As many of you know, I spent Saturday at the Tennessee Progressive Conference brought to Nashville by the great folks at the Tennessee Alliance for Progress. Nell Levine and a very dedicated group of over-worked and unpaid volunteers devoted an enormous amount of their time -- hours and hours over a span of months and months -- to this project. The conference consisted of three separate events: the Friday strategy session for progressive leaders from across the state, the Friday night celebration and awards ceremony, and Saturday's workshops, along with 2 keynote addresses by some very knowledgeable national progressive leaders.
Of course the conference is merely a tiny fraction of the work the people at TAP are doing on a daily basis to help bring about a better day for all of us. Despite limited resources and limited funds, TAP is, in fact, doing a literally stunning job of building a progressive movement in Tennessee.
Across the state, TAP has twenty-two member organizations which represent a diverse constituency whose issues include immigrant rights, reproductive rights, health care for all, the politics of faith and spirituality, and many more. Obviously it takes a lot of work and a special talent to create a strong coalition out of a diverse assortment of groups -- groups that most certainly do not agree on all the issues!
As a feminist, I know all too well that even on the left, we sometimes approach each other with preconceived notions based on all the usual negative stereotypes. I would be very surprised if TAP does not spend some serious energy and time on this issue.
But you are not going to believe some of the incredibly exciting projects that TAP has in the works. Stay tuned and I'll present some of them to your disbelieving progressive hearts in the next day or two. I'll also have a post about the blogging workshop - my mom's accident threw me for a loop and created utter chaos in my life last week (she's 86 years old and broke her leg in 3 places!), and so I went without a few things, including my handouts, but I want to make these available, especially to those of you who are thinking about starting your own blog. Also, two of our presenters were not able to attend due to family issues and a very sad crisis. But luckily, we enjoyed the awesome presence of Aunt B. of feminist Tiny Cat Pants fame and Mr. Mack who has done some serious and desperately-needed work on immigrant rights over at Coyote Chronicles.
But more on all this in the post to come.
Oh, and I'll also have a response to what, in my view, is a decidedly negative take on the Saturday component of the conference.
A few of the highlights of my day at the workshop component of THE Progressive Conference in Tennessee:
Media Reform
The media reform workshop was presented by local activist shereos Ginny Welsch of Radio Free Nashville and Mary Mancini of Liberadio(!).
The FCC is deciding policy now - if you trust your government and don't mind Big Media owning every media outlet in your town, then don't do a thing. Otherwise, you better join forces with the aforementioned women and head on over to Free Press and find out what you can do before it's too late!
Your government has decreed that there will be no more teevee for you after 2/17/09 - unless you beg, borrow or steal a digital teevee. Analog signals are on their deathbed.
David Sirota -
David Sirota stressed the importance of being a progressive first and a good Democrat second. Pushing a progressive agenda is far more important than party loyalty. Every progressive gain in this country has been won by the strategy of treating the Democratic Party as the means to an end, not the end. Are you paying attention Harold Ford?
Sirota also stressed that the most important issue is campaign finance reform - when that is accomplished, everything else will follow.
Also from Sirota: Persuading politicians to listen to you --
Get your politico into a room with 100 people. Tell her/him that you want A. B. and C. Promise that if you don't get A. B. and C., each and every person in the room will go out and get 50 votes against her/him. You may or may not get what you want, but your politico will definitely start paying attention to you.
Al Gore says: "Every politically engaged citizen should read [Sirota's] book." You can purchase Hostile Takeover at TAP.
Al Gore Lives on My Street
You won't be surprised to hear that the crowd cheered and then some when Bob Orrall sang his famous song -- Al Gore Lives on My Street. I know I cheered. There's some kind of magic about Al Gore. Mere applause is just not enough.
Listen to - Al Gore Lives on My Street!
A special thanks to all the progressive bloggers who took the time to promote the conference. Some who come to mind are R. Neal at KnoxViews, Sharon Cobb, Paige at Mothers Acting Up, Outrage, Hope and Action, and Bruce Barry at Pith in the Wind. I'll try to include more of you in the next post (providing that no one in my family breaks any more limbs).
More to come. . .
Tennessee Alliance for Progress Progressive Conference Politics Tennessee Nashville TAP Conference News David Sirota Compass IV Al Gore Lives on My Street
