[PAA-Discuss] Volunteer Saturday-keep discrimination out of the Tx constitution
Bill Crosier
paa at crosierbiomed.com
Fri Oct 7 23:04:15 EDT 2005
Saturday night, I and many others across Texas,
who want to keep discrimination and bigotry out
of the state Constitution, are doing a large
voter outreach effort to make sure people know
about amendment 2, the marriage bigotry amendment.
If you have not already signed up to volunteer a
few hours for this very worthwhile effort, or
missed the earlier announcements, I urge you to
read the note below, written by John Grothues,
and hope you'll join me in this.
John G and John Ibanez, both with Democracy for
Houston, are organizing this effort here in
Houston, in conjunction with the No Nonsense in
November campaign www.nononsenseinnovember.com
John & John have already contacted gay bars here
in Houston, and have found ten who are willing to
let us have tables with info about amendment 2
and for voter registration. They have lined up
about 3/4 of the number of people needed for
those tables Saturday night, but still need about
10 more folks. Can you join me and some other
PAA'ers and other progressives who have already
volunteered? You can do this after dinner and
whatever else you're planning for Saturday --
they only need people during the peak bar times.
You can sign up for the 8PM-11PM slot, or
11PM-2AM slot, or for just part of one of those
time intervals. Remember, this is for one night
only - Saturday Oct. 8.
If you are a voter registrar, bring your voter
registration materials. And feel free to tell
interested folks about PAA, our web site, our
e-mail lists, and our meetings. (It probably
won't be a good time to push other issues,
though.)
If we can get the people who are opposed to
discrimination out to vote on this, we can defeat
this amendment and show that the people of Texas
are willing to stand up to the bigots and
hate-mongers who are using this issue just to try
to get the right-wingers out to vote next month.
But people who wait until they get to the
ballots, to try to figure out what this (and
other) constitutional amendment would do, won't
have a clue, thanks to the way the Texas
legislature likes to obfuscate the ballot
language.
Contact John or John (the Houston coordinators
for this) -- see contact info below -- if you can
help.
Thanks!
Remember -- Vote NO on amendment 2. See below for the note from John Grothues.
Bill
- - - - - - - -
Subject: Volunteer to Change the World Saturday
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 07:49:13 -0500
Most people never in their lives get the chance
to participate in something that has the
potential to change the world. But I believe that
we will have that chance, that opportunity, this
Saturday.
We all see how powerful, well-financed, and
well-executed the radical right political machine
is right now. We see it as an oppressive force
here and around the world. It seems almost
omnipotent.
But what if they made a blunder?
And what if that blunder provided us with an opportunity?
And what if the opportunity was available only to
us here in Houston, and only right now?
That is what I see happening with the November 8
Texas constitutional election. Proposition 2
would encode discrimination into the Texas Bill
of Rights by changing the Texas Constitution to
read that marriage in Texas shall consist only of
a union between one man and one woman. For the
radical right this is just another maneuver to
augment their already oppressive power.
Here is where they made the blunder. This is an
off year election. Only 8-12% of the people,
statewide, will vote. But one major city has city
elections – Houston! That is our opportunity!
If we can get out the vote here – in large
numbers – we can swing the state. If Texas, one
of the reddest of the red, defeats the
proposition this year, that will throw confusion
and fear into the forces of discrimination that
have plans to change the constitutions of 11
other states next year.
If we can defeat them here, we will defeat them
in other places. This can be the catalyst that
starts the counter wave of progressive politics
that this country and this world so desperately
needs.
Here is how you can help.
NoNonsenseInNovember.com is conducting a
state-wide bar outreach this Saturday, October 8
- from 8:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. About ten bars here
in Houston, as well as dozens throughout the
state have committed to participate in this voter
education project. NoNonsenseInNovember will then
use the names gathered Saturday to contact even
more people.
John Ibanez and I are organizing much of the
Houston bar outreach effort. Many people have
already volunteered - but we still need lots of
volunteers! We need people to register voters,
take donations, and fill-out pledge cards - at
least 3 people per bar, per shift.
Can you help? Before I close with the details, I
would like to leave you with one more image.
Thirty years from now:
· when all people have the right to marry the person they love,
· and everyone is kind of confused about why so
many people thought it so important to try to
limit marriage to only heterosexual people,
· and a progressive political agenda has swept
the world and is making it a better place for all
people;
Someone may ask you if you did anything in the
fight against the radical right. Wouldn't be
wonderful if you could say, "I stood up and in
Houston we turned the tide."?
Thank you, and please help,
John Grothues
How to get involved: Sign-up at
www.nononsenseinnovember.com/calendar/index.php?page=6&by=1
And?or contact the captains indicated below.
THE DETAILS:
When: Saturday, October 8, from 8:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
1. Brazos River Bottom - team captain John
Grothues - 713-516-6728 johngrothues at yahoo.com
2. Guava Lamp - team captain Robert Gallegos -
713-256-3953 gallegosrt at sbcglobal.net
3. Keys West - team captain Michael Fleming
713-213-8318 michaelfleming1700 at sbcglobal.net
4. JR's/South Beach/The Mine - team captain John
G. Ibanez 713-516-7047 johngibanez1 at yahoo.com
5. Chances/the New Barn/G-Spot - Jennifer Poche 832-661-3467 jengg at yahoo.com
6. Decades - team captain John Grothues - 713-516-6728 johngrothues at yahoo.com
7. Meteor - team captain- Jeffrey Crews 713-645-8939 jcrews at pdq.net
8. Rich's - team captain - Max Beauregard
713-864-0549 mbeauregard at houston.rr.com
9. Inergy - team captian - Max Beauregard
713-864-0549
<'"http://by107fd.bay107.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=243D240F-6116-4943-AE92-002B92814610&start=0&len=20902&src=&type=x&to=mbeauregard@houston.rr.com&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=a4ce5af7a21c57099e>mbeauregard at houston.rr.com
EJ's is still pending.
--
Bill Crosier
Progressive Action Alliance http://paa-tx.org/
http://progressiveactionalliance.org/
paa at crosierbiomed.com 713-641-4941
Tell Bush: WE WANT THE TRUTH! http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/
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