Denver Photo Essay: Our Banner Got Stolen, Bumping into Spike Lee, & Other Stories from the DNC
August 30th, 2008Activities
during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in
US Campaign DNC headquarters at Progressive Central.On Monday, we set up our DNC
headquarters at Progressive Central, a five-day forum sponsored by our friends
at Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and The Nation. While we were there, we had hundreds of
substantive discussions with Members of Congress, Congressional candidates,
leaders of local party committees, and delegates to the convention—exactly the
type of people who we need to educate in order to change policy.
Almost
everyone with whom we talked responded positively and enthusiastically to our
campaign to challenge military aid to
In
the evening, we tabled with Friends of Sabeel—Colorado, one of the more than
255 member organizations of the US Campaign, at a panel discussion sponsored by
Just Foreign Policy. Check out the nice
shout-out we got from Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of United for Peace
and Justice, plugging our work on a future broadcast of Free Speech TV.
![]() The empty railing was where the US Campaign had hung its banner. |
On Tuesday, we returned to our
headquarters at Progressive Central only to notice that someone had stolen our
banner! Either someone really liked our message
and wanted to spread it or, more likely, wasn’t too pleased to see us with such
a big presence in |
Never mind that—the theft of our banner didn’t stop us from distributing 1000’s
of postcards calling for the
![]() Hanging out with Rep. Dennis Kucinich. |
Tuesday evening we partied with a purpose. First, we attended a political action committee (PAC) reception and
spoke with several Members of Congress and half a dozen Congressional
candidates. All of them received our
postcards and primers written by our very own Steering Committee member Phyllis
Bennis. Some of them even asked us to be
in touch with them so that we could discuss our concerns more in depth.
|
From there, we headed to a late-night reception hosted by Rep. Dennis Kucinich
who spoke to a standing-room only audience at a bar. In response to a question from an audience
member, Rep. Kucinich reiterated his strong support for a balanced
![]() "Free Palestine--End the Occupation" rally in Civic Center Park. |
Wednesday featured a “Free
Palestine—End the Occupation” rally in |
In the evening, we tabled at a panel discussion on corporate power.Check out the shout-out from former
presidential candidate David Cobb plugging the work of the US Campaign in
general and our corporate accountability campaigns against Motorola and
Caterpillar in particular on a future broadcast of Free Speech TV.
![]() Leafletting at Invesco Field at Mile High. |
On Thursday, we wound down our table at Progressive Central and headed out to distribute information to the tens of thousands of people who lined up to get inside Invesco Field to watch Sen. Barack Obama accept his party’s nomination for president. People who stood in line for hours under the blazing sun were glad to have some information to read to take their minds off of the heat and many thanked us for our work. |
![]() Watching Obama's speech at the Denver airport. |
Sitting in the Denver airport watching Sen. Obama deliver his acceptance speech, it is hard to convey how proud I feel about the great work that we accomplished this week during the DNC thanks to our supporters who donated generously to make our presence possible and our tireless volunteers who handled the on-the-ground logistics so ably and who gave so freely of their time and hospitality. |
After working with the US Campaign for more than five years to change our
country’s policy toward Palestine/Israel to support human rights, international
law, and equality for all, I can’t tell you how gratifying it was to hear
Members of Congress this week thank us for the work that we’re doing, agree
with us that flooding Israel with $30 billion in additional weapons won’t bring
peace, and ask for more information from us!
We can take a great deal of satisfaction from the fact that our work has
thoroughly penetrated not only the consciousness of rank-and-file political
activists, but is beginning to get through to decision-makers as well. No doubt that we are on the right path toward
changing our country’s policy!
But
enough of patting ourselves on the back—we’ve got a lot more to do and we need
your support to do it. Please make your
generous tax-deductible contribution today so that we can continue our
non-partisan educational work at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in
PS—Don’t forget that our banner got stolen in
In solidarity,
Josh
Ruebner
National
Advocacy Director
US Campaign to End
the Israeli Occupation