Progressive Wednesday

Once Upon a Wednesday…

Our story starts 22 years ago, when Eric and Matt met each other in concert band: Matt beat the hell out of drums; Eric blatted a tuba. A few years later, they grew closer when they played JV basketball for the Lew-Port Lancers and compiled (get ready to be impressed) a 3-21 record. They’ve managed to remain the closest of friends ever since. Matt’s even the godfather to Eric’s first born.

Six years ago, Eric drove down to Columbus, Ohio, where Matt lived, to lend a hand with the 2004 elections. Together, they worked phone-banks, canvassed, hung signs, distributed food to voters waiting in five-hour lines, and couriered information. They loved every freaking minute of it. “I loved every freaking minute of that,” said Eric, afterwards; “I loved every freaking minute of that, too,” said Matt. They felt like they were contributing to the greater good; they felt like their individual actions help add up to something. On that Election Day, as the results flashed and morphed on Matt’s TV screen, their eyes filling with more red than blue, Progressive Wednesday popped into their noggins. Why? Because they realized they loved this country far more than politics and they loved the citizens of this country even more than the country itself. It wasn’t until three years later, and another election cycle working together (this time for several months), that they launched Progressive Wednesday.

Matt and Eric believe that the end of big problems starts with small solutions. They believe we have a responsibility to help make our country as progressive as it can stand to be. They believe in peace whenever possible. They believe in defending those with the least power from those with the most. They believe in protecting privacy, personal freedoms, children, the environment, private businesses, small towns, big cities, and home. Hell, they even believe in baseball and apple pie, though they prefer hockey and the chocolate cake Grandma Stuart bakes. But they believe this most of all: working together, we can get America over its own ridiculous hump. Because they believe all this, they’ve re-launched Progressive Wednesday.

Progressive Wednesday 1.0 succeeded beyond expectations, with readers in all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and over twenty countries. The site appeared in feature articles printed by the Buffalo News and the Niagara Gazette, and Progressive Wednesday was mentioned or highlighted on Daily Kos, Mashable, Wesley Clack’s PAC Securing America, Wal-Mart Watch, A New America, and The Wall Street Journal Online Edition.

As with before, every Wednesday they’ll offer up a simple to-do list focused on a narrow topic or concern. They’ll ask you to write letters, donate, read, buy, pass along information, and watch videos, amongst other things. Thursday through Tuesday, they’ll give you important info, photographs of a world worth saving, tunes by like-minded bands, posts written by a bevy of volunteers from across the country who come at progressivism from different angles, and even some of the funny. They’ll surprise you, listen to you, and hopefully energize you. With your help, Progressive Wednesday will create a community of like-minded folks looking to make change through ideas, art, and action.

Not to sound like a bumper sticker, but, ah, what the hell, here goes: You Are Progress. Progressive Wednesday is here to help you make the time and point you in new directions, because every little bit of effort you put forward can lead us toward a national identity that makes even the more hardened liberals amongst us a little choked up at the National Anthem, a national identity that the most conservative conservatives will agree we need if we’re going to be truly free.