ACT On Principles

Putting principles into action, I am joining a New York road trip for immigration equality organized by the New York Immigration Coalition and Reform Immigration for America. The invitation to me and reception to our cause and participation has already been a huge indication of the openness of the mainstream immigration community to a big tent approach. Let’s roll.

Todd (Tif) Fernandez
p.s. I’ll be trying to twitter at: @tif509
Or it can be followed at: @ciir2010

http://www.nyimmigrationreform.org/blog/meet-more-riders-

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release — JUNE 28, 20#!

‘THE UNITED STATES ENDS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE LGBT COMMUNITY’

On this truly historic day, President Barak Obama has signed into law The American Equality and Non-Discrimination Bill, the crowning jewel of his remarkable Presidency.

“The era of overt discrimination against LGBT Americans is over” exclaimed the President in a signing ceremony held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a brilliant day in June overlooking an ocean of rainbows as far as the eyes could see.

This most remarkable of humanitarian victories unfolded through an uncommon vision launched by drafters of the first omnibus bill, back in 2009. Now signed into law, The American Equality Act, in one gigantic push has added sexual orientation and gender identity to every protective law and wiped out inequality in every state.

“In no one’s wildest imaginary dreams did we believe we would pass this bill so fast” said The Coalition, a group of grassroots independent activists who filed the bill in 2010. “We never dreamed the American people would join our fight like they did.”

When asked what they will do now, one blue-eyed veteran tearful with joy replied: “Retire with dignity!” While at the same time, a glowing-eyed teenager shouted: “Be equal!”

_____ _____ _____ ______

LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN: http://tinyurl.com/aeb2010file

Yours in cause, Tif

http://tinyurl.com/aeb2010file

Oh boy – things are freaky in Massachusetts!!! It’s not April Fools, nor Halloween, but it is a day of reckoning, or so it seems.

Remarkably, Scott Brown (R)’s website has this for his position on gay marriage: “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. States should be free to make their own laws in this area, so long as they reflect the people’s will as expressed through them directly, or as expressed through their elected representatives.”

Nevertheless he’s ahead in the polls, having closed a 15 point lead in Massachusetts’ impromptu Senate election to replace a liberal Hero. Marthy Coakley (D), the highly regarded Attorney General is the anointed one who was ahead until people got to know her in reportedly one of the worst campaigns ever.

A good friend and seasoned political operative told me why, and it’s such a great story I don’t want to verify it: “If you type “Marthy Coakley” on the web the first result is: “Scott Brown for Senate”. Ok, I checked – and on my system in NY it didn’t, but she’s in MA so who knows, and she was very serious.

The whole matter seems to remind her of an inappropriate Dan Aykroyd reference, and glancing at other websites about the campaign, I saw similar. Ouch.

My friend then rattled off a litany of bad choices and moments that got worse and worse. Supposedly Coakley remains in denial about her campaign’s failure to connect with the electorate, they evidently are still over estimating both the loyalty to Ted Kennedy’s legacy, and her ability to capitalize on it, and she’s lost debates on due process for terrorist suspects and abortion, gone negative in ads in off-putting ways, etc., etc., etc.

“Ted Kennedy was Ted Kennedy. Like Elvis Presley was EP.” my friend reminds me. “That’s over.” I argue this could be necessary to stimulate the base to vote, and that Kennedy is the best angle for that. But given my friend’s insistence that no one cares (at least in mid-state), I wonder.

Health care reform in Washington is also not firing, with 51% of the state opposing reform, because some states see themselves worse off? So saving Kennedy’s dream is not a strong sell, and thus, nor is casting Brown as the anti-health care devil. It’s not helping that the Democrats keep insisting that the seat still belongs to Kennedy and in-directly to them. Brown answered that the “seat belonged to the people” and that resonated like a touch down, carried by the truth. Massachusetts doesn’t like being told what to do or think. They are 1/3 independents, a smart bunch and not that emotional.

But a bad campaign does not make a bad Senator, and by many accounts Marthy Coakley, Esquire was a good Attorney General and would make a strong Senator for our concerns. But frankly, that’s almost irrelevant at this point.

WE the PEOPLE need Senator Coakley (D-MA).

We need to win this race to support the Obama Presidency that our community worked so hard for AND for the LGBTIQ Movement which is now facing it’s greatest moment. We need this to rebuke all the opposition building against this President AND his support for our agenda. We need to prove that the message of change can work when given reasonable time. This is no joke.

Fair or not, this race has become a ridiculous one-year referendum on the Obama Presidency. While not perfectly, President Obama has demonstrated unprecedented courage for change. But changing a Monolith of the size of the US Government is a herculean task. Just imagine if you were changing something about your own work operation, then multiply by millions of employees and back seat drivers.

I see an apocalypse if we loose this. It may domino the mid-terms, at which point the game is over or radically altered. The idea of change will suffer, our fight against corporate control of government will suffer, our struggle will loose almost every advantage it just gained moments ago after a decade of despair. The hope we are just beginning to muster will splinter into fear — or so says my gut and my own fear-mongering instinct.

Of course maybe a loss, if it happens, would force Obama to respond to his base, to be less timid and conciliatory on matters of principle, and to move faster, i.e., to start operating like he only has one term. Maybe this will create the lion we need. But more likely, a loss in MA would mean a deeper strategy of caution. Either way, it will have us on the defensive, and we do not need to lose to learn lessons from the close call — hopefully.

We can not let slip the new dream we celebrated so recently.

The opening statement above from Scott Brown reveals a major troubling truth: He does not believe in the role of the Judiciary in resolving the question of our human right to equality. His logic leads us to a US Constitutional Amendment fight and if we loose that, to drastic action. While it may come down to this one day, we can not afford to have elected officials from Massachusetts paving the way.

Let the people speak now – when it matters so vitally and when it is appropriate to vote.

A new perfect storm of bad timing is unfolding in Massachusetts where popular frustration is meeting party arrogance is meeting a campaign problem. But as we look to the horizon, we must keep our eyes on the prize, and ride each wave on course.

This coming Tuesday, January 19, 2010 is an important day for our movement. I pray that everyone who can votes enthusiastically. That everyone who can not vote, helps encourage others to vote for them. And that our community gathers Tuesday in common spirit and intention to manifest equality for all now.

Organizing for America is calling for phone banking (see below).

The President is asking us for help supporting Marthy Coakley.

President Obama is our greatest hope at the moment, and we need to have his back.

On Tuesday – our equality is on the chopping block and it’s the devil of impatience (not Brown) verses the democrats.

Vote early and often.
Tif, (former MA resident 83-02).

p.s. Here is the OFA phonebanking info:

The race for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts is coming down to the wire.

And if Martha Coakley loses, her opponent could be that final Senate obstructionist the Republicans need to defeat health reform and the rest of President Obama’s agenda.

We need to do everything we can to make sure voters know how important their vote for Coakley is — and that they get to the polls Tuesday.

So I need you to keep calling voters in Massachusetts — or start today if you haven’t yet. Click here to log-in and start making calls.

And this time, we’re going to do it a little differently.

On Sunday, supporters from around the country will call in to a national conference call.

We’ll recognize the top callers from today (Saturday), talk about what we’re about to do, get the lay of the land from some folks in Massachusetts right now, and set some big goals for each other.

And then we’ll get calling.

Can you join us for a conference call at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 17th, followed by a round of calls to Massachusetts?
RSVP

It’ll be a fun way to start our calling off with others around the country — and it could well make the difference in the fight for health reform.

The call-in Number is (712) 432-0075, and the participant code is 404-284.

Please sign up for your call, and submit any questions you’d like:

http://ma.barackobama.com/MAn2nCall

Let’s finish this,

Jeremy

Jeremy Bird
Deputy Director
Organizing for America

P.S. — There will also be a conference call at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. You can sign up for whichever is more convenient for you here: http://ma.barackobama.com/MAn2nCall

Among the mourning and applause a year after Prop. 8 last broke our hearts, peppered calls for a national strategy are again in the air.   Three ideas that caught my eye are:

1. We need to analyze this tactical change in attack ads in CA & ME – back to Anita Bryant and child abuse – and get underneath it and around it.
2. We need a cultural campaign outside of legislative issues; and
3. We need a strong counter-offensive directed at our opponents and their fundraising (the religious ones especially).

But in order to do these types of things, we need to have a national movement strategy.   For this, we need a dialog forum that we do not yet have.    Meanwhile, we fly scattered and blind.

While there is some hope that Equality Across America will eventually provide such a platform, we cannot wait.   ENDA is on deck with hearings in the House and we do not have a national campaign to deliver the missing votes.

UnitedENDA.org -  a coalition for ENDA – presents a prime opportunity to begin exactly this type of conversation.   But there are major problems with its structure.   The group does not disclose how it is operated, i.e., who is setting legislative strategy, and there is no public process – for the 400 plus organizations who have “signed on” – ostensibly to communicate and work with one another.    Essentially, it’s a “contact-your-legislator” bulletin board, not a full campaign, not a democratic coalition, and certainly not a forum for discussion.

Yet, on the site there is an excellent ENDA Toolkit which has a great piece on “Coalition Building” on pg 22-23 (www.thetaskforce.org/enda07/ENDAtoolkit_c4.pdf) – which emphasizes “regular meetings with organizational partners,” “creating a safe space for strategic action planning and brainstorming,” and insists in capital letters that we “LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN” to one another.

When I found it, I was momentarily overjoyed, and then baffled, once again confronted with the elitist “do as we say, not as we do” conundrum.   Clearly they get the idea, but why is it then, that they have yet to apply it to the coalition?   Or more broadly, on a national strategic level, why have the national organizations exempted themselves from their own coalition advice?   If there are strategic reasons for this double standard, those deserve to be publicly vetted as well, but no one seems inclined to open this debate in earnest.

Indeed, a recent conference call confirms that this is not the intention of those controlling the UnitedENDA coalition.  For example, there was more openness to the ActOnPrinciples.org Public Whip Count from Representative Baldwin, than from the inside coalition legislative team.   While AOP consults with the Congresswoman comparing Whip notes, the coalition inside team deflects interest in the option, supposedly based on person opinions of that strategy.

Yet, there is no mechanism in the coalition to discuss whether to use a Public Whip count to rally the missing votes – or not.   And this is only one example.  With a fully scripted call, there was no group strategy discussion to inspire excitement and collective action.  And no process.   Just a tight lid, on an old pot.

What a waste of 400 coalition partners, and no-wonder only 30 or so were on the call.   Imagine what it could be with 4000 coalition partners actually engaged in a discussion about preparing for a vote on ENDA, while also building a campaign for our human dignity.   Of course, this idea scares old-school legislative experts, like the original founders were afraid of true democracy.   But the people affected by this cause deserve to be heard.

The post-march energy is out there morphing, and its source is expanding.  Umbrella groups are sprouting up, regional conferences forming, state-to-state support growing, and even the awkward focus on district organizing has some life.  Local PFLAG groups are waiting for a message to unleash mothers on other mothers, Equality groups are waiting to discuss “full equality now,” while some people are ready to march again.   Everywhere people are scrambling for partners, common cause and new focus.   They yearn to connect and communicate, like wind looking to form a hurricane.

Meanwhile, nationally we are sitting on this pent-up passion, of which the March was only a tremor.   How can it be with ENDA in on deck, that there is still no common rallying point, no new march-level idea – no campaign – and no vehicle through which one can surface?    How can that be with so many possibilities?

While it’s anyone’s guess, the inertia seems bound in a movement ideology that rejects public chaos in favor of control.   One that fears its own community, which it handily manipulates by filling space, but withholding empowerment.  One that still rejects the passion underlying the March.

Conversation can unleash our movement’s bubbling potential.  To begin, we need someone to host a national dialog about movement strategy on the web.   Even one major national group could host the conversation, but better that it be called by a few community stewards collectively.    We need to be able to communicate with each other.

As it stands, our groups are controlling our access to one another as a strategy.  The leadership conferences similarly constrict the dialog, boxing in conversations, rather than unleashing conversation. Offering training 101, rather than true tactical analysis.  Physical conferences are obsolete in this context, and themselves anti-democratic, elitist, and way too long-term.  We need to use the web in an orchestrated way.   We need a nimble, interactive and responsive national effort.   We need a modern movement strategy.

If I had a vote, which of course we do not in our national organizations, I would still vote for the Task Force to create a web-based national forum for “strategic action planning/brainstorming” around ENDA – as it recommends in its toolkit.    It has the network, but it not leveraging it.  A structured public forum could be ENDA-focused to begin, and evolve.  It could have organization-only conversations, but in public view, and other forums, regional perhaps.  Over time, it could break into working groups.   It could become a national web-based ENDA campaign if it chose.  Its creation awaits only a conversation and the will to have the public forum and follow where it leads.  This is doable and we have the technology.   But do we have the vision?   Is ENDA the cause?  Can we actually get each other’s attention?   Do we have each other’s attention?

While some may resist such a disclosure of our tactics and open-faced campaign, I believe that such an open process will reveal more to our opposition than our strategy – it will reveal the truth of the matter to everyone.   It will also put our movement on a solid democratic foundation.

Written by: Todd Fernandez, AOP Champion

The best stories are imbued with truth, but that doesn’t make the message true, and this seems to be the case with the colloquies and actions seeking to limit the significance of the March within the Movement.  Surely it cannot be that the shift in our community fabric being experienced by so many is a mere delusion of the press.  Rather it seems to me, what we are witnessing is organizational resistance to change, grasping to mollify the dynamic forces bent on evolution, operating from a perhaps well-intended but restricted vision.

While it is true that all-too-often the debate is misconstrued with false alternatives (either or), this is also the case with defending the status quo from a real or imagined schism.  In this vein, a prevalent theme permeates the airwaves intent on persuading us that everything is fine as is, that no real choice is at hand and that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday, but better.  This messaging is counter-evolutionary and seeks to bend the movement toward the stagnancy that the people have clearly and loudly decried.

I perceive it differently and am trying to embrace a seemingly inescapable and profound change in the movement, between generations, between organizing methods, between timing and strategy, and between institutions and people.    Fortunately, there are now two elephants in the room presenting a stark contrast, each with designs on the same Congress:  Equality Across America and the Human Rights Campaign.  This has many hues:  new verses old, money verses poor, grassroots verses corporate, capitalist democracy verses socialist democracy, and dare I say it?  Hilary vs. Obama.  None of which are wholly true, or untrue.   The middle is warmly filled with countless organizations bridging every imaginable connection, while familiar forces juxtapose, like a great brain torn between principle and survival, defiant confidence and genuine humility, between tradition and tomorrow.   No one is really comfortable, but this is the nature of big change.

Increasingly, the multitude of related but disjointed visions themselves clash like false enemies blind to the power of common cause and action.  Why?  Is it in our nature to smooth over social discontent and separate ourselves, rather than embrace structural change head on together? Or is this “nurture,” once again cultivating assimilation?  Does tranquility trump movement progress?   Peace at any cost?  If so, are we truly any more progressive than those who violate our human rights?

Regardless, the way forward is far from obvious, though likely at variation from more traditional movement ideology, structure and comfort.  Mixner alluded to it – that old dogs can learn new tricks — which he experienced first-hand dealing with new movement strategists and new philosophies we have yet to chart.  Then – somewhat miraculously – we all saw it manifest – a hugely successful March – beyond even its most ardent supporters’ wildest dreams and its opponents’ worst nightmares.  A march born almost of anti-organizing, but with a shared heartbeat and common intention.

How little faith we have in new dreams…

In the aftermath, minimizing differences seems a reasonable approach to “bridge different perspectives to bring folks together to get work done”* as we must, assuming that there are no new or better ways to do this.   It seems reasonable, if for no other reason, than to quiet the misguided press who, typically, only skimmed the surface, or more importantly perhaps, to present a united front.

However, in this time of reconceptualization,  perhaps before we sweep the March under the rug, it is better that we first strive to understand the differences it represents:  what the new is saying to the old — what the resistance is saying about the change — and what we are preaching to each other as movement gospel verses what is inevitable and useful change.   Although the individual organizational survival spirit has been the strategy for so long, perhaps the momentum at hand calls upon us to focus more on tapping into our collective community spirit, at least at the national strategic level.   With a deeper understanding of the forces at work and cross-organizational dialog instead of one-way blogs, perhaps we could build even better bridges at greater heights.

Understandably, however, because most of what the Task Force says is comforting and true, traditional activists are susceptible to the lullaby.   I am one of them and I agree that the March was not a referendum on all the great work by countless organizations, nor the diversity of the movement, or the many individuals who split ranks to participate.  But straw arguments aside, it was a loud and defiant statement to the national organizational structure which, like Congress, has failed to lead on human rights strategy or content, or even to keep pace with its own people, or our own collective enlightenment.  The overdue adjustment has only just begun and the post-March spin will not change this.

Split, shift, or polarization, the people have once again brought about change we can believe in.  The dangling question is:  whether the national organizations and their board members will seize the opportunity and embark on something new beyond praising the current situation as though it were the end of the strategic road.  The shift solidified the minute the grass roots had to go their own way to have a March, while virtually every organization and community newspaper older than Prop. 8 missed the boat, only to awake with self-righteous indignation.   “How dare they organize a March without consulting us!?” they felt.  While my jet-lagged bewildered mind was thinking:  “Why weren’t we organizing a march already!?”  The debate over whether to have the march was itself mind boggling and indicative of “the rift” already deeply present.  Ignoring its relevance now is of the same elk, while down-playing it is potentially devious.

Grounded in a different wisdom, the power that the marchers represent today is the force of change, and in a predominantly positive spirit, though not exclusively, they will continue to go around or through the movement to build a congressional federation of activists with fascinating new organizational ideas.    While I’m confident of this, only time will tell if the national organizations will embrace this new impetus in time to capitalize on it for our cause, or if they will continue their independent March-resistance and status-quo chant.

Despite early indications, there is still hope that the venerable organizations will begin to see the vision, explore it in earnest, and ultimately genuinely join the March they endorsed that is still in progress, well before the next major event, election or President.   Because, again, the Task Force’s sub-messaging is true – we need to do this together.  But do what?  Something big is called for.

Regrettably, the earnest plea: “Let’s continue the work!”** pales in comparison to the new March energy like the worn refrain of weary dreamers.   It would be much more inspiring if our movement stewards could reveal and announce a new bridge born of the spirit of the March and spanning from the Task Force to HRC to Equality Across America and into each congressional district like the rainbow that lingered magically in the rainless D.C. sky at noon on October 11, 2009.

Did you see it?  Did you feel that shared amazement?

Imagine the power of congressional-district-organizing if we were to WHIP Congress together!  If at every PTA, bowling league, baby shower, office party, city counsel meeting – someone stands up to say:  I’m working for my friend on congressional district support for his human rights and we need your help.  Imagine what we could do working together on a local congressional strategy.

Let’s expand the vision.  And then, continue the work.

* Quote is taken from  “A Movement Moving Forward,”  Rea Carey, the Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

(October 15, 2009) (http://www.bilerico.com/2009/10/a_movement_moving_forward.php).

** Closing line of Task Force letter.