Hudson Valley Progressive Coalition

Sunday, April 18th, was a great day for democracy in New Paltz, NY. Approximately 200 people came to “We, the People: A Forum to Defend Democracy” at SUNY New Paltz. Congressman Hinchey and our presenters did an excellent job of outlining the challenges before us and how we can meet them.   Here’s how we all can get started:

What We Can Do to Fight Against Corporate Domination of Our Elections!

Pass a Constitutional amendment
Congress must once and for all put to rest the idea that corporations are people and reassert Congressional power to regulate campaign finance. This can only be accomplished through a Constitutional amendment.

Progress to date:
Congressman Hinchey, Co-sponsor of H.J. Res. 74
- Senator Gillibrand, Call and ask her to support S. JR. 28
- Senator Schumer, Call and ask him to support S. JR. 28
(See below for other requests for Senator Schumer)

Capitol Switchboard- 202 224-3121

Sign petitions for a Constitutional amendment:
FreeSpeechforPeople.org
MovetoAmend.org
People for the American Way

Lobby Congress for regulations that protect the ordinary citizen:
Tell your elected officials to pass legislation to immediately mitigate this ruling’s effects.

Senator Schumer and Representative Van Hollen are proposing legislation that would:
-Exempt corporations 20% or more foreign owned from electioneering.
-Exempt corporations receiving federal contracts.

Require disclosure. It needs to be strong (i.e., ” I’m John Dough, president of Halliburton and I approve this ad.”)
Require shareholder approval. The New York Times reported that this has been dropped. Let Senator Schumer know that wording of HR 4790 to protect shareholders must be in any final bill.

Tell your elected official to pass the Fair Elections Now Act:
Progress to date:
-Congressman Hinchey, Co-sponsor of H.R. 1826
-Senator Gillibrand, Co-sponsor of S. 752
-Senator Schumer, ask him to Co-sponsor S.752

Pass State and Local Resolutions:
Urge your state legislators to pass a resolution calling on Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment and to send to states for ratification. This is already happening in Massachusetts and Maine. Pass a similar resolution at a local level.

Work for clean elections in New York State:
- Support Democracy Matters.org and Citizen Action.org, which are working to pass NY S. 7506.
- Establish Democracy Matters chapters in your high school or university and apply for an organizing internship with Democracy Matters.

Join FaceBook Pages to stay active and engaged:
Amend the Constitution so Corporations Can Not Buy Elections
We, the People, NOT We, the Corporations
Abolish Corporate Personhood Now!
Free Speech for People, People for the American Way and Democracy Matters

Personal Actions:
-Write Letters to the Editor
-Call in to Talk Radio (WVKR, WKNY, WAMC)
-Host a house party
-Engage people
-Blog about it
-Sign up here!

CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD:  202 224- 3121

For more information:
FreeSpeechforPeople.org
People for the American Way
DemocracyMatters.org
Waking Planet

In a Democracy the People Rule!
We Can Do This!

We are a small group of engaged Hudson Valley individuals who have gathered together, motivated to act. We recognize that people are communicating with each other through online media in phenomenal ways (case in point: the Tea Party Movement and radical right’s successful use of the Internet to propagandize). Therefore we are brainstorming to create our own up-tempo, forward-thinking, main street driven video content to be spread through the Internet and social networking resources. Our initial thinking is to create an episodic program that will deal with socio-political issues in a casual, entertaining and accessible way, but we’re open to all ideas.

Our next step is to have an exploratory meeting on January 18 to gather ideas and form a creative/production team, culminating in a “treatment” which we will share with community resources, grant makers, local broadcasters etc. to broaden involvement and funding.

We are reaching out to those who see the potential of this idea and have skills that will help to develop and produce this project.

* Campaign development
* Creative writing
* Speaking and conversation skills (in front of the camera)
* Online journalism
* Videography and media production
* Guerilla marketing
* Fundraising
* Thinking outside the box!

If you have an interest, please contact (and include your resume, bio or relevant info about yourself): Melanie Whaley at mswhaley1@optonline.net

Please note that this is all volunteer base. Thank you.

A wonderful organization, Soldiers Angels, will collect and distribute holiday mail to recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Medical and Fisher House.

Mail to:
A Recovering American Soldier (or the title of your choosing)
c/o Soldiers Angels
112 Greenhill Rd
Ramseur, N. Carolina 27316

Alternatively, the U.S. Dept of Defense suggests sending emails of gratitude to our servicemembers via this link:
http://www.ourmilitary.mil/Message.aspx?SectionID=5

There are many ways of supporting our troops and their families throughout the year, both at home and abroad. Here’s a list of pre-screened organizations which provide community-based support: http://www.ourmilitary.mil/help.shtml (Scoll down to bottom of the page.)

Thank you!