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http://www.AllPowerToThePeople.com/events/NaderDays/page3.shtml
Day Of
Day of. That's what they called it. That was the "lingo". I called it April 25th
but I was severely outnumbered. Everyone else was 'day of' this and 'day of' that.
"Alex, let me ask you, what are you doing day of?", "Who's the volunteer coordinator
for day of?", "Now that it's day of maybe we should think about calling tomorrow day
after of!"
Heather had made it clear from the beginning that all she wanted to be doing 'day of'
was sitting in the audience and listening to Nader. They managed to rope her in as a
'day of volunteer' though on the condition that they wouldn't expect anything out of her
after 7.
Since Christina had to run around doing mostly everything on 'day of' I was nominated
and elected to be the table coordinator. That was the perfect job for me anyway since
I knew half the people who were tabling and could make out a logical plan on where they
were supposed to go based on how much they had helped us out. I put the NYCLU right up
front since they had made the whole thing possible by providing some great office space.
I put myself next to them since I had all but killed myself selling tickets and doing
everything else. I had personally had a hand in selling 1/50th of the tickets that were
sold. Who knows how many I sold indirectly.
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They asked Heather and I to come in around 1:30. As IF! We arrived around 3 and we
were lucky to make it by then. We were still plenty early. They were still starting to
string together all the access laminates and see how many volunteers they had and trying
to logically divvy them up. Jason was still saying "okay this is what we're gonna do"
a lot, and then people would decide if that made sense or not and just do it the way that
made sense.
There were enough volunteers that we could have four folks coordinating the tables.
That seemed like plenty. They gave me an all-access pass (kind of them since I'd made
them) and made me the captain of tabling sort of like when you pick teams in gym class.
I picked Heather and lucked into having two volunteers, a young lady named Sarah and
a guy who's name I think began with a T, who were really super helpful and fun to talk
to. They were a couple also. I took the tabling team into the auditorium and we looked
around. Heather and I had written who's table was where already so really there wasn't
much to do other than asking people who they were and reading the signs on the table until
you found that person and then going to tell Heather to cross their name off the list.
Of course nothing in life ever goes that smoothly. There were people showing up not sure
if they were supposed to be there. It took a long time to get the hand stamping working
so we had to try to keep track of who was coming and going for quite a while. There were
people showing up who didn't seem to be on the list but in most of those cases I would know
them and know whether or not they were supposed to be tabling. Then JB showed up. I had only
just met him earlier in the week because he put together one of the Peace on Earth Week
events. That Tuesday he had staged a tent-in across from the local Fuel company to protest
their deforestation in Pennsylvania and he had a very cold and rainy day for a tent in but
they kept at it regardless. JB wasn't sure if he should be there because he didn't know
if he'd sold enough tickets. I asked how many they'd sold. Two. Hrmmm... I thought of
all the people that had struggled mightily to sell the required ten and I didn't quite
know what to make of two. We were making a lot of exceptions for people who'd sold six or
seven but I wasn't sure about two. I think I remember asking him to hang around and see
whether there was more tabling space after everyone had shown up but I don't remember it
clearly. There was a lot going on.
Then, during the organized chaos I kept looking at my GBINet table. I was waiting for
Chuck Richards, one of the writers for
Corporations-Suck
to show up because he was scheduled to man my table. The tables were filling up with organization
and mine was still just sitting there. I was starting to worry. To be honest a LOT of the work
I'd been doing I was doing in the hopes of gaining some publicity for GBINet. Now it looked
like I was going to have a table with literature and no person. Chuck did show up before the
show started so that was a big sigh of relief there.
We all kept looking around to get a sense of how many people were in attendance. For the
longest time the crowd looked very sparse. I was mindful of the fact that there weren't
going to be 2000 people and we'd printed up 2000 Progressive Directories so I would head
out to the lobby to grab a handful and put them in my bookbag from time to time. I still
have a few extra. :)
Then there was the Access Storefront situation. We had been promising organizations 2 by 4 feet of
table space. When we got to the venue we discovered the table along the side were very narrow.
Then there were a few wide tables along the back. We decided that in the interest of fairness
we would have everyone tabling on the sides and leave the tables in the back empty to avoid
people arguing over who wants what kind of table. At some point Bill Marx of Pax Christi
came in and he set up his table along the back near where most people were entering the event
floor. We pointed out to him that we'd reserved a spot up near the front for him but he asked
if he could just remain where he had set up. Well, apart from being a really nice guy who had
bought ten tickets right when we first started selling them, he was also one of the speakers
for the event so I was happy to let him set up wherever he wanted, but I told the rest of the
tabling team to keep anyone else from setting up along the back. A while later Heather came
and pointed out to me that someone had set up and started tabling along the back.
We went to check it out together. It was Access Storefront. They weren't on the list.
We asked them what they were doing and they just sort of looked at us with those young
innocent faces. They said they hadn't sold any tickets because they hadn't heard about
this whole thing until it was too late but they figured that rather than just letting
these tables go empty they would just allocate one to themselves. I again thought about
organizations that had worked very hard to sell tickets and JB who had at least made an
effort and Heather and I decided absolutely not. Access Storefront may be a great and
very worthwhile cause, and the people there tabling were acquaintances of ours and people
that I like but there was no way that this was fair. We told them that they would have to
leave. So then they started with the delaying tactics hoping we would let them stay because
we were too busy to keep dealing with them. I was perfectly willing to try to pick them
up and physically remove them. They insisted on speaking to "someone in charge" and we
told them that someone in charge was going to tell them the exact same thing and besides
everyone in charge was way too busy.
It was at just that moment that Jason (everything's under control) walked by. He was
pretty much in charge somehow so we figured we'd snag him, he could tell these kids to
leave and they'd leave. We told him the situation and how they'd sold zero tickets and
how we were trying to leave the back tables empty. So Jason got this Final Jeopardy look
on his face and started weighing all the options as "people in charge" are wont to do.
He decided "Ah, let em stay."
...
I was pretty pissed off. I wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him and
watch his head flop all around. Heather quit right then and there on the spot. It was
close to 7 anyway but even if it hadn't been, Democracy Rising could count on no more
help from her. I tried to just concentrate on the positive. Access Storefront's a great
place and hopefully they would generate some interest in their project. But then later I
caught sight of JB and felt pretty crappy.
Right after that they called a meeting so that Jason could show us all how to Jingle
our box. Yes, we were to be assigned numbered cardboard boxes and he was explaining
how this was the very important part of the show. The part where they ask the audience
for money and we run up to anyone who looks like they might be inclined to give and
collect their money. He demonstrated the proper way to shake your box when it had
change in it to attract people's attention. I already had a good sense of how dismally
this was going to go but in for a penny, in for a pound I guess. I got caught up in a
conversation as they were doling out the boxes anyway so I got issued one of the last
boxes and became a floater. That means I didn't have a specific section I was in charge
of I could just walk around at will as an extra box.
I jingled my box like a trooper. I tracked down friends of mine in the audience and
relieved them of their pocket change. I jingled my box a lot but I live in a city full
of broke people who had already paid more than $10.00 to get in and they were having a
pretty negative reaction to the evangelical fervor coming from the front stage asking
them to give till it hurt. There was plenty of economic pain to go round already. I was
sure that toward the front there were probably some wealthy people helping out the
progressive movement with some generous contributions, but my exhaustion and crankiness
was catching up to me and all I wanted to do was return my box and watch the show
next to Heather.
On the way back from returning my box I realized I should probably go check on Chuck.
I found the GBINet table and there were four people just having a nice meandering
conversation right in front of my table blocking anyone who might be interested in
picking up some literature. I tried to stare them down for a while but they were fully
engrossed in obliviously taking up space. I looked around and realized that everyone
was heading for a seat anyway and no one was really looking at the tables any more so
I just let the matter drop but I kinda wondered how long Chuck had been there watching
these people block my table.
I went to join Heather. I had missed getting to see Bill Marx, Judy Einach or
Eric Johnt. I had been in the Jingle your box meeting while they were on. But Heather
had saved a great seat for me and it was time to watch Patti Smith open up for Ralph.
She gave a great performance and got the typically sedentary Buffalonian crowd up and
dancing. Toward the end of her set she got up and read off the list of thank yous that
Matt had handed to her. She gave a special thank you to
GBINet and Heather and I looked
at each other and said That's us!
I looked around to see how many people had just heard Patti Smith mention our websites.
During most of the night the place had looked really empty but now as the main show was
underway the auditorium looked pretty full. The final door count was 1500 out of a 2300
seating capacity. I was glad we'd gotten that many.
Then Ralph took the stage. I took out my digital camera and began to walk around and
shoot pictures. There was a lot of other media there shooting as well and I thought about
how everyone taking a picture was also getting a picture of the podium banner that I'd made
a couple nights before. It's probably the most photographed design I've ever made, simple
though it was.
This whole event was called Peace on Earth Week. I had been telling people that it was
going to be about peace and environmentalism. It ended up being about corporations and
corporate control over everything. That was awesome. As far as I'm concerned everything
that's going wrong with warmongering and environmental devastation is just a symptom of
corporate domination over our lives. I had been writing about it regularly on my
Corporations-Suck website and everything he said felt like a vindication of everything I
had been saying all along. The crowd was riveted too. I kept thinking about how
easy it was going to be to get some people to take some corporations-suck leaflets after
this well presented speech on the topic of
corporate malfeasance.
But as Nader spoke on and on into the night I began to change my mind. Eventually it was
after 11 pm and I knew that in this sleepy town that meant everyone was going to run for
the door the moment he stopped speaking.
That was basically what happened. It was well after 11 when he finished. The place
emptied out almost immediately. The audience and the tablers all rushed out the door.
Heather had been hoping for a chance to visit a lot of tables but they were gone.
I had been hoping for some people to visit my table which I was now manning myself
but they were gone. The only people left were the folks in line to get a book signed
by Ralph. Heather went up to get his picture while I tried to chase down anyone in a
seat anywhere and shove a GBINet flyer into their hand. I still had tons left over.
After there was no one left I went up to get a GBINet flyer autographed by Nader.
I was one of the last ones in line and I must say that he has very poor penmanship at
the end of the night.
There was an after party for all of the volunteers at a place that Matt knew on the
East Side afterwards but there was no way we were going. Heather had work in the
morning and I was barely able to walk straight. We went home and fell asleep before our
heads hit the pillows.
Days After
The very next morning Heather had to go to work very early. I felt for her. I was glad
that she was going to be able to get back to a regular sleep schedule now that the Nader
thing was over. The Green Party was throwing a regional conference that morning. Lots
of Green party people from across the state were in town for the big show so they figured
this was the perfect time to have a pow wow. I thought seriously about skipping it but
then I remembered back to when this had all began when the Green Party of Erie County
barely knew who I was and I thought it might be nice to show up for the morning and
maybe someone would say hey that was a great job you did making that directory, designing
that website, selling all those tickets, putting up all those flyers, writing that software
to organize the tables, running around like a lunatic doing 80 million things at once
or something like that. Maybe. Even if not at least they knew who I was now.
I got through the door and they asked me for my $15.00. Nothing on the flyer said anything
about $15.00, I should know because I made the damn flyer. My bad mood got worse. I was
pretty sure that I was flat broke but then I remembered that during the confusion of the show
one of my friends had come up to me and paid me for three tickets that I'd given her to sell
for me. So I did have $45 though it technically wasn't mine. I paid my admission fee out
of that money and then later in the day when I saw Matt I told him I had sold two more
tickets when actually I had sold 3 more. Oh well Matt, you're not getting your $15.00
back. Sorry.
Then the Green Party started talking and talking and talking and talking. They are
very good at talking. If they work on their listening a little bit they might really
have something. There was a full on attempt to declare victory over having put on such
a wonderful event here in Buffalo but there was an undercurrent of disappointment with
the attendance and my mood certainly wasn't helping things any. In the bigger picture
there was still a great deal of general sadness that George W. Bush had taken the country
to war with Iraq and wasted tens of billions of dollars and killed lots of people and made
many more very seriously ill while the news media acted like a pro-Bush cheerleader.
A couple hours into the talking and talking and talking they made the announcement that
Ralph Nader himself was going to grace the gathering with an appearance. So that was
pretty cool at least.
A bit later Nader arrived. Everyone that was running for an office in the near future
got photographed with him so they could use the picture in their campaign. Then Ralph
started speaking to us. Speaking very frankly and letting us know exactly what he
felt was wrong with the Green Party. There were too many loners. Nobody was getting
out and talking to people and the grassroots growth that was supposed to be happening
wasn't happening. The Greens seemed to be too shy to ask for help in his estimation and
especially financial help. That struck me as funny, everyone I'd met during the course
of this whole Nader thing seemed to have no problem asking for all the help I had to
give and then some and all of my money too.
I had been half asleep all morning but these suggestions he was making were waking me
up. With my eyes half open and in slow deliberate words I began to articulate the notion
that just for the sake of identifying our enemy it might be good to keep in mind that there
is a multi-billion dollar public relations industry out there that is hard at work keeping
people inactive and distracted. Ralph looked at me and told me I was "rationalizing futility."
...
Rationalizing Futility??? Excuse me? I would have to believe in futility before I could
start rationalizing it. As far as I'm concerned futility is a waste of time. If I were
the type of person that believed in futility I had plenty of chances to give up when the
whole Nader thing looked futile. When Labor told me I could count on no help from them and
that they couldn't afford to be associated with anything that had Ralph's name on it things
looked pretty bleak. When Bruce Jackson wrote all that crap about how Ralph Nader owed
the whole world an apology for running for president and trying to make the world better
I could have packed it in rather than staying up all night writing a response. When I
kept asking how are the ticket sales going and Matt would look at me with that "stay
positive" expression and remind me how tickets always start off selling slowly that would
have been the perfect opportunity to just let somebody else do everything.
I don't believe I was rationalizing anything. I was doing exactly what I said I was doing:
attempting to properly identify the enemy. It doesn't make any sense to me to sit around
and wring our hands and lament about "I don't know why we can't get people to be more
politically active." I think I know exactly why, and it has to do with big Corporations
that retain these huge law and lobbying firms to rewrite the laws in their favor and, to an
even greater extent, it has to do with these Public Relations firms that spend all kinds
of money researching the American Public and conducting studies on how to make them feel one
way or another and then actively using that science to get the people feeling like things
are as good as we can expect them to ever get and even if we don't like the way things are
we are always going to be powerless to change things. And yes they have billions of
dollars that I don't have and it's very difficult to compete with that but rather than saying
things are futile I tap these keys every day and try to wake up any person that will listen.
I will never believe things are futile and I will keep fighting for change in every way I can
think of --big, little or in the middle-- until they pry my keyboard out of my cold dead hands
and stitch my mouth shut.
Rationalize that.
So then days went by and life slowly began to return to normal. I started catching up on
some sleep and working through my overrun email box and my mood slowly began to improve.
The next Friday Democracy Rising had a going away party. There was a whole lot going on
that Friday. There was a
Critical Mass bike ride
that I really wanted to make it to but couldn't. There was a
Faces of Iraq
exhibit that we ended up going to and staying at for a while. We stopped in at the
Democracy Rising party long enough to partake in some free food and meet this guy that
had written a great introductory speech for Nader when he spoke earlier at Canisius. I lost
the link to his speech but it said a lot of the same things I said in my reply to Bruce
Jackson. Matt gave us a tour of this huge hall where the party was being held and then
we wished Matt well and went to the Access storefront. They were having a grand opening
type event and we wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings after we'd tried to
toss them out of the building. Heather had a lot of books in her car that she had been
going to donate to the UU church but they found a much better home at the Access storefront.
They seemed very glad to be receiving the types of books she had compiled over the years
so we left with all fences mended there and plenty of good karma points knowing that books
would be well used.
Then, just a couple weeks ago Matt called me. He said they were doing another Nader
thing in Baltimore and he wanted to know if I was available to help out. Even better
I would get to work with Jason since Matt has an illness in the family.
"Sure, why not?" I said. I'm sure there has to be some struggling peace and social
justice organizations in Baltimore that are made up of the same kind of great people in
our organizations here. If they can benefit from my labor then we can score another
one for the good guys. And in working with Jason this time around he's pretty easy to
work with. We have two very different styles, but I think I could keep from shaking him
if I saw him again. Every movement needs diversity.
Or something like that.
Okay, so that's my story.
-gea
GBINet.info
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