On Friday, I traveled waaaay north in New Hampshire, and through a surprise snowstorm, to see and hear President Bill Clinton campaign for Hillary…and make sure that he heard from ONE Vote ‘08 while he was in the Granite State.

Before the principal of White Mountains Regional High School introduced President Clinton, he told a quick story about President Clinton’s and President Bush’s speech at the 2007 UNH Graduation Ceremony. He said that one of the biggest things that struck him during President Clinton’s speech was when he spoke about a rural tribe in Africa. In that tribe, when someone greets another person, they respond in their native language with what is translated in English to mean, “I see you” – a recognition of a person’s humanity and an affirmation of each other. I thought this was also a fitting notion for our work with the ONE Campaign, as we use our collective voices for those that do not have such a voice in the global community.

After a brief speech, President Clinton made his way through the crowd and I was able to speak with him and remind him that Bretton Woods, NH, was just down the road, the place where the free world gathered in 1944 and the roots of the Marshall Plan were created. I told him that it was important to renew that Bretton Woods promise by fighting AIDS, Malaria and TB in Africa today, and we discussed his own efforts in the most desperate places on Earth.

From the snowy mountains here in New Hampshire, all the way to sub-Saharan Africa, people are realizing that we can save lives and beat extreme poverty, when we come together as ONE.

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer