I am ready to join him, I am going to take that proverbial flying leap. Ever since my arrest at the 1^st Tar Sands Action I have been teetering on the edge, not quite an activist in my mind, and yet viewed as one by others. At a recent event I was told that this was my “calling”, and that I needed to “be a leader”. And like the statement from Mr. DeChristopher, this both inspired and terrified me.

But I am ready, and I have a plan. And I think it is a pretty good plan. It is simple really, draft a national strategy based upon the 3E’s: environment, education & equality. Build a strong foundation through communication, collaboration & cooperation. Convert issues into actions. Invite legislators to listen, representatives from existing organizations to speak, and everyone to join in.

We are at a crossroads. And it is time for each of us to take a stand. We can no longer be willing to sit idly by, trusting that some nameless, faceless “other”, is making decisions regarding our well being. We have seen how simple it is really, to infiltrate a political party and hold the rest of us hostage.

I now have a simple proposal for you, let’s do it. Let’s take over, you and I. We can start by joining our local democratic committee, help to select & elect candidates. That is a good start right? And then, we will work on campaigns; help draft strategy & platform issues, write speeches, and most important, draft legislation.  Still with me? Next, let’s run local candidates elect those to our school board who will insist on better lessons, more science & math, retrofit schools with solar & provide real food to our children.

We can run for town council, get on zoning & planning, be the economic development committee. That is real power, controlling the budget and developing our home towns. No longer will we have to fight to get solar approved or better recycling, we’ll write the ordinances. And budget? We know how to balance a budget, retrofit schools, cut down energy costs, hold classes outside, and if taxes need to be raised, then do it. But do it fairly, in a balanced way.

That led to my drafting a piece of legislation, the Balanced Budget Fairness Act, one of our first projects will be to get this to Congress. Imagine, for every dollar we give to a corporation, one dollar into education. Every dollar to defense, one to health & welfare. Every dollar to oil, gas, nuclear & coal, one to solar, wind and renewable. And for every dollar to animal based agriculture, one to plant based. This is how we change the world, we start by changing how we spend our money.

Because let’s face it, it is our money. And if we continue to sit back and allow the GOP to continue the pillage of our public land and national resources, selling them to the highest bidder who takes the profits and stashes them out of the country to avoid taxes, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Democracy is a participatory sport, and while liberal and progressive voters were busy raising our families, building our businesses, going on vacation, supporting the arts, going to Washington for the occasional rally, especially the one that “restored our sanity”, the GoP was busy running elections and making sure they put Judges & Sheriffs in place, elected Councils & Boards, took over State legislatures, and then they started cutting environmental protections, defunding education & overturning efforts to bring about true equality. While we were distracted by the latest sex tape going viral online & who was doing who at the Jersey shore, Republicans were making it impossible for our kids to afford college while they pillaged our 401ks for pocket change.

I’m here to tell you, it wasn’t magic, and it wasn’t even that difficult. Politics isn’t some esoteric specialty that requires years of training, it is part of our civic duty and our social contract. We can all join Mr. DeChristopher, we don’t have to get arrested, some of us need to get elected.

It has come to my attention that yesterday, the House voted to extend the highway bill, and included a mandate to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. This 293 to 127 vote included 69 Democrats voting to extend permission on this project you have already rejected.

It is with great sadness that I find myself in a position where I will have to actively campaign against Democrats. What happened to our national strategy & platform? Why do progressive & liberal legislators not champion the environment, education & equality? Why does it seem Democrats are so poor at articulating positions and forming a national platform?

The GOP has been successful in explaining and implementing their strategy, a coordinated attack on social programs, health, welfare, education and the environment. They are implementing this on both a National and State level. In Pennsylvania, we see a Governor giving our land and rights to gas & oil, we see him cutting education to fund prisons, and we see a total disregard for our rights.

This is a coordinated and methodical strategy, meant to erode our rights at an alarming rate. It is time for liberal & progressive voters to come together in a collaborative & cooperative movement to ensure our rights are not further eroded.

Mr. President, environmental activists are waiting for a champion. They are waiting for decisive action, by nature we are the ones who will volunteer, fundraise and donate to campaigns.

We now have the added assault on women's rights, and believe me, there is no more passionate group of activists. We are fighting not just for ourselves and our planet, but for our children, and our children's children. This world is not ours to waste, it is theirs to want. We need to protect our world. Waste not, want not, that should be our rallying cry.

Please reject the Keystone. Insist Congress pass the FRAC act. Call for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing pending stronger regulation. Tell States to stop infringing on our Constitutionally protected rights.

I was at both the 1st Tar Sands Action and the 2nd, at the first, I was arrested in an effort to let you know that we will no longer allow the plunder of our natural resources for private profit, at the 2nd, I joined the "hug" to symbolize our thanks for rejecting the Keystone XL, now is the time and place we choose Mr. President, put out a call to activists, and they will respond.

Sincerely,

Lisa Longo

Yes, I agree, it is difficult to be a stay-at-home mom, especially when you have 5 children. Of course, let's be honest, the cook, housekeeper, groundskeeper, poolkeeper, private jet, chauffeur, assistant, and the rest of your staff certainly helped.

And I know you did not mean to belittle the reality of those of us who have to work outside the home & be parents. Some of us have to do all those jobs, so when Ms. Rosen said you hadn't worked a day in your life, you know what she meant, and if you didn't, please feel free to come clean my toilet, wash my dishes, do my laundry, and clean my house, or at the very least, send your staff to do so.

Thank you.

Please comment with your additions & suggestions, then let's figure out how to get to Congress!

Environment, education & equality. It is all connected

For me, I turn to one thing to dissect news, my reason. I read, research, ask questions, follow stories, I even contacted the police department in Kansas City, Missouri to get more information on an attack where two boys doused another boy with gasoline. Luckily the boy lived. But the story is hard to find and facts seem not to be available. I can’t find a credible source at this time, and am waiting for the Kansas City PD to get back in touch.

I take in all the information and hope my mind will find a way to make sense of it, or at least help me to understand it. To find the reason for it all. This month I feel incapable of that.

I started with such excitement at the news that a group of women were coming together, to organize against the latest assault by the GOP on women’s rights. This multi-state barrage of bad legislation to force women to undergo unnecessary and invasive medical procedures gave women a rallying point. Unfortunately, as happened with Michael Pollock’s one man show, the 99% Declaration and his corporate takeover of the group, the same thing is happening with this group calling itself Unite Women. In some other dimension, the word “unite” must mean banning, deleting, censoring and berating women for having opinions and asking questions.

From what I have heard since I was banned, yup, Unite Women was pretty quick to get rid of me and my questions, the group has disintegrated, losing hundreds of supporters, mostly those of us who are actually activists, and most likely, actually feminists. What self-respecting feminist is going to stay in a group that allows a member to bully & intimidate other members? One woman told me she was called a very nasty four letter word that starts with a “c”, how in the world could that not be an assault?

After wasting two weeks with Unite Women, I was happy to return to my true activism roots, and travel to Bethlehem, PA to hear Dr. Anthony Ingraffea speak at Marcellus Shale Exposed. This was a day that filled me with inspiration. Dr. Ingraffea gave me so much information my mind had to go to overflow to take it all in. From his keynote address I went on to talks on the economics, impacts and realities of hydraulic fracturing.  Some of this information felt like an assault, I was angry, depressed, engaged, energized and exhausted.

I left the conference filled with new resolve, to work on this issue that has the potential to devastate so much of what I love in our world; our forests, our water, and our economy.

Wait, I can hear you say, “One of those things is not like the other, why is economy in there?”, well, I love my way of life, and I live it because of the economic principles this country created: Capitalism, the idea that a person can create wealth, not just inherit it, but actually earn it on her own merit. And hydraulic fracturing is, quite frankly, fracking with my way of life.

This assault on our lives is taking place without our approval, and certainly without our representation. Oil & gas companies receive a share of the $40,000,000,000.00 dollars a year Congress has gifted them. They are also using billions of gallons of clean water in the extraction of natural gas. In Pennsylvania, Governor Corbett wants to gift the industry hundreds of thousands of acres of our state forests, in addition the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, ignoring the tens of thousands of public comments, granted rights to the industry to take millions of gallons of fresh water to contaminate.

In a further assault on my reason, the PA legislature, with its GOP majority, passed HB1950, which becomes Act 13. Not only does this bill supersede municipal rights to zoning, but it bans doctors from disclosing illnesses related to contamination from hydraulic fracturing, and it gives the industry the right to take land by eminent domain. This is a law we should all hate, both Democrat & Republican, it is an assault on our property rights as well as our personal rights.

In the midst of all this, the contemplation of the assault on my economy, my land, and my rights, I had a realization about the connectedness of all these issues. For me it was clear, there are three main areas being assaulted: equality, environment & education.

My ability to stand as an equal in the conversation with my legislators has been compromised. My ability to protect my land is being compromised. My ability to trust my physician and my own judgment regarding my medical decisions was being compromised. My ability to offer my child a better life, a better education, a more stable future, all were being compromised.

This was a total and absolute assault on me, my family, and ultimately, on my reason.

And then, a much more deadly assault was brought to my attention. The murder of Trayvon Martin. This 17 year old boy was walking to his father’s girlfriend’s house. It was dark, raining, he had on a sweatshirt and put his hood up to try to stay dry. He was on the phone with his girlfriend. He had no idea that in just a few minutes he would be stalked and confronted by a man with a gun. A man with the ability to assault him with impunity, a man who was going to “stand his ground”.

The “stand your ground” law was passed in its current version in 2005 by the GOP majority in the Florida State House and is eerily similar to legislation drafted by ALEC and the NRA. Law enforcement objected, what had once been a “duty to retreat” became a legal right to assault someone with deadly force if you “felt” you were in danger. This presumption of “guilt by feeling” is very slippery slope, giving anyone with a gun and raging paranoia the ability to shoot first and ask questions later.

In this case, the issue was made worse by the failure of the Sanford PD to follow even the most basic criminal investigation techniques. They did not arrest the shooter, did not confiscate his weapon, test his clothing for gun powder residue or perform blood alcohol and drug tests. They did however leave this 17 year old boy unclaimed as a John Doe for 3 days while his parents frantically tried to find him. And they did one other thing in those 3 days, they tested Trayvon Martin’s corpse for drugs & alcohol.   (Note to reader: it was disclosed today after this blog was published that the Sanford PD did want to arrest Mr. Zimmerman and were instructed not to by the prosecutor and it is unclear what, if any, investigation was attempted) 

This final assault, hit me hard. As the mother of a teenager, I can imagine the anguish of Trayvon Martin’s parents. And no, I am not saying my Caucasian daughter lives with the same amount of danger as a young African-American man does. I am saying, I am a mother, I understand. My daughter once walked out after an argument, she was gone two hours and I was frantic. I cannot imagine the constant and overwhelming fear that parents of young minority men feel, in this case, I can only empathize with their loss.

When did we become a society that can allow such constant assaults? How did we go from being the country that promised “life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness” to one that insists on trans-vaginal ultrasounds, cuts funds to the ill, aged and our children, and enacts laws that legalize assault with deadly force?

It is beyond reason.

The 1% thanks you for your vote, your money, your savings, your home and your public land as they create a private economy and continue the plunder of our national lands and resources, once again privatizing profit and socializing costs. Fracking is only the latest method by which the GOP is assisting in the plunder.

We don't need those mother fracking gasholes....protect our earth from toxic drill holes.
It's our water, our forests, our grassland. Your land, my land, not just Gasland.
Protect our water from halliburton loophole, don't just give our land to mother fracking gasholes.
All the millions on ads to brainwash,can't undo the earthquakes and backwash.
Toxic sludge they pump into our earth, all the while struggling with their mirth.
Taking our money, our land and our waters, converting to euros and yen,not quarters.
OK, I can see I need to spend more time on this later.....

This came to me tonight from Planned Parenthood PA Activist Network:

• The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is poised to pass HB 1077, the so-called "Women's Right to Know" Act. This bill operates under the guise that women aren't smart enough to understand their own bodies. It requires all women seeking an abortion to be subjected to a mandatory ultrasound at least 24 hours in advance. It requires the ultrasound screen to be aimed toward the woman's face but 'permits her to avert her eyes' and also requires that she deliver a print of the image to her physician in order to have the procedure. The PA Medical Society and other medical groups have already come out in opposition to this incredible invasion of the physician/patient relationship. Your Representative can stop this demeaning and unnecessary attack by voting NO on HB 1077, but we need your help!That's why I signed a petition to The Pennsylvania State House, which says:"Stop the cruel, demeaning attacks on women - vote NO on HB 1077 and stop mandatory, invasive ultrasounds from becoming law in Pennsylvania!"Will you sign the petition too? Click here to add your name:http://signon.org/sign/stop-pennsylvanias-mandatory?source=s.fwd&r_by=334751

So are all republicans ready to jump off this cliff? Now, based upon one or two GOP legislators, I know this is an unfair generalization, and I am gong to say it anyway, I know there are plenty of republicans' who don't cheat on thier wives or who aren't still hiding the fact that they are gay, but it seems to me, they don't really understand women at all. Remember it was Newt Gingrinch who thought we would turn on the Clinton's when Monica was dumb enough not to get that dress dry-cleaned immediately.

But did the GOP learn its lesson? Apparently not. Now it appears the GOP thinks it can win votes by alienating women. Really? When did my uterus become fertile ground for GOP pandering? What will it take to convince the GOP that women have a Constitutional right to privacy and control over their bodies?

Which brings me to another interesting movement born recently, the call for a nationwide day of protest in August. Originally there was a plan for me to help with an event in April, but there are too many questions on the national organization team. Too little cooperation, too much censoring of posts, trolling state group pages, deleting & banning people when they ask questions, not at all what I would consider a credible organization.

I had already invited the President, First Lady, Secretary of State and the President of both the National Organization for Women and of the Feminist Majority. I will continue to work on the fight for women's rights, and will offer help to local groups for the April event, but my focus will return to the national political arena and leave this group to its own silly machinations. Banning in the name of equality, how ridiculous.

This day of national protest in August will be our message to the GOP, stop assaulting our rights! And to tell you the truth, I feel constantly assaulted by the GOP. Starting with my arrest at the 1st Tar Sands, and the constant fight to get the FRAC Act passed, the repeated fight to stop the Keystone XL, the cuts to education, health & welfare, and now this, the final insult, they want to take away my right to control my own body.

It is a particulary vile bit of GOP pandering, but business as usual, when the GOP candidates are down in the polls, they trot out their social justice ponies, here comes gay marriage, next up, abortion, and wait, here comes their new favorite, and no doubt funding, pony, the oil & gas industry, the supposed down-trodden trillion dollar land stealing oil leaking frac fluid contaminating gashole, or in GOP-speak, energy independence.

But I digress. The bill in PA is scheduled for a March 12th vote. Between now and then we need a fast, and furious, campaign, to make sure the GOP is put on notice, vote yes on this bill and we will do everything  we can to make sure you are not reelected. It is time to explain to legislators in no uncertain terms, the GOP has no business in my uterus.

Four days a week, I leave my car at the garage that valets my car and I walk to Rittenhouse Square. For those of you who don't know the area, Rittenhouse is one of the enclaves of the 1% here in Philadelphia. The law firm I work with is one of the premier class action firms in the nation. They litigate anti-trust violations, price collusion, unsafe products and other class actions.

From the garage, it is four blocks to the office. I walk from just past Dilworth Plaza, the site of the original Occupy Philadelphia camp, to Rittenhouse Square, the home of the few & land of the elite. I often pass several homeless people on my way to and from the garage, and always try to give them a few dollars each week. I wonder how they ended up on the street, and worry about the friends I made at Occupy Philadelphia, the homeless that found a home at OP camp now scattered.

Today I decided to change the world. I invited one woman to come to a coffee shop and let me buy her breakfast. Just 5 minutes of my day, that is all the time it took to change the world.

For a few months, Occupy camps nationwide were feeding and caring for the homeless, and more than anything, that respite is needed.

At Occupy Philadelphia they not only fed the homeless, they provided warm clothing, medical care and companionship. I am sure the other camps did the same.

We need to reinvent the Occupy camp concepts. Find a way to work with city & state government to have permanent Occupy sites that work with existing services and organizations to provide shelter, solace & sustenance to those in need.

The woman I bought breakfast for had all her blankets stolen last night, she was in the hospital with bronchitis and a UTI. When Occupy Philadelphia had its camp at Dilworth Plaza she could get free medical care, 3 meals a day, clean water, dry clothes and a safe place to sleep. Without the camp she has nothing and nowhere to go.

I am asking each one of you who reads this to join me in changing the world. We can find a space to setup an Occupy Camp Shelter, we can care for each other.

If we don't stop and change the world, who will?