I’m inviting all of you to join me at the far end of the Marshall’s parking lot on Needham Street at 1:45 PM this Friday (January 24th) to rendezvous in New Hampshire with a large number of Americans from the Granite State and New England who are striking out against corruption and money in American politics with a modern grass roots bi-partisan campaign that keeps growing in strength every day.
We will be heading up to Nashua to be part of a mass rally by NEW HAMPSHIRE REBELLION inside the Unitarian Universalist Church at 58 Lowell Street to welcome hundreds of dedicated citizens who will have marched there from Dixville Notch over the past 2 and a half weeks.
We all know what’s happening in Washington. It’s becoming more and more difficult to legislate anything in the public interest. The recent court decision against net neutrality was a final breaking point with me because every analyst has stated that the service providers who want changes that benefit them rather than consumers are simply too politically connected for Congress to do anything about it. America has become far weaker and more divided because of this. We are fast losing control of the government that is supposed to represent us.
The initial goal of NEW HAMPSHIRE REBELLION is to create a strong and focused grass roots campaign this year and next to press every candidate running for President in the 2016 New Hampshire primary to detail their commitment to ending or at least curbing gross corruption, high paid lobbyists and big money in Washington, and how they intend to honor that pledge.
We hope to make money and political corruption a central issue in the 2016 Presidential primaries and caucuses first in New Hampshire and then across America. Public disgust with Washington is very high there and this anger increasingly cuts sharply across the political spectrum as it does in most parts of America.
The rally in Nashua will feature prominent Americans from across the political spectrum including author Hedrick Smith and former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roehmer who ran in several Republican primaries during 2012 as a champion of campaign finance reform. This event is also honoring the birthday of New Hampshire patriot and activist Doris “Granny D” Haddock who made a famous march for campaign reform more than 2 decades ago just as she was nearing her 90th birthday.
Please go to the attached website for NEW HAMPSHIRE REBELLION, scroll down on “trip” pull down to events and access information about Friday’s rally at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Nashua and other information about this unique grass roots organization. Directions to the church are also on the website. Please register for the
rally. They need a head count by tomorrow night. They are serving food which has been volunteered by a local caterer and also ice cream donated by Vermont’s Ben and Jerry’s.
I’ll be driving and can take 3 other people with me. If you can come, please email me at [email protected] and let me know if you have a car that can take people or if you just need a ride from Needham Street. Let me know by tomorrow if at all possible, or just show up on Needham Street.
Let’s help get this effort off the ground in the snows of New Hampshire. Most of us have been up there for many past Presidential campaigns and we know the people and the terrain. This is something we can all get behind regardless of who we are backing for President in 2016. Success with this will open every candidate up to new possibilities.
The change we need will start in places like this. It isn’t going to happen from anything going on in Washington these days.
On to New Hampshire !
Bob,
Good Luck.
This is a short follow up to what I posted on Thursday about New Hampshire Rebellion’s campaign to engage the public in a grass roots campaign to hold all Presidential candidates accountable for addressing political corruption and big money in the State’s upcoming Presidential Primary. I went to Nashua on Friday to join 300 or so people who gathered at the Unitarian Church to welcome more than 100 people who had marched in bitter cold and snow to talk with literally thousands of citizens along the route from Dixville Notch to Nashua. This included 18 hardy souls who walked the entire route over a two weeks period. This was the first tentative step in what the founders hope will blossom into a nationwide campaign of citizens marching through cities and towns to engage other citizens hope and direction that issues related to political corruption can be addressed and overcome.
I got there early and volunteered to help sign people into the rally. This gave me a catbird’s seat as to who would be showing up and what they were concerned about. An interesting aside. The other guy taking names was a Republican. Based on what I heard and saw about the people checking in and from the speakers at the rally itself, I came away somewhat more optimistic that NH Rebellion’s approach just may be the way to build something substantial before the 2016 election.
If it does catch on, I’m certain the media will move to compare NH Rebellion to Occupy Wall Street that blossomed and collapsed so rapidly two years ago. I’m already certain this would be a mistake although anyone interested in political reform will be grateful to the Occupy movement for elevating to high visibility the issues of economic inequality and political corruption. I think NH Rebellion’s approach as a national model has the potential for much more depth and staying power.
1. The fact that a Republican was sitting next to me taking names and that two prominent New Hampshire Republicans were featured on the program is testament to the bi-partisan, non-partisan potential here.
2. The people who I signed in were mainly although not entirely progressive, but everyone I talked with seemed deeply committed to reform, but pretty moderate in temperament and tolerance. The crowd and speakers were warm and good humored.
3. At least at this stage, they are keeping the issue focused only on political corruption and money and I think they intend to keep it there. This is the one element that unites them with what the public is thinking. They are clearly in the mainstream and want to stay there.
4. Marching and recruiting from place to place gives a better chance that this thing will build a sound foundation that might be almost self generating in its growth if public anger about these issues is as deep as the organizers believe it is and as every poll also suggests it is. The problem with Occupy was that it took over the portion of cities, but seemed to have no clear leaders or strategy for what the next step would be. It was almost as though they were armies caught behind enemy lines when the cold weather moved in. That won’t happen with NH Rebellion.
5. NH Rebellion has also done a good job of articulating the direct and indirect costs of all the political corruption in Washington and they have done it without ideological language or interpretations– in a way that should appeal across the political spectrum.
It was a good day for getting back a bit of hope that every day citizens like me can still make a difference. NH Rebellion is planning to organize a mass march this coming summer and I hope to be a part of it. There’s at least a chance this thing can be exported throughout America if we can refine and make it work effectively in the Granite State.; but it’s getting late.
“Never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you’ll not succeed. You have already succeeded if you’re out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love. You already have your victory because you have changed the world; you have changed the status quo by you; you have changed the chemistry of things, and changes will spread from you, will be easier to happen in others because of you, because, believe it or not, you are the center of the world.”
Doris Haddock on the road in Pecos, Texas, May 14, 1999. From her favorite speech, and the one most often mentioned by people as the one that helped them.