Political action group MoveOn.Org demonstrated its remarkable ability to get people together to take action when 15,000 volunteers who attended 3,000 house parties registered an estimated 10,000 new voters by telephone in three hours.
Given that the last election was decided by just a few hundred voters, this was a remarkable accomplishment. Add to that the fact that MoveOn, which now has a membership base of 2.2 million, organized the whole event in just two weeks and you can see what a powerful grassroots organization they have become.
I attended a party on the Upper West Side in an incredibly hot apartment crammed full of more than 30 people. Undaunted, we each made our way through our list of 30 women in Florida who did not vote in the last election.
Every time someone got a “yes” we cheered. I hit pay dirt in one house where a mother and daughter who have never voted decided it was time for change. The president of a major firm registered an 82 year-old woman who has never voted. It was a truly inspiring demonstration of democracy in action.
To help them register we filled out the voter registration form (except for Social Security number which we told them to fill in themselves when they got the form.) We sent them the forms with a stamped envelope addressed to their state’s voter registration authority.
15,000 MoveOn Volunteers Register 15,000 New Voters In Three Hours
BL Ochman | July 13, 2004 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) | TrackBack (
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I was at the same Upper Westside location registering people. It was a wonderful experience to come together with so many dedicated and committed others. Most of the women I reached in Florida said they were already registered. So I just encouraged them to get our and vote in Nov. They said they would. Let’s all hope they keep their word. Job well done.
I am deeply saddened to find a website of the quality of Whatsnextonline allowing its clearly personal political bias to creep into what has been up to now a well balanced and informative website PR service.
The fact that the political leanings of the Principal of Whatsnextonline.com are now fully exposed, only goes towards fortifying the fear that future comments are likely to bear a tainted slant in all future Newsletters, not to mention Blog.
For us, we could no longer countenance using the services of a PR company that allowed personal political views and comments to become mixed up in day-to-day business dealings, that should always remain professional and above such matters.
The fact that the reference to Moveon.org appeared in a Blog, does not condone the ill-judged inclusion of a political position and reference to action by their Volunteers. Mention of such matters should be left to external personal Blogs and other outlets, that are not associated with any creditable Professional business, in PR or any other industry.
Sorry you feel that way. The concept of objectivity is a sham.
Do you honestly believe that it is not obvious that the New York Times leans to the left and The Wall Street Journal leans to the right? Newsletters and blogs are written by human beings and human beings have opinions. I am up front with mine. No surprises, no hidden agenda.
Evan Maxwell writing in Editor & Publisher, put it extremely well when he said, “Journalism wants to scrub out of its practitioners all appearances of individual opinion, much like the army scrubs idiosyncrasy out of new recruits. The soldiers who do the best job of internalizing these principles become officers (editors). The analogy could work about as well with the church.
But the process goes against both human nature and a proper appreciation of human mental activity. We all have opinions, and the misguided effort to suppress them leads to hypocrisy and lots of other unhealthy things.
The Web, with its ability to publish all kinds of opinion at the cost of a few electrons, is ultimately threatening to the institutions and corporations which rely on their monopoly of the means of publishing. I can put together a Web log and distribute it even more cheaply than the old broadsides used to be published and distributed. It is completely revolutionizing communication, and The Establishment is very, very uneasy with that revolution.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Frankly, I do wear my politics on my sleeve, and I am proud of it. I have reached a point in my career where I can afford to pick and choose my clients and I would not want to work with a company that found my willingness to express my opinions in my blog to be objectionable.
The stated purpose of my blog is coverage of “Internet strategy, marketing, public relations, politics with news and commentary.”
I have a blog, in addition to my Website, so I CAN express my opinions.
By the way, whatsnextonline is not a PR firm..I did run a traditional PR firm for many years and grew it into one of the 100 largest independent PR firms in the US. . Since 1995 we have provided Internet marketing strategy, search engine optimization, Webiste content, as well as PR to drive traffic to sites. As a journalist, I cover Internet marketing, trends and outlook for a variety of publications where my articles articles are widely read.
I don’t want to be flip, and I do thank you for expressing your opinion. But if my opinions in my blog or anywhere else offend you, feel free not to read them.
B.L. Ochman