Yesterday, six people from the Cambridge Draft Gore group collected a hundred signatures on the Draft Gore petition at the March and Rally for Peace on Boston Common. We also passed out over 200 of Draft Al Gore President 2008 flyers and over 30 of our white on green Draft Gore bumperstickers.
Although the name of our website, Mass4Gore.com, appeared on everything we passed out and the text of the petition was the same as that on DraftGore.com's and (also adopted by AlGore.org), and we used the web to organize the effort, this was pure grassroots, person-to-person politics. The signatures were in ink on paper, and we had conversations with most of the signers.
The results were well worth the time we put in, and it began a new stage in the local Draft Gore movement. In this diary I report on the our day on the Common. I hope that this diary will inspire other Gore drafters to take their activism from the netroots to the grassroots.
[UPDATED 3/26/2007 9:31 EDT.]
The rally was organized by United for Justice and Peace. It started at 11 on the grass and paved areas in the center of the Common around the bandstand, which was draped with banners and served as a podium for live performances and speakers. Tables for various groups were arrayed on two sides of the bandstand. Draft Gore's neighbors included Billionaires for Bush, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, middleEastCrisisCenter.org, who were campaigning to ban cluster bombs, and a purveyor of literature on 911 consipiracy theories ("911 was an inside job"). The weather was sunny and breezy with temperature in the low 50s.
When I arrived with petitions, flyers, bumperstickers (sold for $2), and signs, Sue G., the first member of our Draft Gore team and who had made the arrangements, was already there, decked out in black with a festive pink hat for her other role during the day as a member of the "Raging Grannies" singing group. A 6-foot long table was ample for our materials and two petition signing "stations." We hung our improvised signs, 11 x 17" color enlargements of our white on green bumpersicker ("Draft Al Gore in 20008 For a Change in Climate"), from the front of the table. To add color we arranged bumper stickers and a large photo of the earth from space on the table, and we were "open for business."
Petition-signers were almost all ralliers and marchers making the rounds of the tables and exhibits but included a few passers-by and sightseers. They were all ages, from high school and college students to families with children, Baby Boomers, and a few seniors.
By far their most common question was "Is Al running?" or "Do you think he will run?" Our standard answer, "No, he's not running, that's why we have to draft him and need your signature to help make him an offer that he can't refuse," persuaded most doubters to sign. By 12:30 when Fred K., Susan M., and Laurie T. arrived to relieve Sue and me, we had collected over 30 signatures.
At about the same time we were visited by a New Hampshire resident who was carrying a large hand-lettered placard that said "The World Needs Al Gore Will Save the World" en route to a second march for action on Climate Change that was about to end three blocks away in Copley Square.
The crowd built steadily from hundreds to a few thousand at 2 o'clock when I came back from my break and the main speeches began. After the speeches by Howard Zinn and Cindy Sheehan, the march, led by two oversized puppets of skeletons, over three blocks long and 8 to 10 people wide headed across the Common into downtown Boston and back. Many marchers carried signs, mostly home made, calling for an end to and protesting the Iraq war. Impeachment was another common subject. For a photo and more on the rally and march see The Boston Globe article.
The pace of signatures slowed to a trickle during the main speeches and the march, when the area seemed almost empty. Geof D., another team member came by and took some pictures. He then took some petitions to the end of the Climate Crisis march to get a few signatures there. Lesley P. took a stack of flyers to hand out at an organizing event being held by our new Democratic Governor Deval Patrick. Linda P. and Elaine G. took over the table at about 4 when several hundred marchers returned.
By day's end, we had collected 102 signatures on the Common, and Geof had gathered another 15 at the end of the Climate Crisis march. (As a comparison, the the DraftGore.com petition has gained an average of 702 names per day in March.)
What Worked
- The language of the petition we used is a shortened version of petition of DraftGore.com that is now also being used by AlGore.org.
Dear Vice President Gore:
Americans from every corner of our nation are calling on you. Please listen to our plea and run for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States in 2008.
America and the world need you now more than ever. Be our candidate. Run for president. And we pledge that we'll be there for you every day until the last vote is counted.
The signature section also included a statement on privacy and use of the petition:
We treat your name, city, state, and comments as public information—for example, we may provide compilations of petitions, to Al Gore and legislators, or to the press. We will not make your street address, email address or phone number publicly available, but we may transmit it to Al Gore, DraftGore.com, or AlGore.org as part of a petition.
This opens way eventually to merge the signatures we collected into a single national petition.
- Our new flyer, printed (xeroxed) on 2 sides a sheet of letter paper, starts with the word "Draft" superimposed on a great picture of Al that we copied from DraftGore.com's front page. Followed by:
AL GORE ISN’T RUNNING,
THAT’S WHY WE NEED TO DRAFT HIM
and the National Draft Gore Movement Mission Statement:
The Draft Gore Movement is a grass roots campaign to urge Al Gore to run for President in 2008.
America needs a new President who will lead our country to sound new policies on all the pressing issues we must face. Vice President Gore is uniquely qualified for this mission because of the extraordinary breadth of his experience, his knowledge, foresight, integrity, and proven good judgment.
Our goal in 2007 is to increase support for Vice President Gore, organize supporters, volunteers, and resources across every state and community, and open his path to the nomination and the Presidency. We hope and believe that he will answer the call to serve the country and run for President in 2008.
On the flip side are bullet points on the War in Iraq, Climate Change, the Patriot Act, and the Internet, each followed by a quote and a URL for his speeches, and the close:
Right for America in 2008
Al Gore has proved time and again that he has excellent judgment on the issues that matter most. None of the other candidates’ records comes close to his.
But Al Gore is not a candidate for President and says that he "has no plans to run," so we must ask him to run in a way that he cannot refuse.
Our whole team felt the flyer is very strong, and we plan to use it at future events.
Lessons Learned
- The Climate Rescue march got onto our radar only two days before the event. With more advance notice we could have easily collected twice as many signatures or more with modest additional effort there, as there were well over a thousand participants. We need better intelligence.
- We had to encourage many signers to give an email or mailing address. Better design of the petition form could have reduced this problem, but many people were not used to signing petitions and would still need to be reminded.
- Always bring a supply of clothes pins to hold papers in the wind. (Thank you Sue G.)
To Do
- We need larger and more colorful signs. Our message was invisible from further than 50 feet.
- We need to decide whether and how to merge the signatures, especially the 10 from out of state with
one or the other of the national petitions DraftGore.com's 65 thousand signatures.
- Finally, what to do with the signatures that come with mailing address but no email address? Is anyone keeping a database of these folks?