Letter to the Editor: Come Meet to Reclaim the American Dream

— from Hedrick Smith —

Hi Orcas Friends,

Okay, so it’s officially fall – time to get moving…

Hope you’ve had a great Labor Day weekend and you’re ready to plunge into action. Eight of us met on Sunday, but that timing wasn’t practical for most of you, we realize. So we’ve set another meeting of the Orcas Dream Team for this Friday at 5pm at the Orcas Co-Op upstairs meeting room. Please join us.

This is an open, informal non-partisan group – independents, Republicans, Democrats, greens, libertarians – ALL ARE WELCOME. This is not a move to push any political candidate or to promote any political party. Our goal is to help revitalize our democracy with some basic reforms that will help RECLAIM THE AMERICAN DREAM.

The kickoff occurred spontaneously last fall at the Orcas Center Tedx Talks. I talked about the need for reforms starting at the grassroots and you said, “Count Me In.” (And so did people in Seattle and Tacoma.) So now, THE TIME HAS COME TO ORGANIZE the Orcas Dream Team.

REFORM IS ON THE MOVE in Washington State. WAmend is circulating petitions for a voter referendum in 2016 on the I-735 initiative to roll back the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and restore the power to regulate campaign money. At the farmers market on Saturdays, you may have seen David Turnoy, who moved to Orcas four years ago from Portland, getting people to sign the I-735 petition.

Represent.US is prepping another petition drive on campaign ethics. Others want action to expose dark money to stop out-of-state billionaires from flooding our elections with cash to influence our elections – without our knowing who is doing it.

So let’s get together, talk about what we can do on Orcas, in the San Juans, maybe in neighboring communities. We can pick a couple of immediate priorities and get moving. The political season is upon us, and we need to make sure that politics works for Us – for We the People – and not for the Mega donors who are drowning our democracy in money.

So let’s meet. The TIME IS FRIDAY, 9/11, at 5pm. The PLACE IS THE ORCAS CO-OP MEETING ROOM – second floor at the back – up the stairs. We promise a short session. Finish in an hour. PLEASE JOIN US. And send an RSVP email to MARILYN McGUIRE marilyn@marilynmcguire.com

See you there –