Political and environmental publications read my work at DK and then offered to pay for writing articles. The editors were all good people, and at one publication, the stats showed my work reaching far more eyeballs than I ever reached at DK. But they were missing one key ingredient: our DK community.
This subscription drive is about sustaining and growing our community. One big advantage of DK that I don't think has been discussed yet in this drive is how our community is able to reach out to offline communities because Markos created Daily Kos.
Daily Kos and our community enable us to bring about changes that make a positive difference in people's lives now. A look at a few of the many examples illustrate how DK projects are now being coordinated with offline communities to interconnect online and offline activism for long overdue change that DC has failed to provide. Changes that can be accomplished outside the electoral process. This is not to discount anyone's hard work or the importance of elections, but DK has made organizing and spreading the word about our projects so much easier. And sometimes, initial contacts are made, or word spreads about our projects, because other people found our work at DK.
In my own personal experience, over the years, I have worked with Meteor Blades and other kossacks to organize many projects and blogathons on environmental, climate change, human rights and political issues. I've made it clear to potential guests – whether they are lawmakers, scientists, NGOs or political activists – that I was not a frontpager but just a blogger at DK. However, the reality is that DK has a well-deserved great reputation and excellent traffic stats that help us to convince people to work with us. Over the years, less than a handful needed an explanation of what is DK.
Progressive change won't happen quickly. Sometimes our successes might seem small, but if we continue moving forward, and are resilient when we need to bounce back from disappointments, we can make a real difference in so many lives on our way to accomplishing our end goals.
Tar Sands XL Pipeline
Last August, Meteor Blades and I organized a Tar Sands blogathon that was coordinated with our friend, Bill McKibben, who is one of the organizers for the civil disobedience and continued activism against the pipeline. Blogathon participants included activists who joined Bill in DC.
Bill McKibben credits our DK blogathon for helping to turn this protest into one of the largest environmental actions in three decades "because we had a way of getting the word out. Not on tv, which wasn’t paying any attention; not in the newspapers, whose correspondents were all on the Vineyard with the president; but through the web, and particularly" our blogathon that provided daily updates from kossacks for one week prior to the civil disobedience action. Breaking past the MSM to reach the people is a metric of success that we have seen many times at DK.
Momentum was on our side, and Bill continued with a November action to circle the White House with people. Bill kept persisting with one action after another and then came the news that President Obama had delayed when a decision would be made on the pipeline and sent the XL pipeline back for review. This decision of delay was incredible.
However, today, the outcome is up in the air. The Senate passed a payroll tax cut plan with a rider to force a speedy review of XL, which was good because the administration stated that a quick review would likely mean permit denial. Now, the Tea Party is trying to figure out a new plan. Clearly, more work to be done, but DK was one of the many that contributed to preventing what was previously assumed would be a quick approval of a project for the 1% and has now forced the Teabagging GOP to spend more time trying to get this permit. The delay gives everyone opposing this pipeline more time to fight against it.
Food and Propane for Indian Reservations
Navajo used her excellent organizing skills to start a project in 2010 to raise money to buy propane and food for South Dakota reservations. She established relationships on the ground with propane companies and grocery stores directly to bypass obstacles:
You made more than $3000 in donations over a 24 hr. period. This is excellent because we have bypassed the middlemen, the 501c3s, the red-taped strangled Tribal Councils and the pathetic Federal LIHEAP program.
We've set up relationships with the propane companies that service Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservation. The kind operators/owners know who needs help and can't get it from their Tribal, State or Federal government. No one should freeze to death in the richest country in the world.
Because of diaries posted at DK, Keith Olbermann posted a comment here to thank our community for "bringing this [issue] to [his] attention" and then he covered navajo's project on the air when he was with MSNBC, raising $240,000 in two days. The combination of navajo's hard work and dedication, our community, and the existence of DK enabled an incredible victory to spread the word and save people's lives.
A Soldier Thanks Netroots for the Troops
DK has also enabled us to help people globally. We're all familiar with the fantastic work done by NFTT each year to raise money to provide packages of support to our soldiers. In a very beautiful diary, a soldier thanks DK for providing the gift of continued support while they are overseas:
It was in the middle six months of my assignment in Afghanistan that the packages started arriving. I received an array of things from them… letters, candy, toothpaste, floss, baby wipes, razors, food, socks, books, dvd’s. The list could go on and on. It was amazing. Netroots for the Troops was always there. If I couldn’t use it, I would pass it on to a Soldier who could. Or if another Soldier in my Platoon was not doing well, the package would go to them. Not only were the items sent to us an amazing help, but the more important support was the fact that they were sent to us at all. As I said before, the middle six months contains little hope of ever returning home. The packages were a reminder that our country knows about our fight. Every day, because of their support, I knew that if it was going to be my last day, I would be remembered and I would be honored.
…In a war that has been going on for longer than any other in the history of the United States, we need you. We need to know that you are there waiting for us and that you are supporting us. We need to know that we are not forgotten. We are American Warriors. We are the front lines. But we are human. And when we receive this kind of support, it lets us know that we are not forgotten. That is possibly the strongest gift you could give us.
Women Raped in Democratic Republic of Congo
rb137 has been working with HEAL Africa and Jeanne Muliri Kabekatyo, known as Mama Muliri, to help her provide support to women who were brutally raped due to the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mama Muliri is a "pioneering member of the Congolese relief organization HEAL Africa" and came to the U.S. to raise awareness about her organization in 2010.
HEAL Africa contacted rb137 after they read a diary she posted as part of an Eco Week blogathon Meteor Blades, Land of Enchantment and I organized at DK back in 2009. rb137 is now continuing to work on writing and video projects and consulting on projects that address the conflict mineral trade. She told me how people in the DRC love seeing someone writing about them at DK when they are able to access the Internet.
Speaking of access to the internet, there's another live-saving DK project underway right now but without a massive push of support, we might not win.
TheFatLadySings has proposed an excellent measure to win a grant of $50,000 to decrease the digital divide: "Rural communities and communities of color live behind the digital divide. They don’t have access to the same online organizing tools as white, urban upper- and middle-class neighborhoods." This grant will pay to send leaders of community health coalitions to NN12 to learn about online organizing tools that can be used to end disparities in health care and will also send two members of Native American Netroots to NN12 who could not otherwise attend.
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