Small Task - We are ALL Americans

This is from Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama:

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was twenty years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could go serve his country, and he gave his life....

This is the picture he was referencing:



We are ALL Americans.

Small Task #18 - Our "health"

If it wasn't clear enough before how John McCain feels about women, this video confirms it. Sorry, John McCain, women's health is NOT something to put in air quotes.



Women deserve respect from our politicians. Not this.

Small Task #17 - Don't Vote!

Time is running out to make sure your family and friends are registered to vote. Don't let anyone's voice go unheard. Pass on this video!



Don't Vote!

Small Task #16 - Brite Blue Dot

Yesterday was a scary day. I wanted to post the Obama campaign's statement.

This is a moment of national crisis, and today’s inaction in Congress as well as the angry and hyper-partisan statement released by the McCain campaign are exactly why the American people are disgusted with Washington. Now is the time for Democrats and Republicans to join together and act in a way that prevents an economic catastrophe. Every American should be outraged that an era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and Washington has led us to this point, but now that we are here, the stability of our entire economy depends on us taking immediate action to ease this crisis.

And second, here is a nice website to look at and pass on for our friends in the red states.

www.britebluedot.com

It's always nice to see something positive these days.

Thanks to partymamabrooklyn for passing on this site!

Small Task #15 - Vote for Change #2

Does this give you the chills?



If so, pass on this link:

www.voteforchange.com

VOTE FOR CHANGE.

Small Task #14 - Demand the Debate!

Demand the Debate!!!

www.demandthedebate2008.com

Small Task #13 - Get Ready

For the last six years we've been told that our mounting debts don't matter, we've been told that the anxiety Americans feel about rising health care costs and stagnant wages are an illusion, we've been told that climate change is a hoax, and that tough talk and an ill-conceived war can replace diplomacy, and strategy, and foresight. And when all else fails, when Katrina happens, or the death toll in Iraq mounts, we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.

And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what's filled the void. The cynics, and the lobbyists, and the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we're here today to take it back. The time for that politics is over. It's time to turn the page. - Barack Obama

Today's small task is to get ready for the rest of the campaign. If you've been meaning to order a shirt, or a sign, or a car magnet, order it today.

http://store.barackobama.com/

The race is coming down to the wire. Let's get ready!

Small Task #12 - Health Care

I think this is a really interesting article. Your task for today. Just read it. And pass it on.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122152292213639569.html#printMode

Small Task #11 - Wear Blue

I learned about this email going around from partymomabrooklyn and wanted to spread the word:

OBAMA BLUE DAY!!! September 30, 2008

Its time to REPRESENT!!!!!

This election season has remained too close for comfort and to close to call! We have 100,000s of unregistered and millions who remain on the fence! Its time for us to come together, voice our unity, and make a difference!

Tuesday September 30, 2008

everyone is asked to do two things

1) WEAR BLUE

2) REGISTER TWO VOTERS!

(If you can't register two voters talk to two people who may be on the fence/ or a McCain supporter and sway them to become a Obama Supporter).

LETS MAKE OBAMA BLUE DAY a DAY OF ACTION!!!!

BARACK THE VOTE!!!!!!

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYBODY WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING!!!

Small Task #10 - Learn

You will be tested. You won't always succeed. But know that you have it within your power to try. That generations who have come before you faced these same fears and uncertainties in their own time. And that through our collective labor, and through God's providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other's burdens, America will continue on its journey towards that distant horizon, and a better day. - Barack Obama

Today the task is simple. Just do a little reading. Find an issue that interests you and get some more information. That way, the next time you talk about Barack Obama to friends and family, you will have even more information to pass forward.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

Small Task #9 - Be an Ambassador

And if they tell you that,'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns.' I want you to say,'He believes in the Second Amendment.' If they tell you,'Well, he's going to raise your taxes,' you say,'No, he's not, he's going lower them.' You are my ambassadors. You guys are the ones who can make the case. - Barack Obama

I think most of us have noticed a different tone in part of this election. Where outrageous lies are told, not always in the media but in whispers from neighbors and slanderous email forwards. This spreading of lies is hard to fight against because it's as much of a word of mouth campaign as our campaign of truth. So this week, I ask you to rail against that. If you get an email forward that is outrageous lies, find the truth and pass it on. If you hear someone spouting misinformation, call them on it. Not everyone will believe you, but perhaps it will spur them to learn a little on their own. Or maybe it will give them pause the next time the repeat something you told them was untrue. Not many people truly want to spread lies. It is our job this week to spread the truth. Be kind about it, but firm and remember we really do have the truth on ourside and it is our job to forward it on.

http://factcheck.barackobama.com/

I want to campaign the same way I govern, which is to respond directly and forcefully with the truth - Barack Obama

Small Task #8 - Attend

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief. I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one. – Barack Obama

Today your task is to sign up to attend an event for the Obama campaign in the next week or two. If you follow this link you can search for events in your area. There are many events to register people to vote which is a great way to get active and really make a difference.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple

Small Task #7 - A Good Read

Today's Simple task is a departure from the rest. This was written by Eve Ensler, the writer of the Vagina Monologues. I thought it was too good not to share. So read it and if you like it, copy and forward it on.

Drill, Drill, Drill - Eve Ensler

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Small Task #6 - Visible Sign

It's a time where you can go to any town hall or street corner or coffee shop and hear people express the same anxiety about the future; hear them convey the same uncertainty about the direction we're headed as a country. Whether it's the war or Katrina or their health care or their jobs, you hear people say that we've finally arrived at a moment where something must change. - Barack Obama

Today is pretty simple. Put a magnet on your car, a sign in your yard, a pin on your bag, a sign on the stroller, anything you can think of to show your support.

If you don’t have any of those things, just print out a sign from here

http://www.barackobama.com/downloads/

and put it somewhere that people will see it.

Make your support visible today!

Small Task #5 - Share the Hope

It’s not that I think John McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of most Americans. I just think doesn’t know. He doesn’t get what’s happening between the mountain in Sedona where he lives and the corridors of Washington where he works. Why else would he say that we’ve made great progress economically under George Bush? Why else would he say that the economy isn’t something he understands as well as he should? Why else would he say, today, of all days – just a few hours ago – that the fundamentals of the economy are still strong?

Senator – what economy are you talking about?

What’s more fundamental than the ability to find a job that pays the bills and can raise a family? What’s more fundamental than knowing that your life savings is secure, and that you can retire with dignity? What’s more fundamental than knowing that you’ll have a roof over your head at the end of the day? What’s more fundamental than that?

The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great – that promise that America is the place where you can make it if you try – a promise that is the only reason that we are standing here today. – Barack Obama 9/15/08

If I ever wondered if NOW wasn’t the time for change, it was confirmed yesterday. Certain issues don’t seem to mean much in the face of such financial hardships. So today your task is to continue to spread the word.

Share this link:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/

Post in on facebook or myspace, email it to your friends, put it on your blog. Get it out in whatever way you can. Because today of all days, people need to see that we have options, that 4 more years of Republican rule is not the answer. People are desperate to hear that things will get better. Share the hope.

Small Task #4 - Answer the Call

The genius of our founders is that they designed a system of government that can be changed. And we should take heart, because we've changed this country before. In the face of tyranny, a band of patriots brought an Empire to its knees. In the face of secession, we unified a nation and set the captives free. In the face of Depression, we put people back to work and lifted millions out of poverty. We welcomed immigrants to our shores, we opened railroads to the west, we landed a man on the moon, and we heard a King's call to let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more - and it is time for our generation to answer that call. - Barack Obama

Are you ready to answer the call? Are you ready to work for change? Because it’s time. It’s time to volunteer.

http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/volunteer/



And remember,

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little - Edmond Burke

Simple Task #3: Never Again Leave Behind

In the years to come, return this favor to those who are forced to weather their own storms - be it the loss of a job or a slide into poverty; an unexpected illness or an unforeseen eviction. And in returning these favors, seek also to make this a nation of no more Katrinas. Make this a nation where we never again leave behind any American by ensuring that every American has a job that can support a family and health care in case they get sick and a good education for their child and a secure retirement they can count on. Make this a nation where we are never again caught unprepared to meet the challenges of our time - where we free ourselves from a dependence on oil and protect our cities from both forces of terror and nature.

Make this a nation that is worthy of the sacrifices of so many of its citizens, and in doing so, make real the observation made by a visitor to our country so many centuries ago: "America is great because Americans are good."

I ask you to take this second path - this harder path - not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt.

I ask you to take it because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on our collective salvation. And because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential. – Barack Obama

Today, in the wake of Hurricane Ike, your task is a bit of a break from the campaign. Just visit The Red Cross and give a little

American Red Cross

Or if you can’t give right now, just keep our fellow Americans in your thoughts. Because our goal is to never leave another American behind.

Small Task #2 - Your Fundamental Right

There is no more fundamental right accorded to United States citizens by the Constitution than the right to vote. The unimpeded exercise of this right is essential to the functioning of our democracy – Barack Obama

Today’s small task is simple. There is a wonderful new website that I learned about in an email from the Obama campaign. Your task is easy. Just click on this link

www.voteforchange.com

On this site you can register to vote (or confirm that you are already registered), request to vote absentee and find your polling location. After you click though the site it will give you the option to email the site to your family and friends. Email it! Forward it on! You would be surprised how many people show up on election day only to find they aren’t registered. Don’t let this happen to you or anyone you know. We MUST have all our votes counted.

Small Task #1 - The Power of One

...we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America’s story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea – Yes. We. Can. - Barack Obama

Today is the first day of our new form of action. I thought we could start of with something easy.

We all know someone who isn’t quite sure who is going to get their vote. Who is one of the “undecided”. All I ask that you do today is make one phone call or send one email to that person. Reach out in some way to them, whatever is easiest for you. Don’t ask for a commitment, don’t ask for a debate, just reach out and tell them ONE reason why you are voting for Barack Obama.

And then come back here and let us all know how it went. And most importantly post that reason so we can all reaffirm why we are here.

Remember, this election is going to be close. Your ONE vote matters so very much and imagine if you can get our cause just ONE more vote. It could make all the difference!



Changes can come from the power of many, but only when the many come together to form that which is invincible...the power of one. – Bryce Courtenay

Barack It Forward - Introduction

This blog was started with the sole purpose of uniting a group of Barack Obama supporters with the goal of influencing our communities. Each day we will post a "task", something small we can do to help promote the next president of the United States, Barack Obama.

We are a small group of people, but we are determined to promote change. We have spent months talking about the issues and it is now time for action.

We don't have much time until the election and we know that each day counts. Each small thing we do, we will reach out to a few people with the hopes that they will reach out too. We will "Barack it Forward" in small ways in order to achieve great things.

So, today we organize and tomorrow we start working to change our country!