An open letter to the People’s Legislators.
Movement of the People
By
Carol A. Lobes
Tuesday, January 4, 2005--what a day! It was the first convention of the Wisconsin People’s Legislature. As a little band of volunteer co-sponsors and planners, we had high hopes and a sense of mission as we put the pieces together and created the event – not really knowing for sure what would happen.
We did know that there was a deep and wide vein of frustration abroad in the land related to the functioning of our Legislature; we knew that grassroots people cared deeply and wanted to be fairly represented by their elected officials – but we did not know who could and would come to Madison on a wintry work day right after the holidays. We were hopeful, but we were not sure how it would all turn out.
Well, you came and you kept on coming! You arrived in such numbers that you overwhelmed our registration logistics. You came from throughout the state – from Hayward, from LaCrosse, from far and near. We salute each and every one of you who attended and we give special recognition to those who trekked the long distances. We watched the cars streaming into the parking lot of the Exposition Hall and we saw the deep underpinning of the kind of renewing change that our state so desperately needs.
You came with a determination to put your shoulders to the wheel, to organize, to hold legislators accountable for an agenda that you collectively developed. You came to contribute and to learn from each other. So many of you stayed for multiple hours to listen, to speak, to think, to create. You came to engage in the real stuff of democracy. You were focused and serious, but with humor and caring. There was no doubt that you came to be citizens.
You energized the place. You gave each other hope and new spirit. You also said where we needed to do further work. The People’s Legislature’s organizers have listened and are working on responding to your feedback.
We knew from your responses on the pre-registration materials that you cared about many issues relevant to the work of the Wisconsin Legislature. Yet despite so many perspectives, your overwhelming concern was the issue of campaign finance reform (and the associated issues of fair districting, elections and ethics reform, tax reform and local control). The result was that you created an agenda of initial issues for which you want to hold elected officials accountable. You created the outline of an initial structure for continuing the work and the momentum that began so auspiciously on that 4th day of January 2005. You asked us, as the first-wave planners, to work to fill in that outline. And we are.
Even before the next steps occur, your numbers and your comments sent a message. Each of you represent networks of relationships and connections that can swell our ranks exponentially – both in terms of individuals and in terms of organizations that might also work with us on the agenda.
Margaret Mead, the noted anthropologist, once said: “A small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. In fact it is the only thing that ever has.” You are that thoughtful group of committed citizens! We know that real change must come from the grassroots.
We should also note that the media coverage of the event has been terrific. We will share as much of it as possible on the FightingBob.com website. It is also worthy of note that Peter Leidy of WHA TV’s “Here and Now” show actually wrote a song about the People’s Legislature. He attended and translated his experience into lyrics and music.
We hope that each of you from outside the Madison media area will share with us any coverage that happened in your individual localities. We will share as much of that material as possible.
So now--we must honor the contributions of ideas and energy that were given on that momentous day. We must not let the tremendous momentum dissipate. You created an agenda that focused on the basic foundation of our state’s democracy. You told us that you wanted to continue what was started and you sketched a structure to enable that to happen. We must now work together to broaden the overall coordinating body, to develop regional and local vehicles for organizing and we must develop communication/action tools to enable us to work together to make it happen.
We will use the Web site and e-mail as a basic way to announce progress and to communicate with you. We encourage you to use those tools to communicate with us. We will keep this dynamic moving and growing. We encourage all of you who have not signed up yet to do so now. We have exciting work ahead and we look forward to doing it with you!
January 11, 2005
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Carol Lobes works for the Center for Democratic Action in Madison and is one of the organizers of the People's Legislature.
