E-mail from outgoing Congressman Baron Hill

Dear Perry,

I want to take a moment thank all of you who have supported this campaign with your time, your effort, and your generous contributions. None of you need me to tell you that this was a tough race. And while the outcome may not have been exactly what we'd hoped, I want you all to know how incredibly proud I am of the organization you helped build. In all my years in Congress, I have never seen anything like it.

This job has never been about winning elections for me. It's always been about fighting for the people of Indiana and about doing the right thing.

I'm proud of my record, and of all the things we've accomplished over the past two years:
- We created over 3 million jobs and turned around the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression
- We saved the auto industry, preventing the devastation of Indiana's workforce.
- We made college more affordable for millions of students.
- We passed important regulations ending the worst practices of credit card companies and protecting consumers and our economy from risky Wall Street investment schemes
- And of course, we passed historic reform of our broken health care system, expanding access to millions of uninsured Americans.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I believe that when the history books are written, it will be said that it was the Democrats who saved this country. I have no regrets from the last two years, and neither should you.

Betty and I have been deeply moved by the support, hard work and dedication you have poured into this campaign. I don't know yet what the next step is for me in my career of public service, but I hope to see you all again, and I look forward to continuing our walk together.

Sincerely,

Baron

Time for a change?

Five races we’re watching that could be decided early (as all polls close by 8 p.m. Eastern time): For southeastern Indiana’s U.S. House seat: U.S. Rep. Baron Hill vs. Republican challenger Todd Young; for Kentucky’s open U.S. Senate seat: Attorney General Jack Conway vs. Dr. Rand Paul; for Metro Louisville mayor: Democrat Greg Fischer vs. Metro City Council Member Hal Heiner; in Ohio: Gov. Ted Strickland vs. Republican John Kasich; and for Florida governor: FL Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink vs. Republican Rick Scott (pictured above). If the Republicans take all of these (certainly possible), I predict they will also take the U.S. Senate.

Watch Perriello-Hurt in VA and Chandler-Barr in KY also. In two other Congressional districts where we have roots, Democratic incumbents Allen Boyd (in FL) and Mary Jo Kilroy (in OH) seem already headed for defeat.

- Perry

Cyber-activists!

Stephanie and Vincent have both become cyber-activists! Vincent told us last weekend he’s been spending some time on-line arguing – apparently in chat rooms or through comments on-line – in sites frequented by the Nation of Islam (black separatist strand of Islam at one point associated with Malcolm X) and white separatists. He said the white separatists have kicked off their website three times. Earlier this week Stephanie started a new Facebook “group” called “Boycott BP until the oil spill is stopped” (logo she used for the group above). Said Stephanie in her invitation to join the group: "If Facebook can get Betty White on SNL maybe we can do something even more important! Let us send a message to BP that we need this oil spill stopped." We’ll see what Stephanie and other members do with the group. I know when we drive to and from Florida this weekend we’ll be avoiding gassing up at BP gas stations. Check it out on Facebook!

Perry

New Albany night

Stephanie, Frisco, and I were all in New Albany until late Thursday. I planned to take Frisco with me to an “Organizing for America” phone bank making calls to Southern Indiana Democrats to urge them to call U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) to urge him to vote for financial industry regulatory reform. First time I’d phone banked for several weeks, and the first time not for health care reform. Frisco came along with me. Stephanie stayed late for a “family literacy” program put on by Indiana University Southeast for her English as a New Language students and their parents. Stephanie was kind of a star, as the MC essentially interviewed her, asked her questions about the families. Plus there were two IUS ENL education grad students who said they had heard of Stephanie , were excited to meet her, and hoped to follow up. A new READ 180 coach also appeared during the day to offer Stephanie feedback.

Things weren’t so great back on the other side of the Ohio River. Thanks to me leaving Frisco in the back yard during the afternoon (and taking him to New Albany with me), he had no accidents for the first time in three days. Back at work, however, things did not go so well. Some long, closed-door meetings, and rumors from other sources, suggest that the cuts – in general and in our offices – may be quite severe, which leads me to believe the Presbyterian Panel, which I’ve administered in 14 months in my new position, may be on the chopping block. Hard to see how they could justify keeping me – instead of some of my colleagues – if they got rid of my research program. Mid-week next week will find at least three people from my office headed to a de facto job search workshop at work (why before the layoffs? Asked my colleagues; I answered: because if they do it afterwards, the laid off people will all be gone – it will be too late). There are other interpretations out there. This may not be by accident – we may all three be on our way out. Thursday I came closer to finishing a draft of another report and signed up for the new jobs e-mail distribution list at church.

Mom went into work for the first time in months and found that her new medication doesn’t seem to work as well as her old medication. She was sleepy at work, but – more importantly – she found some of her Parkinson’s symptoms – ones she may or may not have missed in recent days – were more in evidence – which made it tougher for her to walk. She’s going through her files electronic and hard-copy and logging more hours in so she doesn’t use up all her vacation.

-- Perry

Movie spree

In the middle of driving Vincent out or him taking out, Stephanie and I saw six movies in eight nights - in the last couple of weeks - ironically none with Vincent, who was at first working in the evenings and then - in hindsight - getting ready to leave. The first movie we saw Vincent would have seen - "It Might Get Loud" - the rockumentary with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and U2's The Edge. Continuing in that vein the next night was "This Is It," the documentary/concert rehearsal film with an amazing Michael Jackson. Next was the Drew Barrymore rollar derby movie "Whip It," with Ellen Page of "Juno," which was OK. And then Michael Moore's pro-social democracy "Capitalism: A Love Story," a movie he hinted at in "Sicko" but that loses steam as it misses the biggest mass movement of the past year, the right-wing Tea Party movement. It turns out because it was his last night town Vincent missed a movie I thought he'd like, by one of his favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino, the ultra-violent World War II fantasy, "Inglorious Bastards," with Oscar-worthy performances by Christopher Walz and even the female leads. Exhausted Friday after Vincent's departure we limped to see Matt Damon in "The Informant!," an odd movie with Central Ohio ties that we perhaps should have skipped in favor of the St. Matthews holiday walk. Ironically, this spree was bookended by two other movie events. 2 1/2 weeks ago on my day off - before Vincent went to work - he and I went to the discount theater to see - for the 2nd time - the Harry Potter 5 movie. Then this past Wednesday - one year after Election Night - I spent a couple of hours with past and present Obama campaign and Organizing for America volunteers (pictured above) watching "By the People," a fascinating dcoumentary about the Obama campaign - particularly about the early days leading up to the crucial Iowa caucuses and a handful of very young (including some Asian American) volunteers/coordinators who helped make everything happen. What a difference a year makes.

-- Perry

Interesting Thursday

In the midst of a very busy end of the week at work with the deadline for a big project and the departure of many of my colleagues looming, I took time to do a few unusual things. Several weeks ago a former Swarthmore College classmate who I had only talked with about 10 years for a college reunion called out of the blue from Seattle, where he lives, and said he is a "foodie" who was going to be going on a food tour of Kentucky. In fact, on the way from Seattle to St. Louis, to help organize Farm Aid, who was flying into Louisville to drive through Kentucky on the way to St. Louis. First on his list of food things to do was to have a Louisville special - a "hot brown" - I think Stephanie has blogged about this before - at the Brown Hotel (a signature downtown Louisville hotel featured in the movie "Elizabethtown" and on the downtown Louisville ghost tour that we've been on). And so - a little late, in the midst of all of this busy-ness - Zach and I did meet at the coffee shop in the hotel and he had a hot brown and I - more nervous about my calories - had a falafel sandwich. Then he was off to the other downtown hotel and then to somewhere in Central Kentucky for the evening. Zack is pictured at the hotel above. Click here to see his food blog: http://freshgroundpepper.wordpress.com/

By the time I got back to work, we were just about ready for really the second birthday party for my manager, Jack. You'll recall that we had ice cream and blindfolds last week. This week Ida helped organize a 1950s adn 1960s themed birthday party for Jack, who was born in 1949 and turning 60. Jack had deliberately told her not to ham it up - so no "60 is Sexy" sign on the building front door as with another colleague - but colleagues made cakes and cupcakes, I wore jeans and a white T shirt and a baseball jacket and brought Beatles CDs and a boom box, Joelle ran a 1950s and 1960s Toastmasters-style "Tables Topics" extemperaneous speaking activity that four of our colleagues did pretty well at - and some other 1949, etc. - themed touches. Below Susan takes pictures of us on an instant picture Polaroid - invented in 1949 - while Ida and Hilary cut and distribute the cake and birthday boy Jack sits at the end.



After work I went late to do health care reform phone-banking in New Albany and on the way stopped by the neighborhood where Stephanie had found the house for sale on the Web (after I had foudn another hosue for sale last weekend). I found three others for sale before finding the one below, and it is cute/interesting, but we can't afford it.

I only called for half an hour but got several people to commit to calling and e-mailing Senator Bayh and/or Congressman Hill. I left early to get home by 8 p.m. and walk the dog, but had ended up leaving something there and I had to drive back to the home of the volunteer organizer (Bruce) in Louisville's Germantown neighborhood (near Vincent's ex's family's home - blast from the past) and chatted with him (including more about real estate). Not a dull day.

-- Perry

Busy weekend

While Vincent Friday and Saturday helped celebrate Jessi's 16th birthday, Stephanie also had a busy weekend. Friday night we had dinner at a downtown Middle Eastern restaurant and then went to a small theater within the Kentucky Center for the Arts complex to watch "Anne of the Thousand Days" with our friend Faith in it (overlapping the content of the "Other Boleyn Girl" movie with Scarlett Johansen and Natalie Portman we saw a couple of years ago). The fact that you knew what was going to happen (and it wasn't good) made this a little less fun in some ways. But the Henry VIII actor - and Faith and her colleagues - were all good. Saturday morning I slept in to 10 a.m. for the first time in months. But at 1 p.m. I was back in New Albany (IN) for the first time in a month going door to door seeking support (and now phone calls to people in Congress) for health care reform. The list was winnowed more, so that we got almost no strong opponents. Lots of not at homes, one stauching (Hilary) Clinton Democrat, and several pro-health care reform people. 2/3 of the way into the homes I turned down a block - which turned out to be about four blocks from Stephanie's school - and thought to myself: boy - this is a cute block. And half way down this block I knocked on the door of a house that was for sale (pictured below) - and the people had already moved, it turns out. (The later part of the block is pictured far below).

We're pretty happy as renters in St. Matthews. But real estate is much cheaper in Southern Indiana and every once in a while we muse not about buying our rental house in St. Matthews but a cheaper house in Southern Indiana. The fact that this was such a cute block probably meant the house would be too expensive. Stephanie finally decided that - despite the for sale sign - the house may be sold. But Stephanie got going on real estate Web sites and sat me to a house located on a hill above town that was too big and too old, but still cute (pictured below).

Later Saturday afternoon - in between dropping off a "Happy birthday" card to Jessi (where Vincent and his former classmate Sam were visiting for a birthday party) - we stopped by the Fish Hut - where our friend John was playing drums and singing in his band Cadillac Shack - at an outdoor Kosair children's cancer prevention fund-raiser. We ate fish, listened to music, and talked with John's wife Libby, their kids, and - when they were on break - to John and his bandmates. Pictured below is the band playing.

Below Stephanie laughs.

Libby smiles.

Below the guitarist and (mostly) lead singer talks as John looks on.

Minutes later - after stopping to see our church friend Anita in the hospital - we were in our seats at the Little Colonel playhouse watching another church friend, Brad, and castmates in a fabulous - and, often, funny - version of "On Golden Pond," also an Oscar-winning Henry Fonda-Katharine Hepburn-Jane Fonda movie that I've never seen (pictured below).

Sunday morning I was back in our bilingual Sunday school class talking about church unity and Carlos' conversation the previous day with Pastor Gerardo, a leader in the Guatemalan presbytery we're partners with.

Sarah also participated (below).

After service, a church potluck and program I'd done a little to help put together that helped garner canned tuna for the United Crescent Hill Ministries and featured a half-an-hour CBS program on church unity in Louisville - including as exemplified in this ministry - and featured the wonderful singing of Jessi's father, Lewis. Pictured below is the director, Sue.

Last Sunday I debuted as a teammate/assistant to Rebecca, our new student intern who is helping lead Children's Fellowship, recently moved from Monday late afternoon to Sunday afternoon upset youth group. Once a month we will all meet together for pizza and games Family night - complete with others from the church. Rebecca and my activities for the smaller kids disintegrated a bit. But I ended up helping lead a four square tournament (a la our Gainesville Palm View Estates driveway, Buccholz High School 9th grade summer school PE class with Parliament/Funkadelic music), and Stephanie sometimes at recess. Irene and Emily (far ends, below) were quick learners. Ariana, who's just graduated to youth group, and Vincent - who accompanied me and joined us after doing Dance Dance Revolution - had played before. Molly and Dave (not pictured) also played.

Stephanie - cold and with a sore throat - stayed home (for the second Sunday in a row - last weekend Stephanie stayed home all weekend. The busy Friday and Saturday this weekend might have been too much for her.)

-- Perry

Birthday week events

While my wife and father celebrated their birthdays week, I was involved in a few events. Tuesday at lunch I joined a pro-single payer health care reform protest - in front of the Humana insurance company headquarters (whose missive to Medicare enrollees triggered the Obama administration "gag order," which starred as a villain in Michael Moore's "Sicko," whom several people at work do or have worked for, and whose Toastmasters clubs we've worked with) - led by the Mad as Hell Doctor, who were driving their bus (far below) from Oregon. I missed the nighttime 2nd Street bridge walk that made even more of the TV news.

Tuesday I also picked a sign I'd ordered for the joint Crescent Hill-James Lees-Covenant Community English as a foreign language and Wednesday morning planted it in the front yard of the James Lees-Covenant church property.

This week U.S. Congregational Life Survey co-lead research Cynthia W. was at our office and this week the grant treated us to lunch. We had salad and sandwiches - and then cookies and ice cream. Below are Cynthia, Christy, and Becki.

Ida and Gail (below) dipped in too.

So did Jack and Joelle (below).

Cynthia (again, below) came up with an elaborate activity in honor of Jack's birthday, which we'll celebrate next week (when Cynthia will be back home in the Albany (NY) area). She blindfolded Jack and asked him to get the flavors of the top five-selling Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors, which she fed him - and then ask him to guess the top seller too. Jack wasn't that familiar with Ben and Jerry's jargon, and so we let him describe them. You'll have to ask me if you want to know his quip at the end of it all . . .

Thursday night a joint event at my church that I'd help set up between the Mid-KY Presbytery's multicultural ministries team (that I'm part of) and the presbytery's Latino and African American commissions occurred. I was the MC but sat at a table and had a small group discussion with Betty Meadows (the general presbyter and a member of our team) and Norma (another team members) (below).

Rodger and Ann (below) - from the African American and Latino commissions, respectively - were also at our table.

-- Perry

Another town hall

Once again I got to a town hall public meeting on health care reform when it was about to start and wound up in the overflow area – this one inside with Congressperson Yarmuth (D-Lousiville) and a local radio personality helping MC – at Central High School – about six blocks into the predominantly working-class, majority African American West Side. Because of my Florida driver’s license, I’m not sure I would have been able to get into the auditorium anyway.

There were more people here, but the crowd – even with plenty of opponents, including a bus – was more heavily tilted toward pro-health care reform people, including plenty of single-payer people. Yarmuth said he’s a co-sponsor of the singler-payer bill but he seems prepared to vote for whatever comes out although he said we’d probably someday wind up with single-payer. Yarmuth started out by setting out a range of health insurance reform regulations – no pre-existing condition exclusions, no lifetime caps, no kicking people off insurance for getting sick, portability – that, when he asked, most people there agreed with.

I couldn’t see Congressperson Baron Hill Monday – and I could see Yarmuth on the big screen – and I’m not sure how Yarmuth would have done with a more hostile crowd – but Yarmuth was a little more goofy, smiling nervously, and – noticeable on the big screen – moving around a lot. He raised some more complicated issues than Hill perhaps, and we had 1 ½ hours and so the questioners had more time to raise complex issues. Eventually he showed one concerned person that what they were complaining about in the proposal was a consequence of the reglations most people had agreed to (which suggested how radical some of them were). People brought up abortion, end-of-life decisions, and of course the budget deficit, the constitutuion, and government power. Many seemed skeptical about Keynesian countercyclical policies, though he tried to explain them. I was proud of both Hill and Yarmuth, who – before at least mixed crowds – sticking to their guns. They both laid out principles they were seeking and Yarmuth – when asked – said although he is a single-payer supporter – said he was not doctrinaire and would listen to suggestions from anyone. Like Hill, in response to a question about tort reform, Yarmuth said some of these Indiana-style lawsuit merit review boards were in the bill, but Yarmuth went into more detail, saying there were grants in there to encourage states to adopt these. He also conceded that – with all of the existing law the 1,000-page bill amends – you’d really have to read something like 10,000 pages to take it all in.

Health care reform advocates had gathered as early as 4 p.m. and were to have a vigil afterwards at 8 p.m. I got there just before the meeting was to start – at about 6:30 p.m. – and – after some delay – got waved into the overflow area without the heavy airport-style security (and ID-ing) that those going into the main auditorium went through. I saw Carloa and Jamie from church and a few others I recognized – though not the Organizing for America organizer whom I had met Saturday and not come back to make calls for Sunday. On the way there I called Bruce’s voice-mail to say I would not make it to canvassing Thursday – three nights out in a row, with two of them to health care – plus I don’t feel great. In my e-mail Wednesday night was a notice that national GOP chief Michael Steele was to be speaking Thursday AM in Floyds Knobs, IN, against health care reform, but I won’t make it to that. I saw the same ex-WLKY reporter, now with Fox, there was who was there Monday night in New Albany. Yarmuth pointed to President Obama’s speech to Congress – next Wednesday night – just scheduled today – as an important event in which the president may finally say more specifically what he wants, including possibly accepting state coops instead of a national public option (though Yarmuth hinted such a coop would have trouble developing in Kentucky with the sickest population and with a wide swath of rural areas without enough doctors and nurses). We’ll see what happens then and see if I volunteer or go to any more events before then.

-- Perry

Pay check and uniform

Vincent’s life took a couple of more small turns Thursday as he got his first paycheck ever (not counting cash from KFC taste testing or working with his father) and he signed up for a third medication from his psychiatrist, who we visited Thursday. In addition to a mood pill and antidepressant, he’ll take a sleeping aid too. We talked briefly about Michael Jackson’s medication. Vincent reiterated his revived interest in going to school out of town (Western Kentucky), which I don’t know how we would afford now.

Friday moves into a different role at the Halloween store, as the doors open at 10 a.m. Vincent will go in a kind of uniform (black pants and an orange Halloween Express T-shirt they gave him), although he apparently won’t be cashiering.

Mom awaits word on two things: getting trained to administer the anti-osteoporosis medication she’ll eventually inject into her own abdomen every morning and possibly having to move her somewhat sprawling office into something much smaller. Mom continues to work with a fellow church member who comes to clean her house on Thursdays.

Hope the job shift and new medications work out.

P.S. I mailed off my Sallie Mae student loan income-based repayment plan application Thursday too. Duty calls for me also as both local Democratic Congresspeople are having town hall meetings on health care this coming week, and folks are trying to call health care reform supporters to ge them out to the town hall meetings, partly to counter the right.

-- Perry

Different routine

Ever since Stephanie moved to Fairmont Elementary School three years ago, Stephanie has mainly taught classes "pull out" - bringing four or five or six classes of different English as a New Language students to her class - sometimes when they'd otherwise be in English class - for focused instruction in English - with the aim of them catching up with their classmates. The ENL program already had some textbooks, materials, computer programs, and equipement, but Stephanie had them purchase plenty more. She used some textbooks but designed a lot of her own curriculum. Occasionally she practiced "inclusion" where she "pulled (herself) in" - going into classrooms with some of her students and helping out them and other students - sort of like a teachers' aide/paraprofessional. Last year afterschool she worked with both ENL and other students ("boom boom") in the afterschool Culture Club. She also tutored non-ENL students.

This year things are different. The school district in general and the ENL program in particular got money to implement Scholastic's Read 180 program, which includes curriculum computer programs, and actual scripts for teachers. Stephanie is one of a couple of designated Read 180 teachers in her school - for which she went to Nashville in July and got trained Thursday in New Albany. As soon as the curriculum arrives, she's going to be teaching a Read 180 classes, to a mix of ENL students and other students, while also teaching one conventional ENL classes and then "pulling in" (herself) into two other classes. (Sometimes there's variety in this regard - Tuesday Stephanie's colleague actually ask her to take some of the ENL and the other class (it is a 3rd/4th grade split class and Stephanie has been working with the 3rd graders) out to Stephanie's class for a time to work on math.) Because the Read 180 program is scripted - which is useful in some ways but seems stupid in other ways (limiting creativity...part of what makes teaching fun)- and because when Stephanie is "pulling in" she's not in charge or doing the planning, Stephanie will now have to do lesson planning for only two classes. This means that Stephanie has been coming home much earlier (at least until Culture Club and tutoring start again). Now, Stephanie has some classes about Read 180 and it's not clear it will be going forever. But she's being a team player and working with it and one reward is she's got less lesson planning to do.

P.S. In the middle of the Read 180 training, Stephanie learned from her principal, who was also there, that her principal's daughter Abby, with whom I've worked on health care reform issues this summer, was in a car accident Tuesday and may have suffered back or neck damage. Abby is a dancer and was starting school this week and was slated to move to a new apartment over the next week.

-- Perry

Demonstration and counter-demonstration

Unbeknowst to me, health care reform advocates - particularly the union organizers and Single Payer people - staged a demonstration Tuesday in the same Jeffersonville (IN) park where I heard now Vice President Biden speak almost a year ago (and in the shadow of the office of Vincent's psychiatrist). But on the very next day - it turned out - the "Hands Off my Health Care" bus - apparently moving down from Indianapolis, where 100 rallied - was slated to bring people to the same park, and a counterdemonstration was planned - no doubt with some of the same people from the previous day's rally. Keep in mind that this is in Southern IN where there are key votes - in the House (with Blue Dogs Baron Hill and also Brad Ellsworth) and in the Senate (with Senator Bayh). I had visions of thugs being bussed in - with no local people at the Hands Off rally - and then angry confrontations between them and some of the particularly vociferous Single Payer people (Hill's staff had seemed to dislike both sides). I'm sure that may have been what the 2-3 TV stations that showed up hoped for also - and perhaps in time for the 6 p.m. local news. I got there a little late and headed by the Hands Off rally. There were about 100 people again - and over time I concluded that most were local people - plus whoever came on the bus. I only heard snippets of the speakers - probably an hour's worth of speakers. One addressed an Achilles' heel of the debate for reform advocates - abortion - I did not see people burning effigies of the president or Congressman Hill. I also did not hear anything as coherent as the conservative on National Public Radio Tuesday who made an argument about Medicare undercompensating health care providers and cost shifting due not just to uncompensated care but also due to Medicare undercompensated care (I believe this is an issue the Blue Dogs addressed - protecting low-profit margin rural hospitals in their districts more than the federal treasury - coherent, whether or not it's actually valid. I only saw Anglos over at the Hands Off rally. But, for the most part, the people at that rally and the counterdemonstration - where I shifted over and joined soon, didn't look that different from each other. I had seen some of these people before - at the June Southern Indiana for Change meeting where Organizing for Change activist Abby I thought was going to cry, at the rally in front of Congressman Hill's office, at the rally in front of Senator McConnell's office last week, and (a few people) at health care reform canvassing and phone banking. (I had missed the Tax Day tea party - with a much larger crowd - across the river in front of the courthouse in Louisville - perhaps with a few of the same people at the Hands Off rally.))

The woman on the left below led some of the chanting. (I've got no video because Stephanie had our regular camera at school - I took Mom's old digital camera.)

A handful of Hands Off people wandered over to our demonstration. These would hae been the more confrontational types. I heard the word socialist several times - and one of the Hands Off activists told a TV station that he mainly didn't want to end up working to pay for health care for people who didn't work (most people on Medicaid and Medicare don't work already- ?) - but one of these two men said something about Obama being an imposter - like Obama is an actor - in some "Manchurian candidate" sort of way - and that someone else is the master puppeteer.

I do wish I'd gotten to hear more of the broad anti-reform coalition's argument (I saw a few people identified as Republican activists) - although I guess if I wanted to know that badly I could be reading a friend's anti-reform chain e-mails. I like the juxtposition below of the woman and her sign - a woman I met at Democratic Party HQ in New Albany who volunteered Bruce all 2008 to help Obama win (?) Clark County (IN) and the side of the Hands Off My Health Care bus (which periodically played Credence Clearwater Revival songs- probably partly to try to drown us out - since we were marching in a circle next to the bus - a ways from the rally - although we cleared to another sidewalk when leaders thought the bus riders would be trying to make their way back to the bus).

It was sometimes difficult for folks - even me - to lead cheers - What do we want? Health care! When do we want it? Now! - because of the rift between the Single payer and Obama care/public option folks. We had to design cheers that did not explicitly plug either one.

I left after almost an hour, before the riders had really returned to the bus. Soon there was already some news coverage: http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=10960171 But I thought this story may have exaggerated the level of confrontation. I saw no bussed in storm troopers, heard few ugly comments, and witnessed no fist fights. Maybe next time.

-- Perry

Friday rally

After canvassing Thursday evening again in New Albany, I briefly joined a lunchtime rally - mainly by a single-payer system - in favor of health care reform - outside of the federal building on Broadway, near last week's flooding and where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has an office. This one again had a decent amount of press, with to TV stations and the paper there. I know some of these folks are against President Obama-style proposals, especially as he toys with dropping the public option.



-- Perry

Favorite daughter

I’ve been going to the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership gathering near Chicago’s O’Hare airport – at the towering Lutheran Center – and at two nearby hotels – for five years now. It wasn’t until late during this year’s gathering – this week – that someone told me that the adjoining suburb, Park Ridge (pictured above from the Lutheran Center 11th floor), is essentially Secretary of State Clinton’s hometown. A few times – including Tuesday – I’ve walked around a neighborhood in what turns out to be southern Park Ridge. It was there that the then-Hillary Rodham grew up with her tough conservative Republican father Hugh and in the First United Methodist Church, where Rev. Donald Jones (pictured below with Hillary and then further below more recently) – briefly the youth pastor at her church (he eventually got in trouble for such things as taking Hillary and others to go hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preach in Chicago)– influenced her. Jones died earlier this year: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/nyregion/28jones.html

For the first time this year I rented a car during the Chicago CCSP trip. However, I used it to visit friends (see “Old Friends”). If there is a next time, perhaps then – with or without a rental car – perhaps I can find Hillary’s childhood home – on Wisner Street – and the church and one or both of Hillary’s high schools. I’m told that there are now walking tours of Obama Hyde Park/Chicago South Side neighborhood. I found no such evidence of Hillary hometown tours, but perhaps I’ll mount one of my own next summer (although see my criticism of a Clinton decision last week in http://guatemalacrescenthill.blogspot.com/2009/08/changing-situation_07.html

-- Perry

15 seconds

Stephanie and I were briefly excited Monday when Stephanie's principal told her that her daughter and I both showed up (me even in a picture) in a Monday "Washington Post" article whose set-up I described earlier in "Turnout": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/09/AR2009080902428.html At least one D.C. friend of ours also noticed, since he e-mailed me about it. I wasn't sure it was a good idea that both Bruce and I were not from Indiana, and I wasn't sure how helpful to the cause my quotes were. I also had mixed feelings about sticking out as a pro-Obama Asian American - even though I once went to a Baron Hill event up in Seymour (IN) - just after the Virginia Tech shootings - in part because I was Asian American (although in the picture you can only see the back of my head - lots of gray hair!). However, I was proud to have gotten - even in the flooding aftermath- in to talk with all the New Albany folks we talked with that night, and I thought that the woman whose comments - and face - the journalist featured - even though or perhaps because she wavered - illustrated some health care reform conundrums in Southern Indiana and beyond. The principal's daugther, Abby, was even more on message (and some of our comments paralleled each other), and so that was probably good for her and for the cause.

An e-mail I got soon after hearing about this, however, alerted me to another down side. For years I have tried to keep any activism off radar screens - and off the Web - both because my job involves convincing people that our survey research is fair and balanced and because I still have research I'm trying to conduct and write up and hope to get more back to that - my old kind of research - and would not want material in the public eye that would discredit my objectivity. I even turned down a chance to be on the board of a journal - even though I do some of the board work - because the journal is identified with one side. I give my opinions in the blog, because not that many people read it. But my Facebook comments - which more people read - I keep more enigmatic.

The e-mail came from a Presbyterian - I think in Missouri - who had read the article and had convinced herself that I was doing the door-to-door canvassing during the day on the clock and I was presenting myself by saying: Hi! I'm Perry, and I'm from the Presbyterian Church and President Obama's campaign - none of which was the case. We're explicitly banned from electioneering as church staff and on the clock (although you may recall I held up signs at Fourth Street Live for Senator Clinton during lunch hour a little more than a year ago - but that didn't violate the rule). In general, I would avoid this sort of publicity in part to avoid this kind of controversy - but typically making phone calls and going door-to-door in Southern Indiana involves flying pretty much under the radar - even if it can catch the notice - positively so - of some of Stephanie's colleagues. I quickly e-mailed the Presbyterian back and hope I allayed some of her concerns - it probably also annoyed that any Presbyterian Center staffer was supporting the Obama administration at all - although she didn't say that explicitly. I see that when you Google my name this article comes up on the second page of references. I'll have to hope that gradually sinks down. Way back in 1995 I had trouble getting access to the important Schenectady County (NY) Right to Life records in part because someone got on the Internet - at its early phases - and found that the sponsors of a conference at which I had made a presentation a year before had signed onto some statement that she thought was controversial. This helped to lead to that famous quote: "The New School - isn't that a Communist think tank?" I'd rather not confront that in the future. We'll if my 15 seconds of fame - however briefly enjoyable - has compromised that or my job.

(Already an anti-reform doctor quoted in the article had complained Monday that the article misquoted him.)


-- Perry

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