“1,000 Names! What’s Next?” by Rev. Holly McKissick

Rev. Holly McKissick

When I think of what could happen if Barack Obama IS elected on November 4th and when I think of what could happen if he’s NOT elected, I know I must keep registering voters, phoning, gathering volunteers.

HERE’s WHAT WE MUST DO NOW:

• Signing a statement is nice. Alone, it’s not enough. WE BEAT OUR PLAN OF HAVING 1,000 SIGNATURES BY A WEEK. But we need 10,000 to move middle America’s undecided voters – to show them leaders of passionate faith support Barack Obama. The next 9,000? ONE MORE WEEK.

• GO BACK TO YOUR ADDRESS BOOK and send this blog link on, PERSONALLY, to 20 people—at least.  Include laity, ask them if they know faith leaders who would sign.  Of course, know the law: no one should ever make a statement from the pulpit or on congregational letterhead or from a congregational email account….do your three hours today from the comfort of your own couch.

• QUIT waiting for someone else to do it. I started a new church 18 years ago and early on I learned this fundamental organizational principle: THERE ISN’T ANYONE ELSE.

• You may live in a city where Obama’s national team hasn’t arrived, are just arriving, or, because the state is so red, they won’t be arriving. What are you gonna do?  Look at the list of signatures so far, we’ve got folks from YOUR state. Contact those clergy directly, or the ones in your city, ask “who wants to get together TODAY, TOMORROW, THIS WEEK for fun, support AND a session to gather names, plan a video lock-in, write  a letter about this site to your local paper, local station.”

• LET US KNOW ABOUT it so we can start listing every local gathering, every mustard seed right now.

• We’re getting some serious media attention. We need more – in YOUR community: radio, evening news, local newspapers. A rally’s coming up in Kansas City, we need 49 more by mid-October, before advance voting begins, before the last debate ends. We’re having a party Sept 28th in Kansas City at my house….we’ll have a laptops and webcams to make videos for the clergyforobama.org blog, we’ll pool our resources for local advertising. We’ll make plans as big as our hopes for the future.

• We’re all busy. Last night, two of my favorite pastors—a dear friend on sabbatical and my husband walked the streets, literally, and did voter registration in areas where folks are way under-represented…where God’s forgotten folks live: with others, they got 28 new folks registered. Some of you live in red areas. Come stay with us for a few days or another host family and volunteer for 2 days or a week. Go to another state close by that is in play. No joke: people have been doing this for weeks. Kansas City is full of them. We’ve got til Oct 8th to register on the Missouri side and Oct 20th on the Kansas side. After that, there will be more to do…Or you can do many things remotely from your home. Write letters to the editor, etc..

• If you choose not to act, fine. Don’t complain.

• We know you won’t choose that option. Make a plan. Tell us about it right now. Forty-four, Forty-three, Forty-two days and counting.

Peace,

Rev. Holly McKissick

“Phone Call by Phone Call” by Rev. Holly McKissick

 

Rev. Tom Hawley and Crew, saving the earth.

“Do you know how many calls were made in Kansas City on Saturday for Obama?”

 

My husband, the Rev. Tom Hawley, who must have made fifty phone calls himself, thinks for a minute.

“5000?”

Phone banking is not his thing. Politicians aren’t either. He is not cynical, apathetic, hopeless. Far from it: he is a chaplain at a residential psychiatric hospital for teen-agers.
In his spare time: he is ending global warming. Organizing creek clean-ups. Lobbying against coal fire plants. Bringing environmental speakers to town.

But politicians: not his thing.

So, I’m proud of him. Four years ago our nine year old daughter dragged him into the Kerry-Edwards effort. But, this campaign is different. He started earlier: he’s done data entry, canvassed neighborhoods, attended strategy sessions, and last Saturday—after his cell phone died at the home where he was phone banking with eight people he’d just met–he came home, recharged his phone, sat on the couch and called for another two hours.

“Guess how many calls? Just guess…on Saturday alone:
Twenty three thousand, four hundred and seventy one.
No joke.
Can you believe that??”

Teenage girls and grandpas. Teachers and painters. Side by side. All day long.

This is how we will win.
This is how we will create a movement of hope.
This is how we will build communities of connection and solution.
This is how we will rebuild our schools, pursue peace, discover renewable sources of energy, bring jobs back to the urban core.
This is how we will win.

Phone call by phone call by phone call….

YES WE CAN. YES WE CAN. YES WE CAN.

Rev. Holly McKissick

“More than Party Allegiances” by Rev. Wes Jamison

Rev. Wes Jamison

This election is about more than party allegiances.  It’s about the future of this country and this world.  It’s far too important to sit idly by and do nothing, or worse yet, allow the rhetoric of fear scare us into quietly agreeing to four more years of the same failed politicial and economic policies.  The next President will appoint at least one and possibly as many as three justices to the United States Supreme Court.  With the justices Bush has appointed, that will ensure a tight conservative grip on the court for at least the next 20 years.  We CANNOT let that happen.  McCain keeps talking about drilling as a means of solving our current energy crisis.  You and I both know that isn’t going to work.  Even if we drill and find a few more pockets of oil within the borders of this country, we won’t see a drop of that oil reach our markets for at least 5 to 10 years.  We need to begin moving toward an alternative now.  T. Boone Pickens has suggested converting our cars to run on natural gas–a more abundant, cheaper, cleaner alternative to gas distilled from crude oil.  It’s an excellent idea for a bridge to carry us while we invest billions in research, something the Bush administration has refused to do.

I went on a forum on faith sponsored by the Obama campaign last night.  The speaker was an ethics professor from Wesley Theological Seminary and an ordained Church of Christ (not UCC, but acapella Church of Christ) minister named Shaun Casey.  He shared a frightening statistic.  During Bush’s administration six million additional people have fallen into poverty in this nation, bringing the rate to it’s highest level since the 1960s.  Currently, as many as 52 million US citizens are without health insurance.  Due to changes in the bankruptcy laws under the Bush administration and the former Republican controlled congress, medical bills can now be charged against a person’s credit.  This means that one major medical event in the life of a family can ruin their credit for years to come, thus preventing them from gaining adequate housing, transportation, and even loans to help their children get through school.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  This has to end.

If you’re already working for the campaign, please, keep working.  Talk to everyone you know, even if you don’t think your state will go for Obama.  We need EVERY vote we can get.  If you live in a battleground state, then PLEASE, PLEASE do everything you can.  We have about six weeks left until the election.  Go to www.barackobama.com and register if you haven’t already done so.  You can generate a list of people who live near you and print off a script to use to either call them or go visit them in person and talk to them about this election.  You can also find Barack Obama’s platform, including his plans for education, energy, foreign policy, and everything else.  Even if you don’t feel confident on the issues, you can read up and feel more confident.  We need every vote we can get, especially in Virginia, Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and Florida.

We can and will win this election!  Don’t give up hope.   This election is FAR TOO IMPORTANT to sit idly by and do nothing.  We saw what happened when we did that in 2000 and 2004.  Please, talk to EVERYONE you know and encourage them to vote.  If anyone needs to register to vote, send them to www.voteforchange.com and the website will guide them through the process.  Also, if you know of anyone who needs to vote absentee, then send them to that website as well.  They can register to receive an absentee ballot on there.

Grace and Peace,

Wes Jamison,

B.A. Milligan College
M.Div. Emmanuel School of Religion

“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each [one's] life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“One More Thing” by Rev. Holly McKissick

My Dear Fellow Clergy:

Rev. Holly McKissick

Ask Nellie—bright, spirited, engaging—why she moved to Kansas City this summer to work on the Obama campaign—why she gave up her home, her job, her boyfriend, and she says: 

“I have worked on a lot of campaigns, stumped for a lot of candidates, but, I’ve never felt this kind of hope…. I knew I could not wake up on November 5th and wonder if there was ONE more thing I could have done to change the outcome?”

I can’t wake up on November 5th, either, and think, “Was there one more thing I could have done?”

I’ve been working on the Obama campaign since July—following the lead of my 13 year old daughter who is a campaign intern.

But it hit me last Monday—we have to do more.

In his acceptance speech on August 28th, Senator Obama stirred our deepest longings for a country that works together for a common good. His speech reminded us of something important: Americans deeply believe, “Our government should work for us, not against us.  It should help us, not hurt us.  It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work.  That’s the promise of America, the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation, the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper.”

The last two weeks, we’ve seen the politics of fear and anger rising up…threatening the hope and promise that the Obama campaign embodies.  Many have asked, why isn’t Obama “striking” back harder in the face of attacks and lies?  A part of me wonders, too: Who are the strategists? What are they doing?

But, this is the truth: Barack Obama is a brilliant leader. Absolutely brilliant. He knows what he is doing. By not striking back, he is making a place where you and I, as clergy—as leaders in our communities—have to step up.  He is creating a space where all Americans have to take responsibility for their communities.

Obama is a skilled community organizer. This campaign has been grassroots from the beginning, built on lessons in community organizing learned in Chicago neighborhoods working their way out of poverty.  As Clergy, we are full time community organizers. We know it’s about building relationships, helping folks to name their dreams and needs, and then building alliances and strategies to make them real.

Anyone who has been involved in this campaign “gets it.” This is not about Barack Obama. It’s not about November 4th. It’s about changing this country we love so dearly.  It’s about making a world where all of God’s children live in peace, no matter where they live.

It’s about embodying the change.

Join me. And wake up on November 5th ready to get to work.

Rev. Holly McKissick
Leawood, Kansas

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