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| February 10, 2011, Vol. 1 No. 3 |
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From the Editors
We received a large number of e-mails from fellow Coffee Partiers--some telling us to keep up the good work, others pointing out the format problems of the newsletter, and yet others telling us what issues concern them. We thank you all for your feedback and will keep working to make the newsletter better. We decided to start publishing select "letters to the editor". You can read one such letter below.
--Lynda Park, Barb Bull, and Tim McDonough (Newsletter Co-editors)
newsletter@coffeepartyusa.com
Letter to the Editor
Thanks for the newsletter. I too agree that more of us are in sympathy with your view of the country today. Having said that, however, I'm also willing to be called to account for being so lax in the past and letting the incremental changes to regulations and laws go without protest. THAT is the kind of oversight that isn't just the responsibility of our elected officials but is what we should be doing too. I'm always at least amused, if not displeased, that too many think the phrase "eternal vigilance" relates more to the second amendment and guns or a "well-regulated militia". I think the founders realized that ANY form of government can be "gamed" and that's why it's always going to be important to have "high information" voters and constituents as well as conscientious public officials. THANKS again for all you do.
--Vonna V., Raleigh NC
Watch Lessig's Keynote from
the For the People Summit!
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Donate in February and Become a Founding Member!
Dear Friends,
A year ago, the Coffee Party was launched unexpectedly by a simple update of a Facebook status. We are writing to you today because this movement deserves a chance to grow.
In order to grow from our all-volunteer, grassroots movement into a national organization with a permanent presence, we need to hire an Internet communications and grassroots organizing staff to build capacity and provide better support for our local organizers.
As we enter our second year, we’d like to invite you to support us by becoming a Founding Member of Coffee Party USA. If you join us in the month of February, you will receive a bumper sticker and a personalized card recognizing you as a Founding Member.
We're proud of what we accomplished in 2010. We have over 120 local chapters, over 1500 events have been organized, and more than 400,000 people have become engaged online. We did all of this in the spirit of volunteerism and civic duty, with a budget of $70,000 raised from thousands of donors averaging $17 each. We organized our first national convention in Louisville, Kentucky and partnered with like-minded groups to organize a strategy summit in DC on the issue of corporatism and money in politics.
With emerging social media technology, your support, and the enduring values we share as Americans, we can rein in corporate influence on our government, and usher in a new era of informed, effective, and responsible self-governance.
You must join during the month of February to receive a bumper sticker and a personalized card recognizing you as a Founding Member.
You can sign up for a 1-year Founding Membership for as little as $10 by clicking here. And, to sign up for a Sustaining Membership for as low as $5 a month, click here.
Thank you so much for your commitment, support and participation.
—Annabel, Eric, Sabina, David, Bruce, Lynda, Leah & the Coffee Party
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Egypt, Democracy and JFK
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy
JFK said this in 1962 during a White House reception for the diplomatic corps of the Latin American Republics. It seems to me that he is not only firmly objecting to the use of oppressive and brutal forces of authoritarian regimes, but also making a pragmatic argument for democracy. We need to recognize that democratic principles make "peaceful revolutions" possible and keep societies stable and secure.
An interesting conversation ensued when I posted this quote on our Facebook page and my personal page. It was meant as a commentary on what is happening in Egypt and other authoritarian governments in the Middle East that have been, will be or need to be challenged. It was also meant as a reminder to Americans that we need to cherish and protect our democratic process. Our commitment to democracy, including support for peaceful popular revolutions, makes us and will keep us stable and strong.
The post was misunderstood by some as an incitement to violence in America. Such misunderstanding reveals that many people in America feel that we too are at some kind of a political crossroads and there is a difficult social and political struggle going on in our own country triggering fear, indignation, anger, suspicion and confusion.
We need to engage fellow Americans embracing the desire to understand the truth of our own struggle. We need to encourage a great, civil, inclusive conversation in America that would allow people to express their views, emotions and worries without feeling oppressed, shouted down, humiliated, demeaned or silenced.
We ought to proceed in a spirit of a truly open society committed to being a model democracy in a manner that would make JFK proud.
More than ever, I feel committed to the principles of democracy and the tradition of civic engagement - full of compassion and a sense of cooperation - that was part of JFK's vision for America.
Send our message to the people of Egypt. Call the Coffee Party Speak-Out Line and be part of our video, "Messages from America." (301) 259-1869. Listen to contributed messages so far.
-- Annabel Park
Source: JFK's address on the First Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress delivered at The White House, Washington D.C. on 13 March 1962. A reception for the diplomatic corps of the Latin American Republics.
Read the Facebook thread about this quote.
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Meet a National Team Member
Laurie Millam (Wilcox), Facebook Outreach Co-Director
A year ago, if you had told me there were others out there who saw and lamented the same lack of political civility that my husband and I did, I wouldn't have believed you. Then, one day, I saw that one of my Facebook friends had "joined the Coffee Party" and decided to check it out. Enter the CPM, Annabel, and - just that quickly - I learned that we were not alone! Since then, I have seen the page explode from under 20,000 to over 300,000, and became part of an incredible community. The friends and connections I have made with Coffee Party activists are invaluable; I would love to list them all here, but there are simply too many of them!
As Co-Facebook Outreach Director, it has been my pleasure to work with a fantastic admin team, and with the dedicated and passionate posters/commenters on the page, as we try to "reset" the national dialogue, and learn how to talk to each other civilly again. It has occasionally been a bumpy ride, but I wholeheartedly believe we can do this, and look forward to year number two on the Facebook page with you!
Volunteer!
We are an all-volunteer movement. Laura is volunteering to serve as the Regional Support Director. Our movement would not exist without all the volunteers. We need your knowledge, skills and dedication. Everyone has something to contribute. To volunteer, sign up here on Shared Purpose and let us know of your skills.
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The FL Coffee Party Chapter Coordinators Meet
Florida Coffee Party Chapter Coordinators and alternates met face-to-face for the first time on January 29 in Orlando. Sue Casterline graciously offered her home for the meeting. St. Augustine, Tallahassee, Titusville, Pensacola, Venice/Englewood, Tamarac/Broward County, and Orlando chapters attended. We focused on getting acquainted, setting 2011 priorities, planning effective networking, and training. Chapters highlighted events supporting the National Coffee Party Summit: open-mic coffee house events; public forums with guest speakers; letters to local newspapers; and a university TV station interview.
We set three top priorities for 2011: (1) Recruiting & Retention; (2) Money in Politics; and (3) Implementing Fair Districts (Constitutional Amendments). We agreed to work with the Florida League of Women Voters, Fair Districts and the ACLU to provide strong leverage to mitigate gerrymandering. We reviewed a detailed re-districting timeline. We also agreed to prioritize establishing a state structure that emphasizes grassroots flexibility and engages online Coffee Party members.
We conducted informal training activities; (a) Organizing & leadership; (b) Facebook & Twitter communications; (c) Shared Purpose (SP) and “Virtual Internet Chapters”; and (d) Recruiting. Due to time constraints we tabled discussion of legislative watchdog actions, petition writing, and Top 2 Open Primaries. We will address those topics in conference calls.
The meeting was very productive. We shared many creative ideas. Everyone was energized to maintain a strong collaborative network via regular conference calls and future face-to-face meetings.
Ray Hudkins, FL State Coordinator
rhud66@gmail.com
Coffee Party Florida website
Coffee party of Floria Facebook page
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New Users guide to Twitter:
Part I Getting Started
Why Twitter?
Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media services with millions of users around the world. It is a great source of up-to-date information. In addition to individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies all use Twitter. Most news organizations have at least one account, with some having accounts for each of their major departments and many of their journalists. It is also a great tool for pushing out information about the Coffee Party.
For more, read 12 Reasons to Start Twittering by Michael Hyatt and watch Twitter in Plain English.
 Getting Started
Go to Twitter and click on the Sign Up! button. Enter your name, username, password, and email address. Choose a username that you want to use publicly. After you click "Create an Account," be sure to log in to your email to confirm your account. Congratulations, you now have a Twitter account!
If you want to create an account for your local Coffee Party group, you need to have another e-mail address. Again be sure to use a username that is as clear as possible. For example, @CoffeePartyU is the name for the Coffee Party University.
Who to Follow
Twitter will present a screen full of accounts for you to follow organized by interest. You can click on an area of interest and follow the suggested accounts, or you can skip to the next step and follow your friends. You can use your email contact list to find your friends, as long as you use Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN. Click on the button that says "find friends on," allow Twitter access to your account, and a list of your email contacts using Twitter will appear. Click on "Follow" for those whose tweets you wish to read. Don't forget to follow @coffeepartyusa!
Now that you've gotten yourself set up, you're ready to actually use Twitter. That will be the subject of the next installment. Stay tuned! However, if you can't wait and want to know more, Mashable has an online guidebook to Twitter. --Vince Lamb
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Civility is the Road to Unity
There has been much discussion in recent days regarding the shooting rampage in Arizona. Although it is highly unlikely that the uncivil tone of our political rhetoric is the direct cause of this tragedy, it would serve us well to stop and reflect on the harmful consequences of toxic rhetoric. For sure, the lack of civility in American politics is not new. However, if we are honest, we will admit that in recent years, negativity, disrespect, bias, untruths, name-calling, vitriol, inflammatory rhetoric, and scapegoating have become more pervasive, more intense, and even regarded as normal and necessary expressions of "freedom of speech" by large segments of our population on both sides of the political spectrum.
 The Arizona tragedy has brought us to a crossroads in our political discourse. Where do we go from here? Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” comes to mind. Shall we travel farther down the expedient road of incivility, or shall we take the less traveled road of civility? Many loud voices are clamoring that civility implies censorship. This is not so. Civility is more concerned with the "how" than with the "what" of our discourse. A return to civility is not at odds with a vigorous exchange of ideas. It merely requires that we make a personal choice to conduct the vigorous exchange in a manner that is moral and consistent with a respect for the human person.
Civility is a moral virtue, more than it is a strict adherence to polite rules of dialogue or debate. It requires a humble acceptance of the reality that we may not have all the answers, that our opinions are not always the most logical or justified. It demands that we sincerely listen to, and open our minds to, the views of another. Civility asks us to return to a basic principle taught by most major world religions. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
A return to civility, in our family relationships, in our communities, and in our national politics, has to start with an individual choice from each of us. Reversing the tide of the national vitriol will not be easy or quick. Going down the road “less traveled by” will require humility and compassion on our part, virtues that are not much in vogue these days. It will also require perseverance, since many vitriolic voices will not be easily convinced to change the tone or behavior that rewards them with attention, power, or wealth. Nonetheless, we must start.
Currently, we are the United States of America in name only. The only path to true unity is a return to civility. Unfortunately, that path is the “less traveled road" in our culture and politics right now. That can change as more and more of us decide to make the vitriolic path the “road not taken,” and choose to walk the walk of civility. The choice is ours. Hopefully, future generations will look back at this decisive moment in our history and see that we chose the road to “a more perfect union,” that “we the people” came together and
..."took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
(from "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost)
Gloria LeBlanc (Coordinator, St. Augustine, FL Coffee Party)
A version was published in The St. Augustine Record on January 23, 2011.
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Review of Pricele$$
“Pricele$$”, the new movie from Habitat Media, provides an entertaining and informative look at the problem of big money in politics. And, even better, it inspires and offers directions to citizens to solve this problem, THE problem, underlying our government’s inability to democratically and effectively govern.
Filmmakers Steve Cowan and Cameron Harrison look at a couple of basic issues, food and energy. Contemporary problems in each industry are discussed (pesticide exposure, cancer, global warming, war). Possible solutions are reviewed. But in each case, we see how the businesses that benefit from current practices are able to apply their wealth to the political system in order to prevent the kind of change that might be good for the country, but would bad for their businesses.
“Pricele$$” takes us inside the system of political lobbying. We see our elected officials, in constant need of very large amounts of money for their campaigns, doing their work in Washington, a town full of lobbyists who have very large amounts of money to spend on campaigns. Democrats and Republicans are subject to the same forces. While elected officials, as individuals, are not portrayed as corrupt, this constant need to raise money produces a system that is not only corrupting but dysfunctional.
Had the filmmakers looked into health care, the deficit, global warming, the regulation of Wall Street, you get the feeling that the pattern would be the same; business executives, fulfilling their obligation to their shareholders, use campaign funding to influence government policy to the benefit of the company but often to the detriment of the rest of us.
But, it doesn’t have to be this way! We visit Arizona, one of a handful of states were a system of publicly funded elections has been in place for years. And we learn about proposals at the national level for a public funding plan where small contributions from a candidate’s home state are matched by public funding. These types of public funding plans give candidates and incumbents an alternative to being dependent on campaign money from a few large self-interested parties.
Some of the most sincere statements from politicians in “Pricele$$” are about their personal distaste for fundraising. But, as incumbents, they know they are good at working the current system and they are hesitant to change it. So, who is going to change it? Us. It has to be us. We have to insist that our elected representatives make this change. And this is the great value of “Pricele$$”. Whether you watch the 58 minute version or the 25 minute version (both are on the same disc), when the credits roll, the discussion starts.
 Get this movie! Get organized! Let's fix the system!
(Click on the image to the right for more info. To order “Pricele$$”,go to the Backbone Campaign's Donate page, make a $20 donation and put “Pricele$$” in the “Purpose” box at the top of the screen.)
--Frank Kirkwood, Pittsburgh, PA
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