Camp Courage East LA is California
| By Rick Jacobs, Courage Campaign - Aug 1, 2009 6:15:12 AM PT |
| Also listed in: Courage Campaign Staff |
I'm sitting in the Gloria Molina Community Center in East LA with 250+ Camp Courage campers. Sixty two people here are monolingual Spanish speakers. We're brown and black and white and Asian and gay and straight and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered. Forty or so people here self-identified as knowing no one else in the room. They just showed up to learn, to experience, to experiment.
This movement for equality that emerged after the passage of Prop. 8 has gone through our own stages of grief: denial; anger; acceptance; tedium and now, determination. The summer months since Meet in the Middle have seen a few hundred activists focus on the tactics of winning back our rights rather than the essence of the movement that will our rights here and nationally.
Some have used the national media to talk about divisions in the community and to push a position on the tactic of when to go to the ballot. The media love controversy and, regrettably, in the past week the story has been one of division, not of power.
This room today is power. No one here is interested in talking about the tactics; we are here to talk about the power of the movement, the power of the progressive community that will win equality for lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people and social justice for all.
If I could paint this room, you'd see vitality, energy and the power of diversity that built America and repowers California. The guy with the light orange goatee and broad tattoos; the French woman from Rosmeade who showed me pictures of her two gay children; the former assembly candidate; the big guy with dreadlocks; the retired mom. We're here.
Our movement is alive and well. I was in San Bernardino last weekend for the grassroots summit about tactics. From my standpoint, the meeting was pretty good. People were mutually respectful and highly motivated. Yet, the contrast with Camp Courage East LA could not be greater. Here, the energy is all positive, all engaging and all caring. The focus is self-empowerment. People are here to share, to learn and to build community. The tactics matter only to a few; the movement matters to all.
Tactics did not put Barack Obama into the White House; a movement driven by the smartest campaign professionals in history put him there. Tactics won't win back our rights in California and nationally. The movement, guided by smart campaign professionals for elections and by ourselves to change the votes in the congress will.
If you are feeling glum or tired or burned out, come to Camp Courage. I could barely get out of bed this morning, but have so much energy now that I could, well, change a thousand minds.
This movement for equality that emerged after the passage of Prop. 8 has gone through our own stages of grief: denial; anger; acceptance; tedium and now, determination. The summer months since Meet in the Middle have seen a few hundred activists focus on the tactics of winning back our rights rather than the essence of the movement that will our rights here and nationally.
Some have used the national media to talk about divisions in the community and to push a position on the tactic of when to go to the ballot. The media love controversy and, regrettably, in the past week the story has been one of division, not of power.
This room today is power. No one here is interested in talking about the tactics; we are here to talk about the power of the movement, the power of the progressive community that will win equality for lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people and social justice for all.
If I could paint this room, you'd see vitality, energy and the power of diversity that built America and repowers California. The guy with the light orange goatee and broad tattoos; the French woman from Rosmeade who showed me pictures of her two gay children; the former assembly candidate; the big guy with dreadlocks; the retired mom. We're here.
Our movement is alive and well. I was in San Bernardino last weekend for the grassroots summit about tactics. From my standpoint, the meeting was pretty good. People were mutually respectful and highly motivated. Yet, the contrast with Camp Courage East LA could not be greater. Here, the energy is all positive, all engaging and all caring. The focus is self-empowerment. People are here to share, to learn and to build community. The tactics matter only to a few; the movement matters to all.
Tactics did not put Barack Obama into the White House; a movement driven by the smartest campaign professionals in history put him there. Tactics won't win back our rights in California and nationally. The movement, guided by smart campaign professionals for elections and by ourselves to change the votes in the congress will.
If you are feeling glum or tired or burned out, come to Camp Courage. I could barely get out of bed this morning, but have so much energy now that I could, well, change a thousand minds.
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