Progressive Wednesday

Fixing Elections (in a Good Way)

Problem:

As the polls closed on Election Day 2004, I watched the state-by-state results eek in from the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Columbus with a thousand other volunteers, including Jerry Springer, the former mayor of Cincinnati, and Eric, who'd road-raged his way down from Rochester, New York, in his rusty and rust-colored – ˜86 Monte Carlo, to lend a hand for the final few days. I bit my nails to the quick and pulled and twisted at my goatee. The news seemed grim.

And so, the war would rage on. And the poor would increasingly fight it. And our broken health care system would cause more bankruptcies. And monolithic business would rule instead of wise environmental stewardship. And I felt too guilty to sleep. But it was that night, and deep into the morning, that Eric and I came up with the idea of Progressive Wednesday, a new way to empower people when there weren't elections, and hell, even when there were. And it was that night we decided that helping to fix the election process would be at the top of our Wednesday list.

Two weeks later, I attended a public hearing with sworn testimony by Franklin County residents reporting voter suppression, fraud, and the inequitable distribution of voting machines in both poor and predominately African-American districts, which made 2004 Ohio seem a little too much like 1960 Mississippi.

Since I'm not a Democrat, I now deeply question why I didn't just support a so-called “third-party– candidate like Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian candidate, or David Cobb, the Green candidate. But my experience helped me question, even more, the process by which we select our elected officials and the ways we decide whom to give our vote. I imagine I'm not alone.

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Make Progress:

We'll definitely be returning to this topic time and time again, because it's intensely complicated and similarly significant to not just our rights as Americans, but to what we value as a human right. What follows, then, is a beginning. Consider the starter's pistol fired.

• Bookmark
• Call
• Write
• Read
• Wear

Photo thanks to this voter.

Bookmark:

It's a little bit difficult to describe Project Vote Smart in 304 words, but here goes:

• This non-profit uses oodles of volunteers (from the right and the left) to examine “voting records, campaign contributions, public statements, biographical data (including their work history) and evaluations of them generated by over 100 competing special interest groups.–
• In addition, they “test each candidate’s willingness to provide citizens with their positions on the issues they will most likely face if elected through the National Political Awareness Test.– In other words, they see if candidates will openly, directly explain what they stand for — a tall order in some instances.
• You can also use Project Vote Smart to learn about judges, congressional legislation, voter registration, polling locales, ballot measures, and lots and lots of accurate et cetera.
• The Project also offers up a Voter's Self-Defense Manual, a must-read for progressives of any political ilk. The booklet can be downloaded as an Acrobat file, or you can order one by giving them a jingle: 1-888-868-3762.
• They are truly bipartisan: “No one can join the Project’s board without a political opposite.– And whose served on the board? Carter, Ford, Dukakis, McCain, McGovern, and Goldwater, to name a few.
• They don't take cash money from special interests. To quote: “We do not accept contributions from any corporations, labor unions, or other organizations that lobby, support or oppose candidates or issues.” The money comes only in the form of donations by individuals (70%) and philanthropic foundation grants (30%). Plus, 83% of their funds go directly into their programs and content.
• U.S. News and World Report has this to say: “Project Vote Smart would make the Founders weep with joy.– The New York Times pointed out that the Project kicks so much tail that “even the Federal Government recommends it.–
• This service — this wonderful, wonderful service — is completely free.

Want to read more? Go check it out for yourself. Then bookmark it. You'll want it down the road: we guarantee it.

We'd also like to ask you to give some love in the form of greenbacks to this incredibly worthy, dare we say essential (okay, we dare), this essential cause. Even if giving means three bucks. Here's the beauty of your generosity: not only do you help out this organization whose sole purpose is to help you as a voter, but your gift is tax-deductible, and you can choose how the money is spent. So give a little and have them spend it wisely.

But remember to bookmark it, baby, remember to bookmark it.

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Call:

This sucker might come as a shock, but the Constitution does not guarantee American citizens the right to vote.

We'll give you a second to reread that sentence. Okay, now that we've got your attention we'll give you all the support we need to prove it to you. In the Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore, the Court ruled: “The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States.– We think, well, we think this is a load of crap, and not cute little rabbit pellets– ¦ no, we're talking a dump truck full of nasty elephant waste.

We'd like you to take five minutes right now, immediately after reading this, and call your Senators (take a peek and make sure your boss ain't lingering around). Just click this sentence to find a list of all the Senators with phone numbers for each. Here's what we'd recommend saying:

• “I'm a voter from [name your state], and I'm outraged that there's no Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing my right to vote. If Senator [last name] wants my vote the next time [he or she] is up for reelection, then [he or she] will introduce or support legislation that would guarantee this basic American right.–

Be sure to thank them for their time.

If such an Amendment existed, folks could sue states for voter fraud, suppression, a lack of equal protection, and faulty machines or a lack of functioning ones. There are 7,800 different election jurisdictions. This adds a lot of variables. If there was a Constitutional Amendment, there could be a universal voting system for all elections. Fairness. That's what we're talking about here. Accountability. Equality. A more perfect union.

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Write:

Even though we're far, far away from the next national elections, we think it’s more apropos to deal with this topic well before November, which is, of course, National Pomegranate Month.

Okay, here's the main idea of our letter-to-the-editor campaign: Our fellow Americans, Election Day should be a national holiday.

Now, it's hard to argue with a day off (though we're sure the workaholics out there could give it a shot). But we think for the sake of the U.S. of A., voters deserve a greater opportunity to choose what goes down.

Here are some talking points for ya to use and morph and personalize and localize to your heart's content:

• Election Day is an excellent way to emphasize the importance of community.
• As a holiday, we'd be reaffirming the cultural significance of voting.
• Voting was a central catalyst behind the founding of the country.
• Voter turnout in the United State for presidential elections ranks 65th in the world. Democracy deserves better. Common sense dictates that a holiday would raise voter turnout.
• Most workers paid hourly can't afford to take time off work to vote.
• Polls in some states close as early as 7 p.m., further limiting turnout.
• Long lines wouldn't seem as daunting since folks wouldn't need to hustle back to work.
• Election Day is already a holiday in Puerto Rico.

Here's a link to the newspapers throughout the country to help you find the address and specific requirements to the daily “Extra, extra, read all about it!” in your community. You can always check out our How to Read Newspapers tool. Also, you might want to take a gander at our How to Write Letters to the Editor tool, both in brief and in full.

Photo courtesy of this literate picture-clicker.

Read:

Adopting Election Day as a national holiday and banging out a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote seem like two it's-about-time steps in the right direction.

There's got to be more we can do to help out so-called “third parties– and their very qualified candidates. Third parties deserve a greater voice in our country, and having more voices, more opinions, and options seems incredibly American to us. Two-party domination seems a bit archaic, a bit undemocratic.

There are several suggestions out there for ways to change the ways we vote and the ways third party candidates get treated on ballots. These ideas include:

• Fusion voting.
• Instant run-off voting.
• Popular voting.
• Range voting.

We'll be returning to the topic of election fixes in the future, and we're curious what your thoughts are about each of the various options. After you read about each, let us know what you think by leaving a comment or by contacting us. Let us know which you prefer, which you have questions about. Your comments will help us decide which ones to support down ye ole road. So, thanks in advance.

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Wear:

Okay, this one's easy enough. We'd like to encourage you to plunk down a few bucks, snag yourself this t-shirt, and wear it around all year long (taking it off occasionally to shower, make the love, and maybe even wash it here and there). Sport it when you head to the grocery, the gym, the Grand Canyon. (Speaking of the Grand Canyon– ¦.)

This is a way to send an honest and constant message. Plus the word “vote– is bad-ass as Mr. T and drop-dead gorgeous as Rita Hayworth. Since you're reading Progressive Wednesday, we're confident you're a little bit of both, too.

Organics for one, organics for all.

One of the lingering problems with organic food is cost. While prices have fallen on many products (I do find some organic produce costs about the same as the artificially fertilized counterparts), many of the more processed foods or staples, like milk and eggs, can come with a pretty hefty price tag. This, of course, means that the poorest among us miss out on the goodness and healthfulness of organic foodstuffs.

So, along comes a progressive idea to help fuel our larger progressive revolution:

At the One World Café in Salt Lake City, customers set the price for their organic, fair-trade meals. Urbanite reports that One World provides options for all customers, from homeless patrons to business folks on their lunch breaks. A daily free entrée is always on the menu and the restaurant offers a “hand-up, not a hand-out” option by exchanging meal coupons for every hour of volunteer service. At the end of the day, says founder Denise Cerreta, the restaurant ends up with a fair price for the staff’s work.

Even though most of us don’t live in Salt Lake City, we can still be glad that such wonderful efforts are being made. And there are things we can do to help those suffering in poverty feed themselves better. Amongst many charities we could lend hand or buck is America’s Second Harvest. And what is America’s Second Harvest, pray tell? Here goes:

America’s Second Harvest– ”The Nation’s Food Bank Network is the nation’s largest charitable hunger-relief organization:

• A network of more than 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations
• Serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

The America’s Second Harvest Network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. Each year, the America’s Second Harvest Network provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

There’s not enough props we can give this organization. So here’s the deal — just give five. (All you’ve got to do is click this sentence.) Five bucks to most of us is next to nothing–a McMeal or a summer blockbuster we wish, afterwards, that we’d skipped. To an organization that feeds those with next to nothing, five bucks is nothing they’ll sneeze at (though, I imagine 100 dollars wouldn’t make them sneeze either… really I doubt any amount of would make them sneeze, so don’t worry about the infinitesimally small chance that you might make someone sneeze).

So, here’s to good food (and tissues) for all.

This Wednesday: Feminists, We’re Calling You

Problem:

I'm a fan of women. I gestated in a pretty damned nice one. I've got a kick-butt-and-take-names one for a sibling. I'm attracted to some of them. Some of them are attracted, understandably of course, to me.

But none of that’s a problem. Here's the problem: women are still treated as lesser citizens in our country. Need proof? Then, as always, it’s some simple proof you get. We think three facts should do the trick.

1. According to statistics compiled by RAINN, “one in six American women are victims of sexual assault.”
2. Of the 535 members in the 109th Congress, only 82 of them are women. What makes this all the worse? As of November 1, 2006, there are 152 million women in American; there are 148 million men.
   
3. This one comes to us courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau: in 2004, “the ratio of female-to-male earnings for full-time, year-round workers was 77 cents on the dollar.”

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Make Progress:

If it’s not crystal clear, we can’t tackle this issue on just one Wednesday. What you’ll find below, well, let’s call it “a good start,” let’s call it “the least we can do,” let’s call it “what’s just, and right, and fair, damn it.”

• Tell
• Enjoy
• Give

Feminists, We’re Calling You: Give

Give:

Rape, while having decreased by 69% since 1993, is a remarkably common in the United States. Here are the facts:

• Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.
• One in six American women are victims of sexual assault, and one in 33 men.
• In 2004-2005, there were an average annual 200,780 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
• About 44% of rape victims are under age 18, and 80% are under age 30.
• Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes, with more than half still being left unreported.

But here's the important part to remember: rape survivors are not bullet points and numbers, they are, of course, people, more real than we can imagine. And we care especially deeply about the the victims of sexual assault, because five of our friends have been victims. One of them was victimized twice in her life.

So here's what we're asking: donate, even if it's just five bucks, to Take Back the Night. If you're not familiar with TBTN, allow us to catch you up to speed:

Common components of Take Back the Night rallies include candlelight vigils, empowerment marches, and survivor testimonials. The goals and specific features of a TBTN rally are just as varied as its vast array of supporters. Throughout its history, Take Back the Night has inspired both women and men to confront a myriad of social ills, including rape, sexual violence, domestic violence, violence against children, and violence against women. The unifying theme throughout these diverse topics is the assertion that all human beings have the right to be free from violence, the right to be heard, and the right to reclaim those rights if they are violated.

Progressivism begins and ends with public speech. Here's a chance to help out an organization using our First Amendment in a way that would make our founders more than proud, and would, more importantly, make the likes of Susan B. Anthony, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Addams raise a fist in the air in solidarity, in support.

This Wednesday: Reviving Niagara

Problem:

The first years of my memory are of Niagara Falls. We lived on Orchard Parkway in a tiny second-floor house apartment. And as I grew up in the surrounding area, I learned to think of my hometown as the honeymoon and suicide capital of the world.

I grew up with daredevils risking life, limb, and the lives and limbs of their rescuers, by plummeting in various contraptions over the Horseshoe Falls. I saw news reports of poor fools who fell and drown to their deaths on kayaks and jet-skis as they tried to conquer the cataracts. I watched national television coverage of the lawsuits connected to Love Canal, a neighborhood that was the site of one of the worst toxic-waste-dumping scandals in American history.

My first job, as a bakery assistant, was in Niagara Falls at the headquarters of Di Camillo Bakery, a family business still thriving in this city. And I watched as department stores and jewelry stores and restaurants evaporated from Main Street, turning the road into an assortment of seedy bars, adult novelty stores, and boarded up buildings, each empty as the pockets of the homeless wandering the city. And I watched as the factories closed their doors, and added good, hard-working souls to the unemployment lines– ¦.

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Make Progress:

But I also grew up next to a place where people teem to see one the natural wonders of the world. And I grew up in an area where my relatives worked the bluest-collar of jobs, but managed to put lasagna on the table (we're good Italian-Americans, after all). And I grew up where my grandfather landed after traveling the Atlantic to move to America, the same city where my father was raised and remained, the same city where my sister got married. And I grew up next to one of the marvels of electrical science, the Niagara Power Project.

And so I believe in this place. And I love this place. And it's time we all helped this treasure of not just New York, but of America, and not just of America, but of the world. We're ready, if you are, to make progress in Niagara Falls.

• Buy
• Sign
• Give
• E-mail
• Eat

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Editor’s Note: Below you’ll find photos of some of our favorite locations in the city of Niagara Falls.

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The Little Italy neighborhood and business district.

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The genius that is the Niagara Power Project. To learn more about it, click here.

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Di Camillo Bakery, where they make the best Italian bread you’ll ever eat.

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The Niagara River in autumn (if it wasn’t obvious from, you know, the leaves).

Reviving Niagara: Give

Give:

In 2005, 2.1 million kids under 18 were arrested in the United States, this according to the U.S. Department of Justice. To put that in perspective, 2.1 million is equivalent to the entire populations of Detroit and Dallas combined.

Since Niagara Falls is an American treasure, we should all — regardless of the place we currently call home — want to do anything we can to help reduce the overall crime rate in this city and to help the children of this area, many of whom will become adult citizens of the city or county.

Donating to a national organization is good, hell, it's great, and it's important because without funding these fantastic privately run organizations, we'd have a choice: go without the services or rely even more on the government, which, to the eyes of Progressive Wednesday, always seems to be lagging behind. It's like a dog race – “ we're greyhounds and the government is a miniature Dachshund.

Okay, before our canine simile gets away from us, let us focus on this simple two-part action. We'd love it if you'd be willing to help out our local chapter of the Police Athletic League. How? You can download their donation form by clicking this sentence. Or you can, maybe for this entire week, use GoodSearch.com as your search engine of choice. By clicking this sentence, you’ll be able to make Good Search work for Niagara PAL. Each time you conduct a search, you'll raise money for the PAL in Progressive Wednesday's hometown.

So why PAL? And why our PAL? Here's why:

• In 2006, Niagara PAL had 19,000 participants in their various activities and programs.
• PAL helps girls and boys participate in baseball, basketball, bicycle safety, football, soccer, softball, and wrestling.
• Niagara PAL participates in conjunction with D.A.R.E., the Girl Scouts, Special Olympics, Cerebral Palsy Recreation Group, and offers counseling and tutoring to kids.
• Niagara PAL also runs, amongst others, two other programs of note: Police Week, and Kidz and Kites.
• One the hallmarks of Niagara PAL is a project called “Every 15 Minutes,– which is a presentation shared with local high school seniors about the dangers of drinking and driving (the name comes from the statistic that every 15 minutes someone dies in an alcohol related car accident). The intense program actually includes visits to an ER and a funeral home. The students also write “final letters– to their parents as if they'd died, and parents write their teens' “obituaries.–
• Niagara PAL also doles out scholarships based on community service, financial need, academic standing, and attitude.

At the heart of PAL is this: “Juvenile Crime Prevention accomplished by creating better relations between police, citizens, and community youth through a myriad of interactive programs that include the youth in positive endeavors, athletic and non-athletic, within the community structure. The ultimate objective being Juvenile Decency.– And it's hard to argue with that.

Healing Health Care: Bleed

Bleed:

Sorry to make this sound so sucking-flesh-wound grizzly, but we actually do mean “bleed.– Though not for a vampire or a voodoo ceremony, but rather for, you know, your fellow humans. Why? Here's why:

• According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, every year in the United States, almost 5 million people are saved by blood transfusions. That's more than the populations of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont combined.
• Someone needs blood in the United States every two seconds. Put another way — three gallons of the stuff is used every minute here in the Red, White, and Blue.
• Approximately 20% of all patients entering hospitals require blood.
• 38,000 blood donations are needed every day to maintain our supply.
• Giving blood just once can save the lives of three people. I'm pretty sure that throws the “I don't like needles– excuse out the proverbial window.
• It's not just people in car accidents who need your blood. People with sickle-cell anemia, cancer, and leukemia require large amounts of transfusions. Severe burn victims need transfusions, as do folks undergoing organ transplants and many premature infants.
• Here's a final troubling statistic: only five percent of those who could donate blood do so (yours truly included… though that will change, and I mean pronto).

In case you’re at all concerned, you can't get an infectious disease from donating blood, and the process won't decrease your strength. And how often can you give blood? Every 56 days, baby. Just click this sentence for the blood donation eligibility guidelines from the Red Cross.

So give. And don't give until it hurts, because, if you're not a complete pansy, it really won't. If you'd like to donate blood through the Red Cross, just click this sentence. You can even watch an online presentation of the process. But if donating cabbage is more your speed, click right here, yo.