Turnout

Mid-week I had a double dose of Obama health care reform organizing. Tuesday night I stopped by the downtown Louiville café that had been the home base for the Obama budget canvassing where some 20 people (more than I had expected) – some veterans of the Obama KY primary campaign – gathered to chat with two Organizing for American organizers, one paid, one volunteer. They had called me to make sure I would be there, even though it turns out the weather had been awful that day. They did a good job of listening to people, but then after an hour (and I left early so Vincent and I could go to the gym) got down to organizing – primarily around calling east central Kentucky to push KY’s one other Democratic congressperson, Ben Chandler, to support health care reform. He’s been on the fence. Our own congressperson, John Yarmuth, is more progressive and has been supportive so far. There was talk about the tea party activity and disruptions to Democratic congresspeople trying to have town meetings.

The KY organizers, who have been touring across the state, said they were trying to rebuild some organization, since there was not a lot of general election action, since Obama for the most part wrote off this state. The organizers were more clear about the direction coming from the president – something that had gotten away from us somewhat at the July Southern Indiana for Change meeting. The organizers pushed volunteering in KY instead of IN (I recognized one of the single-payer advocates from the Southern Indiana meeting – I noticed she was quieter when a man was leading the meeting – but like me she seemed not impressed for his arguments why we should focus in KY.)

Wednesday night I was back across the river in Southern Indiana. It was not raining – like it was when the rain delayed me last week – but the whole area is still reeling from all of the rain. There was a big crowd – again, about 20 – which again surprised me. Remember I’ve been to several events over there where only two or three or four of us called or canvassed. Abby (daughter of Stephanie’s principals) had really pulled out the stops, partly because there was supposed to be a “Washington Post” reporter there. But she obviously also had help – by the presence – from higher-ups: two people from Congressman Hill’s office, some new IN organizers, and the Floyd County Democratic Party chairperson – all of whom I met, plus Abby’s mother and uncle, and Bruce and a woman, both of whom I’d met, who are Louisville people who were active in the election campaign.

There was little wrangling about single-payer here.

Abby and then the IN state director talked, and then Bruce and I headed out to canvass in two different neighborhoods not far from downtown. At the last moment the “Post” reporter, who had appeared, tagged along with us. Apparently Abby had partly funneled him towards us. Bruce’s car was a mess, and so Robert ended up caravanning with us. The first neighborhood we went to had gotten hit bad by the flooding the day before. The first man I talked to had just come up from trying to get water out of his basement. Bruce and I took opposite sides of the street and Robert tagged along behind me for a while. Two or three of the voters I talked to he asked follow-up questions of, identifying himself, and then even took a picture of one of the voters in her front yard with her flag. He was doing an article which may be in in the next week about the health care reform debate in the district of Baron Hill, who has turned out to be a pivotal figure in the debate in the House (as a key Blue Dog Democrat who still seems to want reform, on the House Commerce Committee). We noted that Hill, who he was to interview Thursday, has not scheduled town meeting-type events during the August recess. I talked him a little about my support for health care reform: I have a “Cadillac” plan, but am just a job loss away from losing it. And I have family members with no health insurance and have seen people lined up in emergency rooms, some with health problems that it’s not efficient for them to be in emergency rooms for, and know my employer is paying extra (the hidden tax) because of that. I also mentioned that my Mother’s health insurance company may turn her down for a important potentially life-saving medication, and so we already have rationing – it’s just by insurance companies, not the government. I had had time to think about this a little because Abby had told me he might call me the day before. We also talked some of the politics of health care reform – both in Southern Indian and elsewhere – something I’ve already covered some on the blog.

Robert left us and Bruce and I moved to a different neighborhood on the opposite of downtown. This was a neighborhood not unlike the one in Jeffersonville that Tim, Abby’s uncle, and I had walked a month ago – a very Democratic, mixed-race, mixed-class neighborhood. It looked like it had an African-American church on one side of it. I didn’t know there was such neighborhoods in New Albany: a black plurality neighborhood also a little like my old neighborhood, Phoenix Hill. People were relatively supportive, and Bruce and I – who had not taken enough flyers – ended up running out of some. We were supposed to encourage people to call Hill to thank him for helping turn the Commerce Committee around – but had to call to get his number and write it on a flyer. Compared to canvassing in Jeff days, we have a beautiful new color flyer, but we had not gotten enough of them. Some cute dogs and a few conversations. Between the two of us in the two neighborhoods – over two hours – complete with newspaper interviews and flooding and dog conversations – Bruce and I got about 11 public endorsements, I think – which is better than the two or three I usually get on the phone.

Speaking of surprise big crowds partly to impress people, we had one of our two biggest Toastmasters meetings – 15 people – in recent years, when the Toastmasters area governor – from an adjoining club – as a guest. My new colleague Joelle did a good job with her second speech, but we faced very difficult extemporaneous speaking topics. This is just my third meeting since turning over my VP for Education reins to a fellow club member, and essentially only the second meeting whose educational program I didn’t plan. But the meeting went well, and I continue – as VP for Public Relations – to blog for the club at: http://peacespeakerstoastmasters.blogspot.com

-- Perry

Challenges to reform

While I worked a little for health care reform, I got another look at the challenges supporters of the president's health care reform principles face. Those principles include keeping a choice of doctors and plans (including a public plan), lower costs, and health care access for all - plus, more recently, deficit-neutral (all paid for). Stephanie's principal's daughter, Abby, had recruited me to a Southern Indiana United for Change gathering at which she originally hoped we would somehow each vow to get 50 new supporters each for the principles. SUIC I thought was a front group for Organizing for America, the extension of the Obama campaign. The reality was more complex. There were maybe a couple of dozen people there, and Abby and Bethany, the woman who had helped direct canvassing in Jeffersonville (IN) the Saturday before. But lots of folks there had questions about the president's principles - including too vague, they thought - and many others there were passionate supporters of the single-payer (national health insurance) proposals like the one Senator Edwards had advanced. it's possible to interpret what these folks were doing was heckling the meeting. You might recall I talked to one of these folks two weeks earlier (but she was more philosophical). Apparently, these folks had also talked the moderate Southern IN congressperson for whom I have volunteered into having a single payer expert talk with the "Blue Dog" moderate/conservative Democrat group that subsequently blocked the president's health care reform proposal in the House. There was a lot of discussion about this too. An aide to this House member, Baron Hill (Andy?), was also there. So - after general questions and questions from the single-payer folks - he fielded a bunch of questions - again, arguably, diverting the meeting. He wanted to defend Hill's position/record - and took up a fair amount of time doing so - although Bethany's official line on this was not that Hill and the Blue Dogs were trying to block health care reform, but that they were trying to make the proposal better. I later asked Andy about this directly - could they be trying to slow things down so they'd never have to take a tough vote on it (most moderate Dems are from swing districts, like the many moderates who got decimated in the 1994 election after the controversy over the Clinton health plan and the subsequent GOP takeover of the House). Throughout much of this meeting, I thought that Abby - who I knew was under a lot of pressure to DOUBLE the number of supporters signing up out of Southern Indiana (from 500 to 1,000) in the five subsequent days - was going to cry. Below Abby and Bethany try to enlist us to make phone calls or go out to the Clark County fair.

Folks on the right hand side of the room (below) painted themselves as less informed. For some reason I didn't get a photo of the single-payer people, who were mainly on the left-hand-side of the room.

Below Andy fielded a number of questions. Another problem with this is that the quasi-petition drive is partly aimed at Senator Bayh (D-IN), who will propably oppose the plan, and Hill, part of the Blue Dogs. The 1,000 signatures were partly to try to demonstrate support for Southern IN to them. To the extent that Andy could pick up - as no doubt he did - that even the Obama campaign front group in Southern IN was quite divided over the president's reform principles - even if we came up with most of the 1,000 signatures, it might damage that somewhat. To an extent Andy was a "spy."

Ultimately, only 3-4 of us made calls - with only 45 minutes left. I got two supporters - one of them someone all the way up on the near Cincinnati end of the district where a new casino is doubling in size. (While I called outside where I had better cell phone reception, I overheard some of a fascinating conversation about religion among three folks there for the meeting - but nothing about health care reform from them - as they milled around outside in the parking lot instead of making phone calls.) But that wasn't going to put a big dent in the 500 additional signatures Abby was trying to get - or get me close to the 50 Abby was hoping we'd each get. I believe Abby went on to the Clark county fair by herself. (I told her I felt guilty about going to the Floyd 4-H fair the previous week with no paraphernalia.) I also confessed I would be out of town for the weekend and might might volunteer at the Nevada state Democratic Party HQ in Las Vegas at a phone calling event Monday (which I ended up not doing). Since all of this, the health care debate has sharpened, the Blue Dogs have thrown down the gauntlet, and the police incident in Cambridge and resulting controversy has also diverted attention from it. Also - I see in Ohio - that Organizing for America and allies have finally started running pro-health care reform TV ads - which I'm hoping if Southern IN is really important that they'll start running in the Louisville TV market also.

-- Perry

Saturday volunteering

I skipped the drag show partly because I planned to volunteer at two places in the morning. For several days women from the around the country and around the world had been arriving for the Presbyterian Women gathering, which was starting officially after lunch Saturday. Every three years for the past12 or 15, several thousand women descend on Louisville for a week of activities. All week women have been touring through the Presbyterian Center - just 3-4 blocks from the convention center - where the gathering is being held (and just 3-4 blcoks from Connections) - and many getting their pictures taken in front of the building and around Peace Seeker, the five-year-old Gallapalooza horse in front of our building. The women above were some of the "Global Partner" women on hand for the gathering. I chatted briefly with one of these women, who was from Palestine (at top right, I think). Saturday morning I showed up a little after 8 a.m. It took me a while to find anything to do. By 9 a.m. I was helpfully staffing an information booth with Kay, a woman from our friend Sarah's church. Diana, the woman on the right, was the first person who recruited me to help out. Helping giving arriving conference people - mainly middle-aged women - directions and information reminded me a lot of twice when I've helped Mom who was helping lead two different Florida American Association of University Women state conventions.

Below, Kay and Diana go over some of the information we were supposed to have at our finger tips.

Unzu is another Korean American staffer, who works with Presbyterian Women. We see each other at Asian American events, and she was a client for a study of how much Korean American Presbyterians would accept female elders and pastors. Unzu was helping display a domestic violence exhibit. Below she shows off one of the beautiful totebags gathering goers got - handmade in Peru - eac somewhat different.

Below in the jean skirt is Leslie, a reporter for the independent "Presbyterian Outlook" weekly who sometimes shows up at our church.

Leaving the convention center at 10:30 a.m. I buzzed across the 2nd street bridge to Perfections, a cafe across the river in downtown Jeffersonville (IN), very near where I'd gotten my hair cut the day before. There I was to canvass with the quasi-Obama campaign Organizing for America in support of the president's health care reform principles. You'll recall that twice in the previous month I'd been involved in similar tasks - the first time on the phone, the second time at the New Albany (IN) farmers' market - and found - in person, especially, in downtown New Albany - getting signatures was not easy. Here, I found myself paired with the one other volunteer canvasser - Jeff, who turned out to be the brotherin-law of the principal of Stephanie's elementary school - and the uncle of Abby, who helped recruit me for this, the second Saturday morning volunteer gig.

Two head honchos visited with us. Abby had stopped by earlier with doughnuts. Still there when I stopped by was Dustin, an African American man from Jeff whose house ended up being in my side of the precinct that Tim and I walked. Bethany, a librarian from Corydon in neighboring Harrison County (both she and Dustin apparently veterans of the Obama campaign), stayed the whole time and snared some signatures in the cafe and on the phone later. They gave Tim and I one precinct, giving me the odd-numbered sides of streets and Tim the even-numbered sides. We walked the first block together. But Tim turned out be particularly adept at listening and I outpaced (as he apparently got pulled into some people's houses to listen to their health care/health insurance stories). It turns out that this was the most Democratic precinct in the most Democratic town in Clark or Floyd county. So this was much easier than me circling downtown New Albany two weeks earlier on my own asking peopld cold. And we were just knocking on doors of Democratic and independent voters. We were fine to ask people we saw on the street - of if someone new had moved in - and I got several people to sign who were not on my lists. Still, I got about 10 signatures in 1 3/4 hours or so of canvassing (Tim and I walked through town to get to the precinct, which killed some time - although it made for activity points). There were a few African Americans on the route - including several cross-racial couples - and some older whites. Most people - if I found them at home and got them to answer the door - were somewhat friendly - whether or not I signed them up (or they signed themselves if I didn't have their names). No Obama death threats - although I did hear a disturbing story where a man said his friend who works for United Parcel Service in Louisville said that the friend's union was telling people that UPS was laying people off - apparently this was the UPS line - primarily because of Obama tax hikes. It was nice to talk with more supporters - even though walking through town and going to all of these "no home" houses was expensive time-wise. I got the feeling that - once you finally reached people - it was easier to have a conversation with people in person than on the phone (of course, this was even easier in this somewhat urban neighborhood, where the houses weren't that far apart and people weren't locked up in their suburban houses.) In general, things haven't looked good lately, since a week ago I got a daily e-mail message from the "Columbus Dispatch" with news that President Obama's approval rating has sunk to 49% - under 50% for the first time in a big state (and one he won last year - albeit one with high unemployment) - and follow-up stories in the NYTimes about how Obama - having lost Republican voters early on - is now losing independent voters - as unemployment continues to stay high and some of the GOP attacks on Obama as socialist, big government, high-tax, and high-deficit begin to take their toll.

Below- once we got out there - was one of the people Tim spoke with far a long time. I talked with several couples where one person signed but not the other. I was particularly happy when women bucked their husband and signed.

Abby tells me we had a target of 1,000 signatures for Southern Indiana - partly to present to Congressman Hill - one of the Blue Dog moderate and conservative Democratic Congressman currently slowing down the bill - hopefully, to improve it - not just to derail it. Hill and fellow Blue Dog Dem Allen Boyd - my rep from North Florida - voted for the climate change bill - and there may not be that many more votes like this they can take. The Republicans don't yet publicly have someone lined up to take Hill on, but I'm sure it will be close again. We'll be out of town this weekend - and the deadline is next Sunday - but Tuesday I'll stop by to make a few more calls or canvassing (which Saturday I liked - even though I've though I'm disadvantaged - esp. in Southern IN - because I don't sound Asian, but I do look Asian - and even though by the time I left Perfections after turning in my stuff and completing some paperwork (with the second shift not showing up yet) I had a migraine headache (and - after stopping at church to change the Guatemala prayer bulletin board - I went home and ate lunch and took a two-hour nap.

-- Perry

Turtle math

Four out of five days of the second and final week of the summer camp-themed summer school at Stephanie's school, Stephanie and Vincent brought the turtles. On the first day they ate again (above) and then raced again. This time the kids timed the race, as an exercise in practical math. Stephanie took the camera this time and got some pictures and videos. The kids watched the eating.

Vincent worked with one of the two small groups of kids on math. One of the activities of the week was math bingo.

Unusually, Vincent smiled for the camera (below).

In spite of what he says about disliking kids, Vincent appeared to have fun with these kids.

Finally, the kids prepared for the great race between Greenville and Speckles.

I'll post a video of the race later.

-- Perry

Sign of the times

Yet another business in a relatively new big box shopping area - one where we bought shirts and ties for Vincent after we bought him a suit that may or may not still fit - on the other side of St. Matthews went belly up (see above). Already - all part of national chains dying - Wild Oats, Linen and Things, and Circuit City has died - and - even as those stores stand empty- they continue to build new stores. I stopped by there earlier this week but nothing jumped out at me. Also this week we learned that Diane, our next-door neighbor, with whom we share a driveway, is getting laid off this week. (Her son, who had moved back in with her, also lost his job). Diane had been working as an office manager in a real estate-related firm for six years, and the slowdown in real estate finally got her laid off. She's going to take her severance and unemployment pay and take a little time off - and then go looking. At least she doesn't have rent or house payments. Although my manager informed us last week that there would apparently be no mass layoffs this fall, I'm still worried because - for the first time since I started working at the Presbyterian Center, as part of our annual review process - for just the second time, we're doing mid-year reviews - and I'm going to miss a bunch of the mid-year targets (June 30) he and I set for me - in some cases due to me not picking up the Panel skills and tasks that quickly, in other cases due to productivity issues, in some cases due to events beyond my control (like the February 2005 Panel data turning out to be in much worse shape than we thought), and in other cases due to me getting stuck with more work on other projects (like that Review of the PC(USA) as a Whole) that we had thought I would. We'll see how I shape my written mid-year review statement and then how the session later this month goes. He's been pushing me to finish various projects and finally set a line in the sand on two - before I go on vacation later this month - I should be able to make those but of course no one likes to be told in detail what to do. I've gone from working under the close supervision of one of my senior colleagues more to him (and really to both of them). Up to a point this is fine since I often don't really know what I'm doing. But it is still grating at times. I've always said no one pays attention to these reviews - but that's if they go well - you can still get laid off. We'll see if people pay attention if they do not go well. Of course, one of my worst moments at my current job was an hour-long conversation with our former manager in connection with an annual review 2 1/2 years ago - and formally the official written Review went fine - it's just he was tough on me during that hour (and sometimes not that coherent).

-- Perry

Transitions

For 4 1/2 years I've served in the same post for the Peace Speakers Toastmasters Club at the Presbyterian Center as I did briefly for my Toastmasters club in St. Paul - as Vice President for Education. I've planned the educational programs for almost every one of the twice-monthly meetings, actually led plenty of the programs, oriented new members, and taken on many responsibilities. The club's activity level has ebbed and flowed - and recently flowed - with some half a dozen new members joining in the past six months - and - with my would-be stroke, my promotion, and so on - I resolved in January to step down when my term was up June 30. I set up programs for the six months and tried run things more on auto-pilot and also tried to involve other officers and members in programming - which is good for everyone and good for the club. For more on the club, see one of my other blogs at: http://peacespeakerstoastmasters.blogspot.com/ . Wednesday two weeks ago was my last official meeting as VP for Education. I was part of a slate of officers elected - this time as VP for Public Relations - which includes what I've done with the blog. I hope to also construct a club Web site and brochure. So I'll be transitioning to a new role and lessened role within the club. Toastmasters has been critical for the belated success I occasionally had in the classroom, as well as success in job interviews and making presentations (like Monday, June 15, to the Review of the PC(USA) as a Whole committee and like tomorrow with an Environmental working group at work). A Stewardship Minute talk I gave at church in late October - whose text was on the blog - was a classic Toastmasters speech, and I personally believe that this speech was - if indirectly - important for me clinching my promotion at work. Late last week I was scheduled to meet with the incoming VP Education, Eric, and in preparation for this I went through a huge stack of Toastmasters materials in my office. I recycled a bunch of stuff, put in a box a stack of stuff for Eric, kept a few things to keep in my office, and brought a few things home. The only diploma/certificate-type item I have in my office right now is my Toastmasters Competent Communication program completion certificate. Friday I lunched with Eric, talked about responsibilities, and then turned over the box to him. Once upon a time - since we had no VCR that worked as a recorder - we asked Mom to record and mail stuff for us. Mom recorded John Edward's 2004 Democratic Natoinal Convention speech - which I only heard on the radio a bit while i was diriving from Illinois to Louisvlile - and we later watched this at a Toastmasters meeting as an example of a spech by an experienced speaker. The most recent time we've watched a speech like this was Governor Sarah Palin's speech when Senator McCain announced her as his running mate - except for then we turned over a new life, and watched it projected from YouTube - instead of with a VHS tape like this one (pictured above) that Mom and made and mailed to me. Another kind of transition took place for our family when I was cleaning out materials in the upstairs alcove, which has become an extra storage space for items I'm trying to keep closest to me. For a second time, Vincent had received materials from colleges - mainly from nearby colleges we had looked at - but occasionally from his ACT and SAT scores - from as far away as New York state's NYU and Skidmore - and we'd also accumulated standardized test review materials that we occasionally got him to use. The math study did not improve his ACT math score and the unusual circumstances of his SAT test did not promote a good score. Trying to sort materials: I kept two valuable test review books to take to Goodwill, and I kept in a file a few materials from a school Vincent might really go to - Indiana University Southeast - Otherwise, I took all the materials to recycling later in the week.

Speaking of college, we're pretty sure Vincent is going to get timed out of one of two dual-enrollment high school-college classes he's currently enrolled on-line. Stephanie has said Vincent will have to exit our house if he gets timed out (and conceivably kicked out of the school). I suspect I'll push for us to have him take the GED pretest and if he does well at that and gets a job and pays us medical debts and $100 monthly rent (and cleans his room and does his laundry), he can stay - Target is re-opening a bigger store early this fall. But that's an awful lot of ifs and as much as we sometimes enjoy having Vincent around, it's not clear it makes sense for us to support him ad nauseam if he's basically on a permanent vacation/retirment (besides tinkering with one class maybe 30-60 minutes a day four days a week and occasionally doing laundry). Good news early in the week: Stephanie also got her renewed IN teaching license - which she had worried she would have to take classes for or was applying for too late - which she now needs to get to her school district office (along with taking care of one more detail).

-- Perry

West Louisville choir

Click below to watch and listen to a bit of the West Louisville Girls' Choir's first number at the Louisville Asset Building Coalition's post-tax season celebration.

Think it over

Click above to watch and listen to a few snippets of the West Louisville Girls Choir's rendition of "Think It Over."

Celebration

Usually twice a year - before and after tax season - (at the United Way headquarters, a former TV station office just blocks from the Presbyterian Community Center) I go to a celebration with the Louisville Asset Building Coalition - that sponors a dozen Volunteer Tax Assistance sites around town - including the one I volunteer at at the Presbyterian Community Center. Mayor Abramson usually stops by, and he did so this time early and briefly, sharing the microphone with Eric Seto, the LABC director. Below, Maylyn, of the Internal Revenue Service, honors Eurana and her Portland Promise Center, a site that passed a quality review. During the past time Decembers, Eurana has trained me.

Eric always lands top-notch entertainment for us. Before Eric and the mayor came on, the West Louisville Girls' Choir performed (see later blog entries). As things wound up, the West Louisville Boys' Choir (modeled after the Harlem Boys Choir - and all African-American unlike the Girls's Choir) performed. The PowerPoint continued to roll in the background. I got a nice T-shirt with that design on the front.

The director of the boys' choir spoke with us.

And the choir sang.

I only saw Charles from the Presbyterian Community Center, until Tenida (camera-shy - angling out of the picture behind Charles) brought me my certificate.

I did manage to catch a picture of Tenida, our volunteer site coordinator, a little later.

I snuck out early - missing the cake - with my T-shirt, certificate, and (new this year) a letter from the mayor - to make it to the dinner with Stephanie, Sarah, and Dean. I was a little relieved there was much less food at the reception/celebration this year (really only cake and a few snacks) - budget cuts? - because I knew I had more to eat at home. Ironically, I've been asked by a couple in our church to help them this week with their taxes (long after the tax season is over). It won't be as easy if I'm not able to use our software. I don' t think they will owe any taxes, in which case they won't owe any penalties.

-- Perry