June 13th, 2008 at 10:40 am | posted by Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer
Sen. McCain held a town hall meeting back here in the Granite State yesterday. And just like we did for every candidate from both parties during the NH Primary, ONE was there to help represent for the poorest people on Earth.
As soon as Sen. McCain came to the stage, he spotted our ONE group in the crowd and recognized ONE and had us stand up in front of everyone. Later on during the town hall meeting, I raised my hand to ask Sen. McCain to support the new global AIDS bill, called PEPFAR, that is currently being considered in the Senate. NH’s own Sen. Sununu was there too, who is helping to pass this critical and life saving US response to the global AIDS pandemic.
Good people from both sides of the political aisle are taking brave and bold steps to help pass the new PEPFAR bill in the Senate before the G8 summit meeting. But it will take all the efforts of ONE members everywhere to make sure that our leaders know that it is not only possible to prevent and treat the spread of HIV/AIDS…it is also a priority!
You can go here to encourage your senators to officially co-sponsor PEPFAR, and you go here to sign a petition to Senators Reid and McConnell urging them to use their leadership to unstick the legislation and move it to the Senate floor.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm | posted by Josh Chernila, ONE Online Communities Coordinator
Yesterday, I attended John McCain’s speech at the University of Denver. I was accompanied by two other ONE members, Matthew McAllister and Lydia Van Vleet. Before the speech, we spread the word about ONE with those sitting around us. It was great to share information about an organization that we are so passionate about and it was awesome to see the people we talked to show their support and thank us for what we were doing.
An hour and half later, after speaking with several campaign organizers and state senators about ONE, it was time for the speech. Senator McCain walked out and immediately recognized us in our ONE shirts. He stopped to thank us for coming as he shook our hands. Before he started his speech, he took a moment to recognize us as he said: “As I always do, I’d like to recognize our young people from the organization called ONE […] the epitome of what young America is all about.” (Link to clip on CNN.) On his way out, McCain stopped to thank us for coming. Overall, it was a great experience and I was proud to represent the ONE Campaign.
-Allie Mills, ONE CU-Boulder and Denver ONE
P.S.: This morning we were pleasantly surprised to see the picture above on the front page of the Denver Post. Apparently the Associated Press passed the picture around and a number of papers including the Denver Post and the Washington Post picked it up.
Yesterday afternoon Sen. John McCain came back to Iowa for a townhall in Des Moines; it was his first time in the state since he’s clinched the Republican Party nomination.
I attended the 500+ person event with follow ONE volunteers to make sure that Sen. McCain remembered ONE and the fight to end extreme poverty during the general campaign. Shortly after taking the stage Sen. McCain recognized the many people in the crowd wearing ONE T-shirts, and asked me to stand up. I was already seated on the stage behind him, so I was facing the crowd. Sen. McCain spoke about the ONE Campaign and why he supports what we do. He then handed the microphone over and asked me to speak a little about ONE.
First, I thanked Sen. McCain for his sharing his plans for fighting malaria last week. (All the candidates released statements) and I explained ONE’s non-partisan efforts to educate and raise awareness about extreme poverty around the globe to the hundreds of Iowans at the event.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:56 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
Bono was just on Idol GIves Back encouraging everyone to sign up at ONE.org, saying: “Tonight, save a life. Tomorrow, change the world.”
After, the three current presidential candidates spoke about the importance of fighting poverty. In December, ONE members sent tens of thousands of petitions and got all the candidates to go on the record with their plans to combat global poverty.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:01 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
ONE Vote ‘08 has sent field staff to key swing states to raise the issue of global poverty at the candidates’ events leading up to the election. Below posts from Tyler in Pennsylvania and Jedidiah in Florida.
Well, I just landed here in Pennsylvania and I’ve already hit the ground running. On April 4, a panel of Senator Obama’s senior foreign policy advisors met at the University of Pennsylvania to discuss Senator Obama’s positions on foreign affairs. While many of the questions focused on the War in Iraq, relations with China, Russia, and Pakistan, and the tension between international law and national security, one question did address issues of concern to ONE.
Dr. Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, responded to a question on economic development and combating major disease in Africa, especially in light of Senator Obama’s personal connections to the continent. She said America and the world had been “ill-served by relegating Africa to the back burner” because it is in our strategic and security interests to be involved on the continent. She said Senator Obama would pursue a more “holistic” approach, addressing “trans-national” security challenges, from terrorism and proliferation to disease and environmental degradation. She claims that one of Senator Obama¹s unique foreign policy insights was the recognition that “our national security depends on the security of people in every corner of the globe.” She said as president, Senator Obama would double foreign aid and would work to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure in developing countries.
-Tyler Bond, ONE Vote ‘08 field organizer, Pennsylvania
Friday was my first day and I had the job of going to a McCain roundtable event in Pensacola, Florida, and making sure the poorest in the world weren’t forgotten at the event.
At the event I was able to reach out to Republican leaders in the panhandle for the ONE Campaign and the global fight against extreme poverty. Clay Williams the Republican Field Staff for the Panhandle and Clay Ingram the Chairman of the Escambia County Republican Executive Committee received our platform well. I am excited to work with them in the future.
-Jedidiah Hall, ONE Vote ‘08 field organizer, Florida
March 27th, 2008 at 3:35 pm | posted by Josh Lozman
Throughout this year’s presidential campaign, the three remaining candidates have all discussed their plans to fight malaria. Malaria is the largest killer of children of under 5 in Africa. Each year, the disease claims the lives of more than 1 million people globally each year and makes between 300 and 500 million extremely ill.
Yesterday, Senator John McCain reiterated his commitment to establish the goal of eradicating malaria at a speech at the LA World Affairs Council. Senator McCain had previously announced this in an article in Foreign Affairs.
Several months ago, Senator Hillary Clinton announced a plan to eliminate deaths on the continent on Africa at a speech at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. She committed to spend $1 billion per year towards this goal.
Senator Barack Obama has committed to doubling funding for the President’s Malaria Initiative as well as lift a cap on the United States contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Malaria is a disease that we know how to stop. Bed nets and indoor spraying of houses with insecticides coupled with prophylactic and curative treatments are all inexpensive and highly effective ways to prevent transmission of the disease and prevent severe illness or death in those that do get. The fight against malaria is primed for an increased fight and ONE is pleased that the presidential candidates have given it so much attention. ONE will continue encouraging the candidates to discuss their commitments on malaria and tackle other critical global development challenges.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:36 pm | posted by Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer
Wednesday, Sen. McCain returned to NH to hold a town hall meeting and thank the people of New Hampshire. ONE Vote ‘08 members made it out on the trail one more time for help raise our voices for the poorest people on Earth. We had ONE members in the front rows, in the balcony, and a few even on stage.
As soon as Sen. McCain came on stage he noticed us in our ONE shirts and thanked us for being there and he even had ONE’s Marine Michael Castaldo stand and recognized him in front of everyone.
After a few questions, Sen. McCain spoke about ONE and had the microphone passed to Michael. Michael spoke about ONE and mentioned NH’s Senator Sununu’s efforts to restore and secure billions to the International Affairs Budget. Check it out:
As the town hall ended, I was able to speak directly with Sen. Joe Lieberman and told him about the Biden-Lugar Amendment to restore 4.1 billion dollars of critical life saving funds to the Budget. He told me that he would support it and to count him in. (The amendment passed, with his vote, at 1 a.m. today.)
And as Sen. McCain made his way to his campaign bus, ONE member Emerson Lennon was able to make it through the crowd to reach him right before he took off.
March 7th, 2008 at 10:32 am | posted by Kim Smith, ONE Regional Field Organizer
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!
March 5th, 2008 at 2:11 pm | posted by Josh Lozman
Yesterday’s New York Times prominently featured an article describing the debate in the public health community about what are appropriate goals for the fight against malaria. Goals for fighting malaria vary between improving access to control and prevention measures and full eradication of the disease. Full eradication of the disease would mean that no person has the disease, but also that it exists nowhere, except as the New York Times notes, in a laboratory. This was last accomplished with smallpox when the last naturally occurring case of smallpox was recorded in 1977 in Somalia. Smallpox was certified eradicated in 1980.
The most recent round of discussions were sparked late last year when Bill and Melinda Gates called for a push towards eradication at a conference they held in Seattle. Despite the excitement created for such an initiative, the announcement enlivened debate among the scientific community about whether eradication is a realistic goal to set for the community and the potential disappointment of setting the goal and not reaching it. Smallpox had a unique set of credentials that made it a candidate for eradication, including that it could only be carried by humans rather than be primarily carried by mosquitoes in the case of malaria.
The past several years have seen a rapid increase in funding for fighting malaria. Spending from the United States, the Global Fund and World Bank on malaria from 2001 to 2003 was only $348 million. From 2004 to 2006, this number rose to just over $1 billion. The current version of the PEPFAR bill just recently agreed to in the House called for $5 billion in spending on malaria over the next 5 years from the United States alone. This would fund the United States’ proportionate share of the global estimates to achieve universal access to control and prevention for those living in endemic countries. Senators Clinton, McCain, and Obama have all committed to significantly ramp up the United States’ spending on malaria if elected president.
Though the debate about eradication versus control is one that is largely restricted to academic settings and concerns about setting realistic expectations, it is one that is likely to increasingly play out in the public discourse as the United States moves to spend more on fighting this disease.
The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, volunteers, members and coalition partners.
The content of each post and each comment represent the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ONE Campaign or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any posts expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
