I've always believed in this phrase intellectually and spiritually.
Democracy Only Works If You Participate
Now I can believe it experientially. I co-lead a civic engagement group called Occupy Democracy - Pasadena (ODP). Our group has been active since tax day of 2011, though at that time we hadn't yet come together as a group officially.
People like these inspired a few of us to make this a more sustainable group and name it. It was with some persistence and imagination that our group can now claim this victory. . . .
We made a congressman, our Congressman, Adam Schiff
take a strong stand to overturn the "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling using a constitutional amendment! This is a picture of 4 of the 20 in our ODP leadership group at a meeting the congressman
requested from us!
We:
**demonstrated in the street and got media attention
**created a petition and gathered signatures of 700 neighbors
**met with our congressman (who offered us nothing substantive)
**demonstrated again in the street
**gathered 300 more signatures on our petition
**got into the Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena and flyered it with the congressman's office number
**we flyered 3 different farmers markets in the congressman's newly redisticted CD and asked people to call his office - 1000 flyers distributed and hundreds of real conversations were had with his new constituents.
**won! We Moved a Congressman to Do What is Right!'
and
we continue to work in our community, hoping now to be a part of an effort to successfully save our Mack Robinson Postal Distribution Facility from being closed by PMG Patrick Donahoe.