CONNECTING THE DOTS AT THE RIGHT TIME

A window in Strasbourg, France

1932 unemployed march in Washington

I heard a story a couple of weeks ago about 700 people applying for one school janitor job. The predictions about a worsening economy won't go away. There will be protests on Wall Street in New York City this weekend with the message "Bail Out the People, Not the Banks!"

With the G20 protests in London in the last few days, the coming protests in Strasbourg, France at the 60th anniversary NATO "celebration" and local actions across the US on April 6-9 in opposition to the Afghanistan war, it is encouraging to see so much action being created. We need the momentum heading our way.

Here in Maine we are just putting the finishing touches on our own event that ties into all of the above. On Friday, April 3 we will be holding a statewide Town Hall Meeting on the Economy, Health Care, War & the Environment at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. We've invited all the major politicians in the state to attend, a few of them will be coming. We will open the audience microphones for three hours that evening and give the public the chance to connect the dots between all these key issues. We are asking the elected officials to listen to what the people have to share. If we are going to have a real democracy then we must over and over again provide the public the chance to share their vision for the future. We know that people will inform and inspire each other.

We've had pretty good advance media coverage of the Town Hall Meeting and our planning committee raised enough money that we put $500 into buying radio ads on two popular stations to help promote the event. I've been getting phone calls pretty steadily for the past week which is always a good sign.

In the middle of all that I am now fighting off a bad cold which is a real bummer as my energy gets sapped at an important time. I had to push myself hard to get out of bed this morning. But on I go.....