I've always been progressive, but never really a HUGE activist. I voted every now and then, which would've gotten me somewhere south of a C- if Howard Dean was grading me. But the longer this current administration has been in office, the more I've been freaked out by the full-scale assault on the constitution and the middle class.
Until I found dkos, via Air America and their blog, I was kind of flailing and hopeless. I constantly "lost" arguments with my conservative co-workers and friends, feeling like the guy who gets sand kicked in his face. I felt like, all pithy sayings aside, what COULD one person do to make a difference? What-ever.
dkos changed that, changed me, and empowered me to do something I never thought I could.
I'd never seen blogs used for anything other than an on-line version of people's diary, so I was blown away when I saw how rich an environment it was for sharing information and connecting people.
dkos got me hip to issues in a fun, informal way. Instead of the dry, corporate "he said, she said" media, I was getting kos quoting ABC News and replying, "Well, no sh*t."
Whoa-- all of a sudden, there's context, intelligent commentary, and, most importantly, reality-based analysis. Random people digging up news bits from all over to contribute-- open-source, peer-reviewed journalism at it's best. I've learned so much from all of you.
And not just about understanding the issues-- dkos also connected me with volunteering opporutnities, starting with CallsForKerry. After the 2004 election debacle, I was in a deep depression. Then dkos had a reference to Drinking Liberally and I called up my friend, saying "We're liberal, and I feel like drinking. How about it?" He was in, but there was no DL chapter in my city. Well, f that. I'm not a drinker, but I really needed to drink. So I founded the local chapter. Our first meeting was the two of us, but we grew to 8-12 folks per week. Not bad for a medium size city. It was great being able to meet like-minded folks, in a fun environment. Plus I got to rant every week when I sent out my meeting reminders.
At the same time, dkos got me hip to Democracy For America, and found it to be even more theraputic since my local chapter has a bunch of informed, positive people that helped me focus on constructive things I could do to get out of my funk. I got involved (as much as I could) with a couple local campaigns, doing things like marching in parades (with the kids--yay!) and lit drops. I also became "The Framing Guy" (I guess since I was the first in the group to read Lakoff's book, plus I was a rabid framing enthusiast) for the group, giving talks/workshops at dfa meetings about it.
This year, I decided that I'd gotten so much from you all at dkos, I decided to pay it forward. Hitting refresh on dkos 100 times/day wasn't enough anymore-- I wanted a dkos for the Rochester, NY, area. I looked around, and though I found a few really, really good progressive bloggers around (like DragonFlyEye, RocWriters, and Zinnian Democracy-- there's many more), it wasn't quite what I was looking for. So I thought, be the change I want to see, and contribute to liberal blogsprawl. So I got commitments for content from a local dfa member, a local MoveOn team lead, the very able current leader of our DL chapter, and the organizer for our area's premier social justice movement.
Apparently other folks around here had the same itch-- we've been around a month and a half, and our traffic is far exceeding anything I anticipated. We've got a great group of bloggers (much better than me, fortunately!), and in the short time we've been around:
We've gotten activists connected to volunteer opportunities and campaigns
We got picked up by the NYTimes blog
We've had one of our own do a one-man protest on the stem cell issue, that got picked up by the local news and TV-- and front-paged at MyDD!
We've broken news about the Eric Massa/Randy Kuhl race here in NY-29, and are correcting the corporate media spin about it
And we're just getting started. I named the site RochesterTurning.com, since we're helping to turn the tide upstate, and we're turning from the same-ol' same-ol' to a society that's more people-powered and community based.
But that's not enough. I wanted to pay dkos forward even further, so I'm very pleased to announce the NY 29th Blogging Irregulars! This is a network of blogs through the rural areas of NY-29, inspired by the 50-state strategy, so it's not just "librul Rochester" coming down to the southern tier to tell them how it's gonna be, it's very much neighbor-to-neighbor. We have the first one up-- The Rural Patriot, and we managed to recruit a local to run it who's also an experienced dkos blogger! See, progressives ARE everywhere. And we're going to find them, strengthen them, and connect them. And provide safe harbor to GOPers in NY-29 who wondered what the heck happened to their party, and are tired of not having a choice besides right-wing hate radio.
Stop on by, and join the conversation! And if you're from the Rochester or Southern Tier area, and are interested in starting up a local blog, let us know -- we will support you every step of the way.
Because if
I can do it,
you can do it.
RochesterTurning.com -- turning the tide upstate
The Rural Patriot -- Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties