Post by Steve Dorst on Jul 16, 2013 9:53:53 GMT -5
On June 14, 2013, Steve Dorst - aka sjdorst - had a brainstorm while driving. As soon as he - ok, it's actually me writing this - as soon as I could, I did a quick Google Document and shared it with my Twitter family. Initial reactions were entirely positive, but I quickly realized that the comment system on an individual Google Document was woefully inadequate for the brainstorming we need to do! So I created this forum.
Here's the entirety of the initial brainstorm:
14 July 2013
Over the past few weeks, starting with the SCOTUS decision on the Voting Rights Act, and escalating with misogynist actions by the Texas and North Carolina legislature, culminating late yesterday with the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a number of my Twitter friends - myself included - have gotten angrier and angrier to the point that we now want to act. But how?
This is the big idea that I had while driving from Pittsburgh to Columbus this morning.
Whereas:
Thus we should form a group whose purpose is to fight voter suppression - in all it’s forms - and toward that purpose, we shall obtain a domain name and create a website intended to serve as a central repository of information and a central coordination site for action.
Why voter suppression?
Voter suppression touches just about every issue any of us has recently identified as one that moves us to action.
SCOTUS probably would NOT have invalidated section 4 of the VRA if we had a Senate that accurately reflects the people - because Roberts, Scalia and Thomas wouldn’t be on the court! And we don’t have a representative Senate because of a number of factors - most of which can be termed voter suppression. Or Senators who were elected by an electorate (actual people who voted) who don’t accurately mirror their state. And this disconnect between the electorate and the citizenry is mostly the result of some form of voter suppression.
And corporate money in politics is also a form of voter suppression. It overwhelms broadcast and print media with a message originating from the 1%, leaving the rest of us with no reasonable way of reaching the low information voter, or the voter caught in the RW Echo Chamber.
The recent actions of the TX Legislature wouldn’t be happening if the GOP majority had ANY fear of losing their majority. They don’t because of voter suppression by gerrymandering, restrictions on registration, and with the SCOTUS VRA decision, with Voter ID.
Same as above for North Carolina. And Ohio. And Wisconsin. The list goes on and on.
Even Trayvon Martin!!! OK, this is a bit of a stretch, but no truly accountable legislature would have ever passed Stand Your Ground. Only voter suppressive legislation and attitudes allowed the FL Legislature to pass Stand Your Ground. And while the defense in the trial chose not to use Stand Your Ground, can anybody doubt that Zimmerman would have been far less inclined to chase Trayvon had there NOT been a Stand Your Ground law in Florida?
What it really comes down to is that I think we all envision a future with an educated, informed and motivated electorate who participate to the extent that our politicians dare not disregard the will of the people. I submit that only once we are well on the way to achieving this will we be able to address the myriad other problems we could all reel off that can only be addressed with legislative action.
And we can’t even begin to approach this without fighting against all forms of voter suppression - and winning!
I can hear you all asking (as gratepool has already asked at lunch today): What exactly are you proposing?
I propose that we organize, create, publish and curate a website that will serve as a central information repository and action coordination site centered around the elimination of voter suppression. It could include (but would not be limited to):
Voter registration information for all 50 states and DC - both information for the prospective voter and for people wishing to organize voter registration drives.
Voter ID requirements for all states where it is required (or currently suspended pending a court case)
Volunteer coordination for voter ID assistance, voter registration, GOTV.
Housing coordination for housing people (like myself) who want to volunteer away from their homes.
Calendars - perhaps state by state - of training and action events
Partnerships with other organizations - such as GetMoneyOut for campaign finance issues, or the League of Women Voters for voter registration issues, or the ACLU, NAACP or SCLC on civil rights initiatives centered around voting, or Black Box Voting and the Voting Integrity Project for voting process integrity and transparency.
As a core group, our first concurrent tasks would be to establish a mission statement and find a name. I would urge that the name be selected with great awareness of available internet domain names.
Once we have the name, we would immediately procure an internet domain. And while it would need a bit of discussion, I think we should use Google Apps for Business as our organizing platform. It does bear a cost of $50/user/year. And I pledge $500 towards 1 year for the first 10 people who cannot afford it. If you can afford it, then we’ll make arrangements. I also pledge $500 for “infrastructure” stuff including the domain registration and domain name system (DNS) service necessary for an active domain.
Google Apps for Business includes Google Sites - a website builder which we would use for the initial site. It also has add-ins that will allow us to take donations - once we have some formal organization that allows us to get a bank account!
I could go on - and on - and on - and on with all the hopes that I have as to the future of this organization, but it’s time to stop and get your reaction.
I’m making this document/manifesto/brainstorm public for comments, but not for edits. Perhaps I should have done this as a blog post for comment moderation, but it’s too late now!
Steve Dorst
aka sjdorst
Here's the entirety of the initial brainstorm:
14 July 2013
Over the past few weeks, starting with the SCOTUS decision on the Voting Rights Act, and escalating with misogynist actions by the Texas and North Carolina legislature, culminating late yesterday with the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a number of my Twitter friends - myself included - have gotten angrier and angrier to the point that we now want to act. But how?
This is the big idea that I had while driving from Pittsburgh to Columbus this morning.
Whereas:
- We are a geographically diverse group of people, making coordinated physical action difficult and completely impossible to do with any degree of spontaneity and
- We are a group that recognizes the interconnectedness of things and
- We have questions about voting laws(and many related issues) that need answering and
- We haven’t (yet) found a good central site that answers those questions
Thus we should form a group whose purpose is to fight voter suppression - in all it’s forms - and toward that purpose, we shall obtain a domain name and create a website intended to serve as a central repository of information and a central coordination site for action.
Why voter suppression?
Voter suppression touches just about every issue any of us has recently identified as one that moves us to action.
SCOTUS probably would NOT have invalidated section 4 of the VRA if we had a Senate that accurately reflects the people - because Roberts, Scalia and Thomas wouldn’t be on the court! And we don’t have a representative Senate because of a number of factors - most of which can be termed voter suppression. Or Senators who were elected by an electorate (actual people who voted) who don’t accurately mirror their state. And this disconnect between the electorate and the citizenry is mostly the result of some form of voter suppression.
And corporate money in politics is also a form of voter suppression. It overwhelms broadcast and print media with a message originating from the 1%, leaving the rest of us with no reasonable way of reaching the low information voter, or the voter caught in the RW Echo Chamber.
The recent actions of the TX Legislature wouldn’t be happening if the GOP majority had ANY fear of losing their majority. They don’t because of voter suppression by gerrymandering, restrictions on registration, and with the SCOTUS VRA decision, with Voter ID.
Same as above for North Carolina. And Ohio. And Wisconsin. The list goes on and on.
Even Trayvon Martin!!! OK, this is a bit of a stretch, but no truly accountable legislature would have ever passed Stand Your Ground. Only voter suppressive legislation and attitudes allowed the FL Legislature to pass Stand Your Ground. And while the defense in the trial chose not to use Stand Your Ground, can anybody doubt that Zimmerman would have been far less inclined to chase Trayvon had there NOT been a Stand Your Ground law in Florida?
What it really comes down to is that I think we all envision a future with an educated, informed and motivated electorate who participate to the extent that our politicians dare not disregard the will of the people. I submit that only once we are well on the way to achieving this will we be able to address the myriad other problems we could all reel off that can only be addressed with legislative action.
And we can’t even begin to approach this without fighting against all forms of voter suppression - and winning!
I can hear you all asking (as gratepool has already asked at lunch today): What exactly are you proposing?
I propose that we organize, create, publish and curate a website that will serve as a central information repository and action coordination site centered around the elimination of voter suppression. It could include (but would not be limited to):
Voter registration information for all 50 states and DC - both information for the prospective voter and for people wishing to organize voter registration drives.
Voter ID requirements for all states where it is required (or currently suspended pending a court case)
Volunteer coordination for voter ID assistance, voter registration, GOTV.
Housing coordination for housing people (like myself) who want to volunteer away from their homes.
Calendars - perhaps state by state - of training and action events
Partnerships with other organizations - such as GetMoneyOut for campaign finance issues, or the League of Women Voters for voter registration issues, or the ACLU, NAACP or SCLC on civil rights initiatives centered around voting, or Black Box Voting and the Voting Integrity Project for voting process integrity and transparency.
As a core group, our first concurrent tasks would be to establish a mission statement and find a name. I would urge that the name be selected with great awareness of available internet domain names.
Once we have the name, we would immediately procure an internet domain. And while it would need a bit of discussion, I think we should use Google Apps for Business as our organizing platform. It does bear a cost of $50/user/year. And I pledge $500 towards 1 year for the first 10 people who cannot afford it. If you can afford it, then we’ll make arrangements. I also pledge $500 for “infrastructure” stuff including the domain registration and domain name system (DNS) service necessary for an active domain.
Google Apps for Business includes Google Sites - a website builder which we would use for the initial site. It also has add-ins that will allow us to take donations - once we have some formal organization that allows us to get a bank account!
I could go on - and on - and on - and on with all the hopes that I have as to the future of this organization, but it’s time to stop and get your reaction.
I’m making this document/manifesto/brainstorm public for comments, but not for edits. Perhaps I should have done this as a blog post for comment moderation, but it’s too late now!
Steve Dorst
aka sjdorst