We have lost our grip on the American Dream, the corporatist and bankers are trying to snatch it out of our hands. I always felt if you kept yourself informed and made educated votes that as a society we would continue to progress. Growing up white and middleclass I knew I had a better chance at the American Dream then many, but hoped as technology made us more productive we would all share the increased prosperity. Society would become more integrated, tolerant and accepting.
Unfortunately, the last thirty years have not turned out the way I hoped, the prosperity from our increased productivity has been stolen by a greedy few. Divisiveness and fear has become a tool of some politicians and religions to build their base.
Never really doing more then yelling at the TV and banging my pipe wrenches, friends and family have listened to me rant for years as we continued this backwards slide. When California passed Prop. 8, I could take it no more, how could we become so hateful? It was time to take it to the streets; dragging my little one with me we took our signs and headed to City Hall.
Then came the Tea Party, the epitome of fear based hate and divisiveness. A faux grassroots movement funded and promoted by the very people who stole our prosperity. With the help of Fox News, ALEC and others they have worked to make us less informed, less educated and more divided. They have stolen our legislative voice, bribing our politicians with campaign funds while providing them with prewritten bills to pass to further their agenda. They seem to have things pretty well wrapped up controlling our legislators, media and economy.
Now we push back. People around the globe are standing up and being heard. As Americans saw the actions from Tunisia to Wisconsin to Wall Street they began rise up. A few months ago I stumbled upon a group of about half a dozen people through the Van Jones’ Rebuild the Dream movement. They called themselves the Dream Menders with the goal of providing others the opportunity to become informed and be active. Since joining them we have grown to about a dozen core members and a Yahoo group of about 60. The core group meets every Thursday night at a local coffee house in the Valley of Heart’s Delight (aka Silicon Valley) to plan events. We were able to leverage a MoveOn call to action and rally over 100 people in support of Occupy San Jose. But we were just starting; our big event was still being planned.
Last Monday our plans came to fruition. At the San Jose City Hall Rotunda we held the first Dream Menders rally. Our small group of amateur activists gathered over 250 people to join us. We provided them with not just talking heads, but “action tables” where they could learn about and join groups such as, Move to Amend, CA Clean Money Campaign, Occupy San Jose and PACT.
Our list of speakers was impressive with people such as Rep. Mike Honda (CPC), Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Cindy Chavez (Working Partnership USA), Richard Hobbs (Move to Amend), Anthony Cody (Teachers Lead), Scott Myers-Lipton (Sociology Prof. SJSU) and others. Pablo Ghenis (Occupy San Jose) poked and prodded the politicians with his comments that the Occupiers goal was to be an irritant, to which Rep. Mike Honda replied he would use the Occupy movement as an excuse (or support) to push for more progressive policy. If we lead the leaders will follow.
The event drew much attention from the media with a front page story in the local section of the Mercury News and TV coverage from most of the local and PBS stations. San Jose city council members also showed up to see what we were doing.
We did not accomplish this by ourselves; besides the support of our families we received much help and advice from emcee Chris Wilder, Director of Valley Medical Center Foundation, and Elisabeth Handler, PRx Communication Strategists.
As an example of the contrast between the progressive and conservative movements: As a group from Occupy San Jose arrived with their signs they were told the city would not allow signs bigger then 2’ x 2’, they proceeded to rip their signs in half and peacefully enter the rotunda. Later, as a Tea Party Patriot couple was informed of the rule the husband became enraged, tore down the notice and pushed the usher. Fellow Dream Mender Raul who happens to be a San Jose Police officer, stepped in as the usher called 911 detaining the man until police arrived. He got cited for assault…hehehe…stupid teabagger.
Future Dream Menders events:
Join with Move to Amend: noon, January 20th for Occupy the Courts at St. James Park across from the old courthouse where this case was heard, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad.
Letter to the Editor Writing Party: 7pm. January 26th at Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Co.
Joining to support the Disclose Act: 7:30pm, February 9th at Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Co.
Panel Discussions on Campaign Reform, Education and Healthcare dates TBD.