us and call on your Representative to vote in support of a reformed Farm Bill!!!
-Laura Rusu, press officer, Oxfam America, and ONE member.
Mitt Romney made a campaign stop at the Puritan Restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire today. ONE member Andrea Synborski and I were able to talk with Gov. Romney about global disease and global poverty before he headed in for a town hall meeting.
Andrea mentioned that fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa was an important issue to her as a young Republican and spoke of President Bush’s work leading US efforts. Gov. Romney commented how Bush had just proposed 30 billion dollars over the next 5 years to help prevent and treat the spread of global AIDS. I was able to talk with the governor about how I have repeatedly heard him call for a “Second Marshall Plan” that would reach out to marginalized countries around the world and address issues of humanitarian care and basic education. I told him that actions like that show the rest of the world the type of people we Americans are.
During the stop, Gov. Romney was asked to sign an autograph book from a young NH child. She asked him to name three good role models for her. Gov. Romney responded by telling her: “Ronald Reagan – he was a President, Bono – lead singer of the group U2 for his work to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa, and Franklin Graham – a religious figure”. Although I do not think the girl knew who any of those people were, I gave her a ONE band and explained how the ONE Campaign works to fight disease and poverty in extremely poor places around the world.
Gov. Romney made his way to the exit and we told him to “save lives in Africa” on his way out. He smiled at us and told us he would do his best.
Bread for the World CEO David Beckmann, our ally and favorite new video star, is pulling out all the stops in this new YouTube video.
In it he asks us all to call our representatives in Congress before noon tomorrow to ask them to support the Fairness Amendment for the Farm Bill.
Get to it people!
ONE Vote ’08 grew in numbers in and excitement in Iowa today!
-At RAGBRAI, the annual bike ride across in Iowa, we signed up new members, banded people, and bike riders and spectators wore ONE shirts all over town.
-Chris Matthews taped an interview with Lance Armstrong with ONE supporters in the background. The members wore ONE shirts and placards and Chris even signed our ONE wristband! MSNBC will be rebroadcast it at 7 PM.
-Tonight ONE will have a great presence at a local Blues Traveler and The Nadas concert. A ‘The Nadas’ band members will have a ONE Vote ’08 shirt on during the performance and will mention ONE on stage.
You never know who you are going to run into on Main Street during Primary Season in New Hampshire. This is why I always travel with ONE bands in my pocket.
Today, Sen. McCain made a brief appearance in a downtown Nashua restaurant to talk with voters. I made the stop with a few ONE members to show support for the ONE Vote ’08.
I noticed Mayor Bernie Streeter and Commander Dalianis in the crowd (both are NH ONE Ambassadors), and a few local business owners that were at our ONE launch. ONE member, and staunch conservative, Kevin Keefe came with me and so did ONE member Brandon Laws who will be interning with Gov. Richardson this summer.
While wearing his ONE band, Kevin approached Sen. McCain and told him that he is a conservative that supports the ONE Campaign and noted President Bush’s past efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty. He told Sen. McCain that it was important to reform the Farm Bill, especially the cotton payments, to allow the poorest people on Earth a way to trade out of poverty.
Brandon told Sen. McCain that it was important to save lives in Africa and offered him a ONE band. But Sen. McCain refused it. Instead he pulled up his sleeve and showed us the ONE band he was already wearing! He even told Brandon “Did you think I would let you catch me without wearing this”?
We were all stunned and thanked the senator for wearing the ONE band and urged him to fight global disease and global extreme poverty.
Afterward Brandon told me, “It makes you feel good to know that no matter where you fall in the political spectrum, there are candidates on both sides of the fence that are willing to fight to make the world better by supporting the work of ONE and by helping us put an end to extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa.
