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Cells Link Up Sometimes
A few nights ago I got a call from Bill Moyer from the Backbone Campaign. “Hey,” Bill said. “What are you doing tomorrow night?” I said I was planning to go to Busboys and Poets to see Mayor Rocky Anderson, from Salt Lake City, and whoever else showed up. The event was sponsored by PDA. Bill asked me to please represent the Backbone Campaign and present Mayor Anderson with a Spine Award, which he was hastily putting together and shipping overnight.
I agreed and we also speculated that an opportunity might arise to give Rep. Barbara Lee the Backbone Award he had been trying to honor her with for almost three years. 
The Award has been sitting in my bedroom, awaiting the right moment when Congresswoman Lee might slow down long enough to actually receive the deserved award. No one in Congress has been as willing as she to take a stand for voting reform, peace, and other just causes on behalf of democracy and justice, but to honor her, you first have to CATCH her.
The pictures tell the next part of the story. They were taken by Richard.
Rep. Jim Moran spoke also, as did Rep. Lynne Woolsey, and for a moment it seemed that we all took a breath and enjoyed the extremely agonizingly difficult odyssey towards peace. However, everyone cautioned that the mission was NOT accomplished, at least not yet.
We asked Mayor Anderson why he spoke out as he did, especially in such a bright red region of the country. He said that Salt Lake City is a different place from the rest of Utah, but that he does get threats and hate mail. But he does it because even though many think he is extreme, as time goes on, he is quietly demonstrating that we all must speak out, and we all can.
He’s a LEADER. Sometimes, in the course of the slog that is the peace and justice movement, I can be reminded that good people act from conscience, and do what they can, as I do, every day. And there are leaders who can get the attention of the press corpses and pod people, and actually get them to think a little.
The evening was comforting, not because we got a sense of optimism from the Members present, not because every organization represented there 
(AfterDowningStreet’s David Swanson, the Progressive Caucus’ Bill Goold, PDA, us as DCP and Backbone Campaign, Andy Shallal as host and conscience) was on the exact same page about how to proceed, and not because we felt in any victorious. It was comforting to just stop pushing so hard and worrying so much and come together and listen. Really listen.
All photos by R. Bell
When cells intersect, they reorganize, they realign, even if slightly. For a moment in time, we all shared a space in which we saw the power of hope and gratitude. I share it with you so you too can breathe it in when you feel discouraged.
All is done in the name of inspiring peace and democracy.
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That is so cool - I LOVE Rocky Anderson - he's a hero - part of the "cool mayors" brigade including Paris & London! There are many creepy mayors and he's not one of them. A Mayorship is a chance to represent "the people" even if you aren't President! Maybe in some instances, a chance to fly past the lagging state and federal systems!
I first met Bill Moyer several years ago at the WA State Dem convention and when we met we would always say "Civil Unions for ALL!" because I loved that plank of the platform on the Giant Spine that they took to the Dem convention in Boston, etc. I photographed them when they took the giant Constitution downtown and to the Seattle Center and when they took the giant Spine to the media and when they showed up at the Bill Clinton/McDermott event, not to mention all the times with the Giant Heads of Condi, Cheney etc. (such as the Fremont Solstice Fair or the anti-recruitment event in the Central District).
Proud of these guys! & then Bill is a friend of Karen! You can't beat that! So when I got their email last night, I saw Rocky and before I even read the caption, I thought, "Isn't that Karen?!!" & it is!
I wanted to mention also that The Progressive magazine had also arrived on my table just before I opened the Backbone Campaign email with Karen and the Spine recipients (I mean, they ALREADY have spines, but now they have golden ones too!) -
There was a story about Barbara Lee on the cover and I had just read it!
Also wanted to mention the time Senator Maria Cantwell had an event here and was introduced by Russ Feingold. He was to get a Backbone award and the jerks wouldn't let them present it in front of Maria (who was LATE to get on the bandwagon against the war, whereas he was EARLY). So it had to be presented out back in the alley with hardly anyone watching, and some creepy unidentified guy with a camera was there (press or FBI?)
Anyway, it's great!
I haven't been around for a while, but had to post the link to this story because of the sheer audacity & irony...
MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Russian human rights activists on Saturday she wanted to help them build institutions to protect people from the 'arbitrary power of the state'.
"I think that there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin," she later told reporters.
Rice pledges support to Russian activists
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1348961920071013
HMMMMMMM....
aimzzz,
I was gone for a long time as well. Speaking of backbone, and other body parts, Rice really has cajones (some may use the word "chutzpah") to say what she did.
I am really impressed with Mayor Anderson. He showed uncommon political courage when he publicly took his stand against Bush. I sent him an e-mail at the time, and he eventually did send a reply. It was not one of those stock, mass e-mailings, but what I think was a personal reply. He deserved his award.
oncall,
He is a very unassuming guy, with that quiet clear sense of moving ahead in the right directions. He told us he is going to continue to lead, even though he will not be mayor after next year.
aimzz,
In addition to giving Spine Awards and Backbone Awards, Bill et al give Spineless Citations to those who, in the end, do not stand up for democracy. Condi is long overdue for one of these. Despite the stubbornness of mind she displays, she denies all her intelligence by refusing to stand up for what is right for the world, as opposed to her boss.
Condi needs a spineless award for sure - now she is "uncomfortable with Putin's broad power" - but not with Bush's "unitary Executive"
Karen - Great piece & love the pix Dick took! I adore Mayor Rocky Anderson - have ever since I saw an online video quite a while ago when he so eloquently advocated impeachment; both he and Rep. Lee deserve their awards! :-)
aimzz - Good to see you again!
Condisleazy is a hypocritical spineless bitch who is the pot calling the kettle black. Too much concentration of power in the Kremlin? Who is she trying to kid? What is she smoking or drinking that she can't see the parallels between too much assumed executive power (NOT given in the US Constitution) in DC vs. the Kremlin...? (I'll post a link to a story regarding Article I on the Open Thread.) Her dictatorial "husb..." (in whose reflected 'glory' she is basking) is the poster boy for too much concentrated power! Aaaargh!
"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma," said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament."
Rice
Karen,
Great post. Great pictures! I have to admit that the spine award reminds me of the beenie baby my kids use to adore: the armadillo. So ugly it was cute. But in this case what makes it 'cute' is the sentiment--I guess I'd call it strength in character. Because DC beltway folk (the politicians) seem to lack character--it seems to me that they'd sell their soul to get re-elected.
Aimmzz welcome back.
Oncall--good for you for writing to him. I think when we do that we also give them courage to see that they speak for us too.
Way ta go, BlogMom.
Ya done good.
Again.
:0)
Karen,
Not only do cells link up, but new cells form. Shortly after DCP was born, several people in my area got together and formed a very active voter's rights organization. It has been successful in that the local media has reported frequently on their findings and news releases. The state of Illinois has accused the local election commission of breaking the law partly as a result of their efforts. Also, another active group DAWN (DuPage Against War Now) has sponsored various events including Cindy Sheehan visiting our community, twice.
Others, who have been disappointed by our new Congress have very actively sponsored progressive politicians and causes, and have formed Operation Turn DuPage Blue (OTDB). This group was very instrumental in getting Camp Wellstone to have an activists training camp in the area.
Many of the new organizations have members who are involved in multiple groups. So, it is really the heavy lifting done by a few people who are responsible for most of our area's successes.
Hooray for Karen, Rocky Anderson, and Barbara Lee.
Hmmm - this article has just put me in a quandary. It's laced with contradictions.
Down south, black women are in an Obama quandary
Katharine Seelye
October 15, 2007
IN THE beauty parlours that are the social hubs for black women in the Carolinas, loyalties are being tested as voters contemplate the first 2008 US Democratic primary in the South.
Clara Vereen, who has been working in rural South Carolina as a hairstylist for more than 40 of her 61 years, reflects the ambivalence of many black women as she considers Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Clinton of New York.
"I've got enough black in me to want somebody black to be our president," she said in her tiny beauty shop, an extension of her home. "But I want to be real, too."
Part of being real, said Ms Vereen, is worrying that a black president would not be safe. "I fear that they just would kill him, that he wouldn't even have a chance," she said. One way to protect him, she suggested, would be to not vote for him.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/down-south-black-women-are-in-an-obama-quandary/2007/10/14/1192300598540.html