Texans Tearing Up The Trail
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In the week leading up to this past Tuesday’s Texas primary, ONE members in Waco realized they had a unique opportunity to help in the fight against extreme poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
More than 30 volunteers came out throughout the week attending events for Governor Huckabee, and Senators Clinton and McCain. Armed with ONE T-shirts, homemade signs, and their passion for ONE’s issues – volunteers and made sure that the candidates from both parties knew that Texans want our next president to be a leader in fighting for the world’s poorest people.
On Thursday, February 28th volunteers attended the Mike Huckabee rally in Waco, Texas, where they were able to meet the governor. After talking to the candidate about fighting poverty around the world, the volunteers were also excited that they were able to meet Huckabee supporter Chuck Norris at the rally.
The next day more ONE volunteers came out for Senator Clinton’s rally where they had seats right in front so that the senator could see them with their ONE shirts and poverty-fighting signs.
Then on Monday, March 3rd, Senator McCain was in Waco for a town hall and again, ONE was there! Justin Kralemann, president of the Baylor University ONE Student group, attended and sent me this note:
We just got in from the McCain Town Hall, during his speech, the senator asked everyone in the meeting to look at me and my fellow ONE members who were present. He talked about ONE and how young Americans are working together for a great cause. All of the cameras turned to us in our ONE tee-shirts. When he opened it up for questions, he asked me to take 60 seconds to tell everyone what ONE was. I then thanked him on behalf of over 100,000 ONE members in Texas for going “On the Record†and if elected, to visit Africa in his first term.
Thanks to all the volunteers in Waco who came out to support ONE and the world’s poorest people. For the ONE supporters out there in Wyoming, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania, as your primaries near, keep an eye out for candidates coming to your city, because we also need you to hit the campaign trail as ONE!
-Kim Smith
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The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
The ONE Blog updates readers daily with the latest in global development news and analysis and what ONE members and our partners are doing around the world to influence world leaders in the fight against global poverty.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
March 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm
This huge ONE campaign saddens me as it seems to reflect the new american “charitable” concept, which is, don’t worry about going somewhere and helping, getting out and raising funds to help in an area you feel worthy, or giving of your own time and energy. Lets all focus on making the government do it. Even though we know doing it this way means half of everything collected will go to help pay salaries and expenses of organization leaders. Even though we know money raised this way often gets embezzled or mis-handled. It mankes americans “feel” like they are doing something without really doing anything. It is comparable to spending 40 hours into talking your brother into cleaning your neighbors yard. If you really feel strongly, you do it yourself. Of course, this organization apparantly believes everything in its neighborhood (USA) is hunky dory and in great shape and wants to go thousands of miles away.
March 7, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Just because we are fighting for a cause outside of the U.S. does not negate the problems we have in our country as well. Both can be fought for simultaneously. This is hardly a new “charitable” concept. People have been fighting for change in Africa for many years- its just the deserved attention is finally being noticed. ONE volunteers are going and doing to make changes stateside for Africa and other countries as well as on the ground in those countries. We are also just encouraging our government to put their money where their mouth is so to speak so that we can be even stronger for other countries less fortunate. The government push is only a small portion of what ONE does. I am proud to be a member of ONE and all that we do- as I know the thousands of other ONE volunteers are!
March 8, 2008 at 12:12 am
To say ONE members are not taking a hands on approach to solve these issues is indeed a misconstruded statement. As a member of the ONE campaign, I have traveled to Africa, Asia, and Europe. I have seen poverty first hand and the affects on men, women, and children. Through all of my time serving in countries on these continents, I have realized this issue will not be solved by simply working individually, but rather fighting it at the root of the cause. This means encouraging the global community to take action. So, I feel you are rather premature in saying we are simply complaining about issues and not doing anything about it in a hands on manner. Because I’m on my way to Mexico as we speak to spend my spring break serving people in poverty WHILE representing the goals of ONE. Perhaps you should reconsider your statement.
March 12, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I would like to echo what Justin said. I have served in America, Guatemala and Mexico, and will be working in Africa soon. Development and poverty alleviation are complicated subjects and cannot be addressed with only one approach. It is important to do hands-on, action oriented things to alleviate poverty, but advocacy and fundraising are also important. It is a trinity: Act, Educate, Fundraise. The ONE campaign does not focus solely on foreign aid, and seeks to unite aid groups here in America to help our neighbors as well. I encourage you to do a little more research about the goals and actions of the campaign before you make any broad and generalized statements about it.