Dear Erin, 
  


Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this week’s DNC as a ONE delegate – it was a blast!!  My husband and I stopped by the ONE bus and participated in the ONE Service Project at Manual High School, where I got to meet David Lane and see Dana Buck, my old friend from World Vision.  It felt so good to be a part of the caregiver kit project – Josh from Daughtry told me in the assembly line that it meant a lot to him to do something so meaningful.

At our morning delegation breakfast meeting on Wednesday, I spoke about ONE and distributed wrist bands to our entire WA State delegation.  People were very interested, and I encouraged them to join the movement.  There are a couple of photos attached of us wearing ONE gear at the convention, and a friend sent me this link to a photo from MSNBC, where I was hugging my fellow delegate, Moe Spencer, after Barack Obama was proclaimed the nominee by acclamation:

Thanks so much for all that you do, and for being at both the DNC and RNC – ONE’s issues should matter to all of us, and I’m so proud to be a part of the movement to eradicate global poverty and disease.

Greetings to Josh Peck and Jamie Drummond too! 
  


Sincerely Yours, 

Lori Macklin 

Obama National Delegate 

Washington State

Local volunteers Brooke and Dana working the ONE Bus.

Darren & Lindsey from Littleton, CO, working the service project.

ONE volunteer Joe Marsh is signing Delegates up as they wait for their credentials.

And one of many volunteers who walked the 16th St. Mall in Denver and signed up new members to ONE.

Greetings from the Democratic National Convention in Denver!   I am excited to be here this week for the nomination of Barack Obama and Joe Biden to be the next President and Vice President of the United States.  This week is the culmination of an historic race that has brought millions of voters to the polls – many voting for the first time.
The ONE Campaign knows firsthand about how to energize people for action.  They are building a global movement, inspiring millions of people – both young and old – to raise awareness for the challenges facing Africa.  We know that inside maneuvering cannot be successful without outside mobilization.  The ONE Campaign is a model of effective mobilization to support the cause of ending extreme poverty and disease in the poorest countries of the world.

Young people all over the world are making their voices heard – through conversations, emails, and blogs – about their hopes for a brighter future – of their desire for peace and prosperity.  They are weary of war, poverty, and disease.  They are demanding a brighter future for themselves and all the citizens of the world.   It is the impatience of youth that gives me hope.

Everywhere I travel, the call is clear: the world needs America to lead.  We must reclaim our rightful place in the community of nations, with a sustainable foreign policy that reflects American values.  We must have goals as ambitious as the risks we face.  We must be at the forefront of the fight against the long-term conditions that breed poverty, disease, instability and environmental degradation. 

The moral case is reason alone to act, but as we have seen in the cases of Afghanistan and Sudan, failed states can become fertile grounds for terrorism and conflict.  In a world of accelerating globalization, we have a more urgent responsibility to address poverty and disease so that the “fury of despair” does not provoke more violence and suffering.  We know from experience that it is much easier to address these problems now than to reconstruct a state after a conflict.
Across the developing world, the AIDS pandemic has destroyed the very fabric nations, devastated the most productive members of these societies, discouraged economic development, and orphaned 13 million children.  Few crises have called out more for sustained, constructive America leadership.  In recent years, the U.S. made great progress in fighting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.  We have helped:

• provide life-saving anti-retroviral treatment to almost 1.5 million people;
• support care for nearly 6.7 million including more than 2.7 orphans and vulnerable children; and
• support prevention of more than 150,000 infant infections.

One of the most important initiatives of the new Democratic Majority in Congress was passing the Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act.

The legislation authorizes $48 billion to fight global AIDS, TB, and malaria, and will move us from the emergency phase to the sustainability phase in our efforts.  Our leadership in fighting the global AIDS pandemic is our compact with developing nations across the globe.  It says that America stands with them in this fight, that our commitment will not waver, and shows them America’s true face of compassion.

Our next President must go further in addressing the fight against poverty and disease in the developing world.  As the Speaker of the House, I look forward to working closely with the new administration in this fight.  The ONE Campaign will be a key participant in as we move forward to build a brighter future for the poorest people in the world.

-Nancy Pelosi

And like any proud ONE member, she’s wearing her ONE shirt!

So, keep an eye out for her and post a comment here if you see her.

Thanks Megan for making sure ONE is seen and thanks to all ONE members for making sure our issues are heard by so many in Washington and across the country.

Yesterday afternoon, I attended the National Democratic Institute’s global poverty panel at the DNCC. It was moderated by Gayle Smith, who’s a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

The speakers were:

Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State and NDI chairman
Ben Affleck, actor, director, and advocate
Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development
John J. Danilovich, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Account
Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader and Co-Chair of ONE Vote ’08
Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy
Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, vice president of the Africa Region of the World Bank
Donald Payne, U.S. representative
Tim Wirth, former U.S. senator, and CEO of the United Nations Foundation
James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank.

Josh Lozman of our policy staff is going to be sending in a post about the panel a little later.

I also took a small camera with me and shot some simple video, so I’ll post a couple clips here to give you a sense of what it was like to be in the room. The 1st is of Senator Tom Daschle answering a question about his recent trip with ONE through Rwanda.

This second one is of Ben Affleck talking about his new perspective after having visited Africa- and what he thinks that new perspective means for how we should message effectively. After, President of the Center for Global Development Nancy Birdsall talks about the incredible progress we’ve seen.

Kanye West will be playing and we’re expecting some very famous and influential people to attend.

ONE has been seeing a lot of national press because of the party and we’re hoping the event will help bring the issue of global poverty to the forefront of this convention.

To prep- we’ve gone through these old Biden materials. Check out this one of ONE members meeting with him in Las Vegas during the primaries.

UPDATE: Event with Senator Joe Biden

Who: Senator Joe Biden
What: Voter rally
When: Friday 10/17 at 4:30pm
Where: Morell Park – 525 Harris St. Henderson, NV 89015

To RSVP click here: http://www.one.org/event/GeneralEvent/655

Right now, volunteers are running off to prepare kits for AIDS caregivers around the world.

The kits include simple items like wash cloths, cotton balls, soap, petroleum jelly. The kinds of things we take for granted everyday in America. And the kinds of things that can literally save lives around the world. Each bag of cotton balls, for example, will be washed and re-used for months.

I’m attaching photos below. They include photos of the supplies, assembly lines and packing up. Note the ones of people writing notes, every kit includes a handwritten note from the volunteer who assembled it – to the caregiver who will receive it.

I’m taking a bunch of video now too, but have to wait until I have silghtly better Internet to upload them.

A lot of people have come by to learn about ONE and sign up for the cause. Here’s a sampling of the foot traffic.

Below, a couple of alternate delegates from New Mexico came by. They said they’d be on the convention floor tomorrow and will be wearing their new ONE shirts.

Here, a set of 3 delegates from Nevada came by to pick up some ONE materials.

A couple more pics of visitors coming by.

And this one is my favorite. ONE staff and volunteers were busy, so our new Alternate-Delegate-from-New Mexico friends introduced these three newbies to ONE.

I managed to catch some of it on camera. First I’ll profile 3 of our volunteers: Erika, Monica and Allie.

Erika (below) and I chatted for a bit. She told me that she first heard about ONE 2 years ago from an email – and has been a big supporter ever since. This is the first time she’s been able to volunteer in-person – I’m excited to see more of her around the convention.

Monica is also a local volunteer. Here she is getting ready to head out to the 16th St. Mall in Denver to spread the word about ONE. Yesterday, she walked the “delegate-credentialing” line and signed up new ONE delegates for us. She was even able to get to hand some ONE lit and a ONE band to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

And local volunteer Allie also came by and was kind enough to pose for me by our bus.

-Virginia Simmons