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Kitchen Table Activism

Background: Kitchen Table Activism (KTA) is a monthly project of the Rural Organizing Project. Often building on quarterly themes, short actions are described in each KTA. The theory is that basic steps and tasks can lead to powerful collective results as small groups of people gather to complete the same action throughout the state of Oregon.

ROP works to keep the basic tasks easily achievable so that groups with other projects or groups with limited immediate energy can still manage to complete the KTA each month.

 


 

Rural Organizing Project
PO Box 1350,      Scappoose, OR 97056 

(503) 543-8417              Fax: (503) 543-8419

office@rop.org

 

June 2008 Activity

1776 for July 4th: Launching our Freedom Surge in 2008   

How often have any of us actually felt heard by politicians?  How often have we felt "talked to" as opposed to "talked with" on the issues we find important to our lives and our communities?  Think tanks and campaigns take polls to learn what voters want to hear, but this is rarely the start of a real dialogue.  At ROP, we use the opportunities that election years bring to engage people around important political issues in a way that allows us to build a relationship with voters.  We know that it is not enough to say the right things, we have to show that our local groups really care about our communities and the people in them if we are going to have a chance of making real change beyond election day, let alone getting out the vote for justice on election day. 

WHAT IS THE ACTIVITY? The conversation starter that ROP is leading off our Freedom Voter Campaign with is our simple survey that asks people to Take Their Top 5 Temperature on key issues of the day.  It asks about contentious issues - war, torture, immigration, and prisons - but in a respectful neighbor-to-neighbor way that has folks agreeing and disagreeing with us and saying thanks for asking either way.

This month's KTA is to launch the Freedom Campaign by getting 1776 of these conversations completed in the weeks leading up to and following July 4th.  What can you do towards this goal?  What about your local human dignity group?  Whether you can commit to 14 or 40 or 400, we need you! 

WHY THIS ACTIVITY?  The Freedom Voters Campaign is designed to achieve multiple goals at one time: to insert a Constitutional Rights framework into this election cycle (and thus an analysis on our country's shifts away from democracy); to help us defeat anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-tax, and prison expansion ballot measures; to keep our message of ending the occupation in the headlines and in the hearts and minds of our neighbors and candidates; and to strengthen our human dignity movement beyond election day.  To do this, we need to connect with voters in a compelling way that speaks to their values - this is what the Freedom Voters Guide does.  But as we know it's not enough to just say the right things.  We have to show them that we care - and this means repeated contact throughout the year leading up to election day.  We don't start by saying, "Hey, vote this way!" We start by asking them what they think.  Once we know a little more about them, then we can follow up with more information in the form of our voters guides and invitations to ballot measure forums and reminders to vote. 

ROP wants to make it easy for you as an individual or your group as a whole to support the Freedom Voters Campaign.  We'll keep you updated on what the a la carte menu offers on a monthly basis and you can decide what to opt into or not.  And for those with a fuller appetite, let us know if you are up for the full meal deal version of the campaign and we will help you make those plans as well.

STEPS TO COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY:
1.    Go to www.freedomvoters.com/?page_id=32 and take the Freedom Survey and Pledge.  This will walk you through the survey so you can experience it for yourself.
2.    Decide how many surveys you will do and let ROP know so that we know how close we are to our goal of 1776 for July 4th. 
3.    Download a photocopy ready version of the Freedom Survey (4 to a page) and the Freedom Pledge at www.freedomvoters.com/?page_id=9.  You can photocopy these back to back so that folks who are warm to our values we can ask to sign the pledge after they've completed the survey.   
4.    Decide what your plan is for getting these surveys done.  This could include going door to door, tabling outside the library or post office or other 4th of July events, or asking friends and co-workers to fill them out.  Let ROP if you want a list of voters to call or want other ideas about who to ask to "Take Their Top 5 Temperature!"
5.    Make copies of the Freedom Voters Guide to hand out to anyone that you talk to - whether they take the survey or not.  For extra credit, carry voter registration cards with you so that you can register voters while you are surveying.
6.    Contact ROP to let us know what your plan is, to talk through any questions or ideas, or ask for other support.
7.    Send ROP your completed surveys.  By the end of July, we hope to have completed 1776!
8.    Celebrate Independence Day knowing that our founders would be proud!

Background:   Kitchen Table Activism (KTA) is a monthly project of the Rural Organizing Project.  The theory is that basic steps can lead to powerful collective results as local groups gather to complete the same action throughout the state.  ROP works to keep the tasks achievable so that groups with other projects or groups with limited immediate energy can still manage to complete the KTA each month.  Previous months KTA's are online at www.rop.org/08KTAArchives.htm.