AZ Cannabis Reform Update 11/29/13: AZ Rep Introduces Legalization Bill and We Are Here to Help!

Here's something to feel thankful for this holiday season:  

AZ House Minority Whip, Ruben Gallego (D-LD27), just announced he is introducing a bill for full-scale marijuana legalization in Arizona, in part, thanks to the work of our organization, Safer AZ. The bill is already making national news though it hasn’t been filed yet. Read Gallego’s press release about it here:

http://www.azhousedemocrats.com/2013/11/gallego-to-introduce-new-marijuana-use.html?showComment=1385574838202#c2714683778793880968

Gallego’s announcement is already

In response this week there has been a flurry of calls and messages between cannabis activists around the state to see what all we could do to in promoting public awareness of this bill and bring AZ cannabis legalization one step closer to reality. THX to my congressional run last year and my wife's membership on AZ's DNC delegation, the Gallegos and the Weissers are already social friends within the party, and so I am more than happy to help my friend w his work, especially when he is working on one of my main issues. It is the kind of thing I am attacking at a federal level w my congressional campaign and here in the state through my work as the legislative liaison and general speaker for Safer AZ.

Safer AZ is a cannabis activist network working to promote reform through direct activism at the statehouse and in the general public. We are the people behind the current petition drive for the citizens’ Marijuana initiative to tax and regulate cannabis, AND, the “Harm Reduction Measure,” another cannabis bill also readying to be introduced this January by Rep. Mark Cardenas (D-LD19), which will address the state draconian felony sentencing statures for possession. We are also the creators of the “Safer AZ Legislative Status” report which informs Arizonans of our legislators’ positions on cannabis reform.

 Among others things we are already doing to promote Gallego’s bill include communicating w other cannabis activist groups, in particular PHX NORML, NORML in AZ & LEAP to promote awareness of the bill through our networks. I, in particular, talk directly w smoke shop and dispensary operators throughout the western part of the state to promote cannabis awareness in general and legalization efforts. In addition, Safer AZ creates/participates in musical events to increase visibility and we are coordinating a major public action on Jan. 13 to bring cannabis activists from all corners of Arizona to the statehouse to call for legalization. Finally we work w reporters to provide info and interviews to help improve their coverage of the issues.

The future of America is legalization. We have this chance to push to bring that future sooner, rather than later. There is a tremendous urgency of now. The often quoted figure is the AZ Central poll that showed 59% approval for legalization. It is certainly reflected in what I am seeing in the western part of the state. While the two parties officially take different positions on the issue, the citizens of both parties support legalization. Here is a link to read further on my observations of this issue.

http://ireadculture.com/article-3012-paving-the-way-for-a-green-arizona.html

A poet, political writer, entertainer/arts organizer and Democratic community activist from the Bullhead, Kingman & Prescott areas, I first challenged the GOP for control of the newly created congressional seat in 2012 while maintaining my full-time teaching career. This year I am running full-time and standing up for a 21st Century economy, dramatically improving education, immigration reform, women's rights & gender equality, solar & wind, rural modernization, improved consumer protections against predatory banks & corporations, reversing the privatization of government services (such as private prisons), increased arts funding, and, yes, cannabis legalization at the federal level.

We can make a difference, 

Join me.

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"My Name Is ..." (A 2014 Campaign Introduction)

My name is Mikel Weisser. I am a former construction worker and retired history teacher taking on Paul Gosar and the Tea Party in Western Arizona. I want your help in the fight.

A poet, political writer, entertainer/arts organizer and Democratic community activist working in the Bullhead, Kingman & Prescott areas, I first challenged the GOP for control of the newly created congressional seat in 2012 while maintaining my full-time teaching career. This round I'm running full out for US House of Representatives in Arizona's 4th Congressional District and cleaning house is job #1.

The 4th Congressional District (I affectionately call it “The Left Coast of AZ”) spans the western 1/3 of the state. Running along the Colorado River from Yuma to Utah, CD4 also wraps around the PHX metropolitan area, and includes the majority of Yavapai County, plus northern Gila County as well. It’s a big territory and I have a big job ahead of me, but I am a big man w an even bigger heart & I came ready for the battle. We can see the the Tea Party is crumbling right before our eyes. It is time to take them this fight.

I stand for a 21st Century economy, dramatically improving education, immigration reform, women's rights & gender equality, solar & wind, rural modernization, improved consumer protections against predatory banks & corporations, reversing the privatization of government services (such as private prisons), increased arts funding, and cannabis legalization at the federal level. I currently serve as the legislative liaison for Safer AZ, on cannabis legislation at the state level. I am also Northern Vice Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, Mohave County Democratic Party Secretary and serve on the board of the Arizona chapter of Democracy for America.

 .

We CAN make a Difference, Let's Change Arizona Now!

Join Me--

 

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Help Make Change Now:

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Contact me to set up an event in your area. We belong anywhere YOU think a Democrat should be:

Mikel Weisser

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Original text of my 10/28/13 Speech to the Orange County Democrats!

My name is Mikel Weisser and I am an Arizona Democrat taking on Paul Gosar and the Tea Party crazies. 

I know we’re all used to thinking of congressional candidates in suits and ties (good luck David Peiser!), but I’ve been a working man all my life and out in AZ we got our work cut out for us. Last year I was a school teacher telling my kids how they had to stand up for our country and I saw our party needed a fighter, a showman, a superhero and a miracle to turn things around. So I figured I was the right guy for the job. Now I can tell you a whole lot more about my campaign after the meeting.

But I didn’t make this thousand mile round trip for two minutes of your time to brag about me, I came here to talk to you about why you should pay attention to what we are doing in AZ. Turning places like AZ and Texas blue should be the #1 goal for Dems all over America. I happened to know a couple tough as nails Dems out here so you’re the ones I’ve come to ask to help us.

We ARE changing things in AZ, but we could do it A LOT faster if you helped.

Like, in my district, AZ 4, in Quartzsite we have an embattled Democratic mayor, Ed Foster, who was arrested by his own GOP chief of police and city manager when he discovered their graft. But thanks to national media putting attention on Ed’s struggle, Foster got the tables turned and now the chief out on his ear and the town is turning around.

In Queen Creek, at the other end of my district, there’s a young Dreamer, Belen Sisa, who is taking on my opponent Paul Gosar on his inhumane immigration policies and now Move On.Org and the USA Today are following her story and maybe our world will change. Maybe. We need places like Orange County to give us their money, time and treasure, of course, but first we want you pay attention to AZ as we fight this change. Share our stories, tell others our struggle matters. 

They say Arizona is always turning into California. I sure hope you’ll help us make that change sooner than later. It’s a desert out there. 

Safer AZ October Legislative Update

Safer AZ October Legislative Update

By

Mikel Weisser

Safer Arizona is a non-profit political action committee that focuses on cannabis reform through the legislative process—addressing laws and politicians directly. Currently, we are working on three legislative approaches to reducing the harm Arizonans suffer from unjust and unnecessarily harsh cannabis laws.

A.      The “Tax & Regulate” Citizens’ Initiative—Originally the creation of Safer AZ treasurer, Dennis Bohlke, based on Colorado’s successful 2012 citizens’ initiative, Bohlke offered the text of the initiative online for three months for public input before submitting it to the AZ Secretary of State’s office in June.  Intended to be purely an “organically grown” citizen-driven petition drive, SA’s work in promoting the petition has been mostly word of mouth w petition gathering at public cannabis friendly events such as NORML meetings, large-scale protests and concerts or live music venues. Publicity effort have been inconsistent, but gaining momentum and have now included national and international press coverage. Recent articles in the Arizona Republic, Phoenix New Times, Culture Magazine, Rueters, and the Huffington Post have increased public awareness and extended the circle of petition gatherers, though the majority of the work is occurring in the metropolitan areas of the state.

A new development in promoting petition circulation has been the additional step of conducting appeals at political party meetings. Party members are familiar w the importance and process of petition gathering and are quick to see the eventual political advantage of being publicly active on this issue, despite the fact that many of older, more traditional party members balk at the idea. Of note: in attending events w both major parties, a trend is developing. Members of both the Democratic and Republican Parties are supporting the petition and volunteering, though leadership is wary. In urban districts, GOP take as strong an interest in advancing the petition as Dems and in Mohave County, the GOP 1^st vice chair and other members of their leadership are actively advancing the petition and cannabis issues in general. Resistance is essentially generational, but it should be noted the “hippies of the 60s” are now the voters in their 60s.

B.      The “Harm Reduction Measure” Statehouse Bill—This bill hopes to reduce criminal sentences for cannabis possession from felony to misdemeanor. The felony penalty law is a legacy from the waning years of impeached governor, Evan Mecham and leads to 18,000 charges a year. While the vast majority of these cases end up in a diversion or TASC program w charges eventually reduced to misdemeanor, lives are still wrecked and the charges can jeopardize parenting, state assistance, ed funding, college admissions, military qualifications and even gun-owner rights. Also the creation of Dennis Bohlke, the “Harm Reduction Measure” is a rewrite of ARS13-3405 (the section of state statute dealing w cannabis/marijuana), editing the majority of the language and lowering penalties for various levels of possession. Bohlke had originally drafted the legislation in 2010 and presented it as a citizens’ initiative, but withdrew it to focus efforts on the successful Prop 203 MMJ law.

The majority of my work as legislative liaison for Safer AZ has focused on advancing this bill into the AZ statehouse for introduction at the upcoming Jan. 13 opening of new AZ legislative session. To that end, I have been polling the statehouse and conducting one-on-one sit-down presentations to members of the state legislature. In addition to having meetings w state representatives myself, I have also brought members of the cannabis community and leadership in Safer AZ to meet w the legislature and other key, including the Department of Public Health (overseers of the state’s medical marijuana program) and representatives of law enforcement and criminal justice.

At the Legislature, thus far (as of 10/11/13) we have contacted the offices of 32 of 60 representatives (including the office of the Speaker of the House) and 11 of 30 senators. Four senators and fourteen representatives have had official “sit-down” meetings, or extended casual discussions. Responses tend to fall toward party lines w the majority of Democrats supporting the idea of the bill and several offering extensive advice on how to advance this legislation. Particularly helpful on the Democratic side have been Tucson area representatives Victoria Steele and Stephanie Mach and PHX area representatives Mark Cardenas, Jonathan Larkin and Andrew Sherwood. The majority of the Democrats polled however, stand firm in their belief that the bill must be advanced through the legislative process by Republican leadership to succeed in the AZ political landscape. On the GOP side, in the senate, LD5’s Dr. Kelli Ward & LD13’s Don Shooter have both offered support, w Sen. Ward inviting Safer AZ to attend a stakeholders’ on a somewhat related alcohol measure and Sen. Shooter advancing the text of the bill to the senate’s legislative counsel for review (this process is currently underway.)

The majority of the GOP membership approached on the bill have grave concerns over getting constituency support and some, such as LD16’s Kelly Townsend, are adamantly opposed to any lessening of cannabis enforcement and, in casual conversations, have refused to take official meetings on the issue. Others, such as LD5’s Doris Goodale and LD25’s Justin Pierce (both on the judiciary committee, the committee that would hear the bill) & LD1’s Karen Fann, while supportive of the ideas in the proposed changes are concerned that GOP leadership and right-wing voter resistance to easing cannabis restrictions make any ameliorating changes in cannabis enforcement highly unlikely. Citing anti-cannabis crusaders such as LD12’s Eddie Farnsworth, LD23’s John Kavanagh in the House & LD 20’s Kimberly Yee in the senate, mainstream GOP leaders suggest that the current complexion of the statehouse makes the bill a tough sell.

I am not daunted, however, as the continuing process itself is shifting opinion all by itself and cannabis reform on the national scene is shifting AZ trends. We still have yet to contact over half of the legislators and have only conducted meetings w 18 of 90. A new development on this front is exhorting citizens, at political party and cannabis-related/friendly meetings to contact their legislators, call on them to support the “Harm Reduction Measure,” and ask for meetings to discuss cannabis.

Working w NORML, we are in the early planning stages of turning Jan. 13, the opening day of the new legislative session, into a cannabis education day, as part of an all-out push to get the statehouse to take on cannabis reform. My office continues to focus on political education in general and has now taken to including presentations to political clubs and civic organization in addition to continuing to schedule legislative meetings as time permits.

(Currently as part of me keeping track of my work, Safer AZ is conducting a poll of legislative positions on various cannabis legislative issues and will present the results as part of NORML’s upcoming voter awareness guide and also as part of our efforts to generate public support for cannabis reform.)

C.      Tucson City Ordinance “Measure AZ”—Created by Tucson Shawn Earl, based on Oakland’s city ordinance AZ, which lowered cannabis enforcement to “lowest police priority,” the Tucson activists of Safer AZ have been working with the city council for months trying to advance this ordinance. Recently (Sept. 25) representatives from Safer AZ met w Tucson city council member Paul Cunningham and the city attorney to discuss the measure. However in subsequent negotiations the city has shifted their position and leaning toward a more restrictive measure that only covers MMJ patients and then in only limited circumstances. The Tucson Safer AZ activists are continuing to push for their measure through public outreach such as speaking at events, conducting fund raiser concerts and appearances at city council meetings.

D.      On the Horizon—Safer AZ has also been asked from various sources to address other injustices in AZ cannabis law and have begun preliminary work in addressing the following issues: 1) Metabolite measurement in DUI cases, particular for MMJ patients; 2) Clarification of the “concentrates and resins” in ARS 13 and ARS 36, to allow continued production of edible MMJ products to provide for the large numbers of patients for whom smoking is not a preferred delivery method. Both of these issues are best addressed through legislative action and awaiting the drafting of bills to introduce to the legislature.

ALL ARE INVITED TO VOLUNTEER TO DISCUSS AND CRAFT LEGISLATION.

OUR LIVES, OUR LAWS

Safer AZ

"Yes, this gets even better"--Notes from My Truman-Clinton Speech in Prescott, AZ

(While not the feature speaker at this event, I was asked to make a few remarks upon being introduced during the evening’s opening ceremonies. I hastily scribbled some notes during dinner and gave it my best shot. This is far from a verbatim transcript of what was supposed to be a two minute speech, though I’d guess it ran closer to five minutes. I have added additional info here as necessary to provide context to the topics of discussion that night.)

Ladies and gentlemen, is this a great time to be an Arizona Democrat or what? EE-ha! This week, yesterday, Sept. 11^th we just saw AZ change. Right before our very eyes. Our time has just begun!

Let me explain what I am talking about: Yesterday I was in PHX at the state capitol and got to participate in the official turn-in of our petition signatures which stopped the GOP’s anti-voter bill 2305 dead in its tracks. You should have seen it! The state required 86,000 signatures for the petition drive to halt 2305.  86,000. You know that’s a BIG number. You know how many we turned in? One Hundred & Forty-Six Thousand signatures. That’s right 146,000 Arizonans said No to the GOP, said NO to voter suppression, said NO the status quo and yes to protecting the rights and improving the lives of all Arizonans. In essence the entire state of Arizona, en masse, adopted my campaign slogan and told the right they were wrong.

And folks it was my fellow Democrats leading the way. Overwhelmingly the Democrats accomplished this task of rounding up the manpower, the hours, and the sheer will it takes to achieve such a herculean task. But it wasn’t just Democrats alone. Twenty-four organizations from around the state joined the Democrats in working to shoot down this potentially dangerous piece of legislation. If it took effect, it would’ve made it a crime to help elderly voters w their ballots, A CRIME. It would’ve thrown thousands off of the permanent early voter lists and it virtually would’ve eliminated third parties in Arizona: Green Party, the Libertarian Party. There was no way they could’ve achieved the petition signatures required to even get a candidate on the ballot. In a way 2305 was an attempt on the part of the GOP to spank the Libertarians for poaching votes from them. In a couple of races last year Libertarian candidates garnered a few percent of the vote that usually would’ve gone to the GOP and they weren’t going to tolerate Libertarian interference w their elephant parade. But guess who told who, huh?

Speaking of which, I got a picture of myself at the turn-in event. It was a glorious time. There were cameras and kids and groups of folks in colorful tee-shirts. The copy paper boxes full of petitions were lined up chest high, at least twenty foot long. There were easily 200 people there in the lobby of the Secretary of State’s office. All my favorite Democratic heroes were there, I got a ton of pictures, but the picture I’m most proud of is of me getting a hug from Barry Hess, the recurring Libertarian gubernatorial candidate. Barry Hess giving me a hug? How often have you seen a Libertarian wanting to thank a Democrat for anything, huh?

 It was great! And there were all these great groups too, all these great spirits of progress celebrating the work they’d done together: Lucha Arizona, Planned Parenthood, even the American Human Society, the national organization, they all joined in working together to tell the GOP they were not going to get to silence Arizonans’ voice at the ballot box. As Mr. Hess put it, “This bill was the GOP’s effort to cheat to get ahead. We understand wanting to win, but nobody wants to vote for someone who cheats to win. Arizonans don’t like cheaters.”

So there.

I tell you Arizonans were so mad at this bill even Ron Gould signed our petition. The bill was that bad. The successful petition drive stopped the implementation of the bill which was set to take effect tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow! Whew. This successful petition drive will send the whole mess to a public vote in November of 2014. You know the general voting public isn’t going to like these cheaters either, once they learn what the GOP is really up to.

But wait there’s more. Yes, this gets even better. Folks gave speeches and milled around for about an hour and when it came time to move the boxes up to the 7^th floor check-in counter at SOS elections, we all joined in filling the elevators. It took 4 elevators to get them all up. Then, like people always do at those kinds of things, the people wandered around for a few minutes and all left. BUT, because I was there at the state capitol for two events that afternoon, a second, later, event, I was still hanging around the capitol about an hour later when I got to see another crowd gather with their petitions. That’s right, it was the die-hard Republicans who still didn’t accept what the rest of us knew for about a week: the GOP petition drive to repeal Medicaid had dried up and failed. Arizona will get the ACA after all. All their bombast, al that sanctimonious outrage, they couldn’t stop it. Turned out the people of Arizona realized they didn’t want to have health care denied to tens of thousands of their brothers and sisters, they didn’t want to find themselves sick and suffering and left to the mercy of the GOP.

Even as it was dawning on them, you should have seen their faces; they were desperately believing. I kid you not, the Dem petition boxes were chest high and 20 feet long and these guys were huddled around a stack of papers that wouldn’t fill one copy box. I wandered over and asked politely as I could, “So, what are you doing?”

“We turning in our petitions to repeal Obama-care!” someone said a little testily.

I tried to look supportive and asked, “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” someone snapped and they all stopped talking. The leader of the group wouldn’t even look my way. Finally another nicer person said, “Since you’re asking, We’re got the numbers, I am sure of it. Everyone is doubting us but we’ll show them.”

I hooked him and thumbs up and wandered off. I didn’t want to be rude but you just can’t talk sense to some of those guys.

 My event wasn’t for another hour or so, so I hung around the capitol complex, saw some sights. Beautiful place, our state capitol. Too bad the GOP sold it. I just hung out, played my guitar and walked around. You know that’s why I have that pink guitar case of mine, so I can hang out, play guitar and walk around. I’ve stood on many a corner some place in Arizona, just saying. Anyway, about an hour later I wandered back over to their little group while I was playing, “This Land is Your Land.” Sure, it was just a coincidence.  

There were now about a dozen of them gathered. They had a 2^nd box by this point, but you couldn’t see anything in it. I read in the paper this morning that they say they were only about 5000 signatures short. 5000? There must have been a zero missing there. If they had 80,000 signatures, they didn’t have them at the state capitol that day.

They did have some folks along the sidewalks at the capitol, however, with clipboards asking the tourists, “Don’t you want to Repeal Obama-Care?” But it was hot, you know? Who want to stop and sign stuff. Besides like I say it turned out Arizonans did not want to be left to get sick and die to support Republican hubris after all, imagine that. At least, I didn’t see any tourists stop. I just kept on walking around the courtyard there at the state capitol, playing and singing, “This Land Is Your Land” and watching their sad little troupe slowly come to realize their day was done. And when I caught the eyes of the leader, he looked so lost.

And that’s the story. I wish I could’ve sorrier for them, because I know they had tried so hard, but I couldn’t do it. I loved it. These were the folks ruining the country and we’d stopped ‘em. Twice in one day! I was so happy for our state to know that the people of Arizona had rejected these guys. I was so glad the people of Arizona realized they didn’t want to have health care denied to tens of thousands of their brothers and sisters, they didn’t want to find themselves sick and suffering and left to the mercy of the GOP. See? Once again Arizona told the Right They’re Wrong.

That’s what I’m saying. This is our message. And this is our time to tell it. This is our time for the Democrats

to shine. We have the momentum right now. NOW is the time to seize the day. We can use our voices catch the public’s ear now, we can change the way they see Arizona now. Thank you for being the change we need to see.

Thank you for being the difference now.

Speech for Mohave County Annual Picnic

I must first say that by now you guys have heard so many of my speeches. I love you guys. That is so wonderful. Though she doesn’t actually live here in Kingman, Felecia Rotellini over there has heard me speak in public more often than my wife this past year and by this point could probably serve as my personal biographer if impressed into service. Just sayin’

Now you know that as I travel, I see so many desert places. I just love it. Do you know what I mean? Like in that HBO series, “Deadwood,” when Swearingen was talking the Indians he called them dirt worshippers. After having driven around Arizona for the past two years, something like 72,000 miles, I am beginning to get an idea of what he was talking about. (Yeah, 70,000 plus. It’s like I retired from teaching to become a truck driver!) But seriously, if loving the land, the rocks and hills, the horizons, the shadows and trees, the splashes of water, if loving the sublime beauty of the land we live in is the equivalent of worshipping dirt, then my mom was right about our Indians heritage (Cherokee & Choctaw as I recall).

But when I talk about our land as a desert, I see it, western Arizona, as a desert in many ways. I also see so many people struggling in these hard times. We already came out to the desert ready to take on the challenges of nature and then found our biggest battles are with a government that doesn’t seem to care about the people and an economy that wants to eat us alive. I also see you guys out here busting your hump for the good of the party everywhere I go. Now, I have gotten to watch the growth and change in Mohave County’s party personally, but everywhere I go I am watching the same thing—citizens, standing up, stretching their comfort zones to try to lend a hand at fixing the many messes we find ourselves in. I have got to tell you that is what inspires me. Everywhere I go I meet dreamers and real DREAMERS devoting their time and their lives to trying the make the change we know America needs.

I want to tell you America has been driven the wrong way for a long time. From the shining beacon of “can-do” we’ve been derailed. We don’t have time for me to go into the details. There are 5 fresh outrages anytime you look at the news. But I am not here to drag you down with that. I tell ya, when you’re preaching to the choir there’s no need for fire & brimstone. Instead I want tell you a story.

As some of you know I am getting ready to begin phase in my campaign that I have long dreamed you. I am planning a trek through the smaller communities of the seven counties in the district bringing music, mirth, a bit of sideshow oddity and Democratic values and ideas to places where many folks are afraid to admit they back the donkeys. You know what that’s like. You have heard of DINOs & RINOs, I’m going to tell you there’s a larger group out there, the DBNPs: “Democrat, But Not in Public.” I feel for you guys. I grew up that way. But I know that we can make the change we want in society if we are really willing to work on it and the time we devote to working for change changes us forever and for the better.

I grew up in a tiny town in Texas, Raymondville, Texas and as many of you have heard I was a teen runaway who wound up back in my hometown & when I was 19 there was a farm workers strike in my town. I joined it and when I tell that story it sounds like that was the beginning of my effort to devote my life to working for the good and we all grew to a glorious future. But that’s not the case. The farmers brought in scabs, the crop got picked. The next year they stopped planting labor intensive truck crops like onions and carrots and tilled the land into cotton & sorghum. The people had to move. There were no jobs.

My late wife & I moved during that time to Illinois, Springfield, Illinois, Land of Lincoln and that’s where I first saw a liberal community. Not to say that Springfield is the Berkley of the Prairie or anything like that, but the city was large enough to where there was an active counter-culture and liberal yuppie intelligentsia who were new-agey, granola crunchy,& quite a bit spendy (just to say) and to this small town podunker, that sort of thing was VERY alluring. It was a society built of all the things our little community back in Texas had held suspect: people who dressed to their own different drummer, questioned the status quo and actually went out into the public arena to speak truth to stupid. People who grew up to go to college and got all these wonderful jobs and had all these wonderful experiences due to the breadth of their knowledge and their global sense of connectedness. I had never seen anything like it. I had to have more.

So, before they’d moved to Texas my wife’s family had been part of the Springfield food co-op culture, a grassroots (in more ways than one) movement committed to whole foods, health foods, activist politics and new age fashion. This was back in the 80s. Before long, I became the co-op manager—

(& I know that sounds like an oxymoron—that you’d need to manage something like a co-operative venture, but I promise ya, even among those w the most noble of intentions, lots of folks remember to sing Kumbaya, but not everyone remembers to make sure someone keeps the floor swept and the shelves stocked just sayin’).

--And to me it was a great adventure and I met so many wonderful people. And then one day this woman came in carrying an oversize bundle and crying, “I feel SO guilty, I just can’t take it anymore!” she cried and slopped her bundle on the counter. It was newspapers. “I hate that I have to be so wasteful with these. Why do we throw stuff like this away? Why can’t we recycle?” It was a good question. Bigger cities were already setting up programs and there were a couple of smaller scrap yards in town that would buy a few things; but she was right. There in that city of 100,000, the model seemed to be about waste, not reuse, about negligent consumption, not the greater good for the public in that spring field or for the actual prairie ground beneath it.

But it was a co-op and soon the topic of recycling was abuzz in the co-op community. Why couldn’t we recycle? What could our group do to make the culture embrace recycling to the point the public would clamber for it? It took us about two years. We first educated our own members about the importance of recycling and then set up a recycling center there in the basement of the co-op. I tell ya it wasn’t easy hauling those bails of paper and buckets of glass out of the basement like that, but the co-op members began to feel better about themselves as consumers and citizens and soon we began to promote the idea on the larger scale. It was a time of a national movement towards recycling. Our little co-op wasn’t inventing the wheel or driving western civilization as we know it, but we were doing our part and, empowered, we began to affect the culture of Springfield.

In addition to our own tonnage of recycling, we wrote letters to the editors, held classes for the public, spoke to our elected officials, we even sent me to the St Patrick’s Day parade one year dragging, like, a zillion milk jugs on ropes down the street as our parade entry to dramatize the way our consumption creates a burden if we are responsible with the waste it creates. Or something like that.

And bit by bit as society in general changed its attitudes on recycling we helped our community move forward. In time, the city created an office for solid waste management and one of our board members was the first hire. Eventually the city instituted a widely used curbside recycling program, reducing the environmental impact the city’s waste produces and offsetting the operating costs for the waste haulers now that they had enough resources to enter the recycling markets. And by the way, we all got a little bit cleaner dirt to worship.

But that’s my personal story of how my life changed of how my community changed because someone cared, because someone had an idea and acted on it. That one idea infected a community and that changed a society and maked things better. And along the way I went to college myself just like all those people I had admired and here we are today. There are tons of stories like that of social change and the wondrous personal growth it can bring. I love those stories. I hope we will all continue to make those kinds of stories happen in our own lives. I hope this tale reminds you you want to work on that today.

Thank you.

Just People, All Colors (Remarks from the Pinal County Annual Fundraiser Dinner)

Remarks from Pinal County Fundraiser 8/10/13

So,

I was the “MC” at the Pinal County Democratic Party’s annual fundraiser event, and a really beautiful event was built into the program. A local strong Dem member, Roberto Reveles, was picked to select a recipient for an award to go to a DREAMER (an undocumented immigrant trying to go to college and be an immigration activist at the same time.) He picked a wonderful young woman named Jimenez whom he met working at the Wells Fargo, as American as apple pie. Reveles, a national leader in the ACLU, gave a fiery speech on the injustice of existing immigration policy. It was one of my personal issues. When they were done, I launched into this:

I grew w the issue of immigration all around me, on the very southern tip of the US, of Texas, the Lower Rio Grande. Puro Chicano. 85% Hispanic, that is why I moved to AZ, actually, to get back to a land that was predominantly Hispanic. I missed the culture after living for years in central Illinois. And as I live out here in the desert in this land where there is so much hatred, so much racism used in the society to hold each other down, I think back to what it was like where I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. The land reminds me of this land here, very flat, farmland. Lots of brown skinned people. When I was very little I played w the braceros who picked cotton at the end of my street.

At the very tip of the state where the river, the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico, is a beach called Boca Chica, the little mouth. The nearest border patrol check-point is about four miles away and you have to go through it to get to or from the beach, but there where the river meets the sea there is no worry about law enforcement and border and what-not. Back in the cities, on the multiple bridges that span the river people travel back and forth by the thousands each day, but here at Boca Chica, at the very tip of America, the river is so small, the mouth is so little, people can wade across it. Here where the river meets the sea folks swim and frolic back and forth w total abandon, just for the fun of it. Just for the fun of not having to worry about borders for a change. And you know what? On both sides the people are all different shades of color and they are all doing the same thing: playing w their kids, listening to music and cooking and eating food--just playing w their kids, listening to music, sharing food. Being people.

Now that, that is my dream. I dream of an America where all people are treated like people. I dream of an America that doesn’t depend on exploiting poor economic refugees. I dream of an America that doesn't confuse freedom of speech with "Freedom of English," that wants people to be all sorts of colors and live all sorts of ways and doesn’t treat others badly just because they are different, just because we can get away w it.
I believe it’s more than a dream. I believe we can change this. I believe it can change in the blick of an eye. I know, because it happened to me.
 Here’s a story of how I know things can change. The town where I grew up, Raymondville, TX, was and is one of the poorest places in America. It was a farming town, a small number of owners exploiting a large number of poor and migrant workers. At a time when I was working for a minimum wage of $2.50 per hour, these folks in my hometown were out in the fields picking onions for about 25 cents an hour. Of course they went on strike. Of course, anyone reasonable or sane, would have supported them, but not our small minority of white people in my hometown. All they talked about was how the farm workers were cheats and liars, trying to rip off the struggling farmers who represented the heritage of the community. That the farm workers, the Mexicans, outside agitators, they were trouble, they were criminals, communists and more.

And then one Saturday when I was hitchhiking out of town, to a date I had about 30 miles away … Oh & I should tell you, I had been a teen runaway, and so hitchhiking was something I was used to, it was something I understood, the poor guy walking on the side of the road because there was no other way to get where you’re going. So I was walking out of town when I saw this cloud of people walking in, a parade strung a quarter mile. It was the striking farm workers marching into town for a rally. At first I was worried, I thought back to all I had heard, then, as they got closer, I saw they were people I knew from the community. They were the kids I had liked and trusted in school. There were the pillars of the community marching in solidarity w them, except not the ones names Smith & Jones. It was the ones names Garcia & Gomez. And right there I walked over to the other side of the street and walked right in and joined their march. I knew I had found what truth was and there was no further reason to work for anything else.
And here we are, still marching.

See, I turned myself around just like that. (& btw, later that evening I still made it to my date on time), but I just turned around in that instant, when I finally saw what the truth was I could change in an instant. And so can America. Tonight, I am just glad now to be part of the Democratic Party & join in the work to make my dreams come true and to join in the work to spread the good news that we don’t have to be slaves to the lies that try to tell us we aren’t all brothers, to the people who would want us to fight against each other, instead of simply being all colors of people on the beach, playing w our children, listening to music, sharing food, happy. Free.

Thank you for helping me work to make this dream come true. Thank you.