 
|
Rural Caucus & Strategy Session
(...continued) Dismantling the War at Home & Abroad: The day started out with a session on the war at home and abroad. Attendees listened in on conversations between those folks working on ending the war abroad (Iraq) and those challenging and impacted by the war at home (immigrants). The session was closed out by Ramon Ramirez, president of PCUN, who reminded us of the need to link our struggles together, work across communities and build a movement for justice for queers, for immigrants, and for all people impacted by the war at home and abroad. District Strategizing: With these issues of the day on our minds, we then moved into district groups to discuss just how we will build our power across congressional districts. Since the Cost of War Town Halls, this is the first time local community leaders have had a chance to discuss just how to work together and build power as a district, across county lines. Ideas came out of each discussion, with an overarching theme among most districts to have a district-wide planning meeting, coordinated messaging strategies, and build local anchor groups. For more details on the plans unfolding for your district, email cara@rop.org After a delicious lunch, some good down-time to connect with others, and a few awards to local leaders (congrats to Stand for Peace of Cottage Grove, Umatilla Morrow Alternatives, Mary Geddry and the Central Oregon 7!), participants moved into clinics and workshops for the afternoon that build and strengthen local group power. Clinics to build our Power: Highlights from the afternoon sessions include: details on how to pass a local ordinance in your community, with examples from around the state; a conversation on just what civil accountability looks like, and how we plan and carry out a campaign to make sure our elected officials are listening to us (including the full details on how and why the Central Oregon 7 moved their Cost of War campaign from polite conversations with Walden’s staffers that lead no where for months to a sit in); basics on creating & maintaining the basic building block of our social change movement, a local human dignity group; and immigration myth busters where participants responded to common statements about immigration with a goal of separating fact from fiction. The day was closed out with a panel of military families and vets that shared with participants what returning vets and military families need in order to continue telling their stories. Many of us have had the opportunity to hear these stories directly as more and more vets and military families are speaking out. This panel gave us a chance to hear what our obligations are to those people who consistently bear their hearts for the public to bring an end to this occupation. Bringing the energy back home: At a time when war funding seems inevitable, women’s choice has become more limited, lead activists are feeling a little more worn out, and the war at home and abroad rages on, the greatest outcome of the day was that participants left feeling more energized and revitalized by coming together with their peers from across the state and strategizing together on just how we move forward our vision of hope, justice and democracy. A few comments from participants: Just writing to say that I very much enjoyed being part of the ROP Caucus! I especially liked that we gathered by districts in the morning and so got to know each other a bit (or at least could see who's in our district and watch for them the rest of the day). The workshops I went to were all worthwhile. Also I appreciated the long break and lunchtimes for networking and processing/reviewing. Valori George of Benton Co It is a wonderful feeling to associate with so many others who share my feelings of dismay over the negative influence of militarism and fear-mongering on our national solvency, our attitudes toward violence and our reputation in the international community and our feelings towards immigrants. Bill Thwaites of Tillamook Co Thanks for all your hard work! We really enjoyed and learned from
the district meeting and from the session with Marcy about building
our groups…. To learn more about specific outcomes of Caucus sessions or to connect into your districts planning, contact the ROP office. ROP today works with 60 member groups to organize on issues that impact human dignity and to advance inclusive democracy. To read more on ROP's history, click here. For a more current history, click here. For more information on our recent projects, click here.
|
