Originally sent to the Senator Obama – Please, No Telecom Immunity and Get FISA Right mailing list.
I certainly don’t mean to trivialize the situation. There’s a huge amount at stake and the anger, frustration, and disappointment so many of us (including me) feel comes through in every post. Realistically, the odds are still against us.
Still. We have a chance. We’re in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and in a conversation with Barack and his aides. Like the vast majority of us who have weighed in so far, I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the content of his response, and I wish it had come out earlier in the day, but even so … we’re managing to get our voice heard. We’re not out of it yet.
We could turn the tide; and even if not, at the very least we’ve succeeded in getting our message out. There are a lot of people in this country who care about civil liberties, and we are getting very tired of telecom donations being put ahead of the rule of law.
It’s the Fourth of July, and we’re fighting for our civil liberties. How cool is that?
jon
To celebrate Independence Day, the Get FISA Right wiki is currently featuring fireworks. I heart wikis.
jon | 05-Jul-08 at 2:55 am | Permalink
We ended the day by going out to HOTwired, Seattle’s psytrance monthly at Noc Noc. As Deborah drove into Seattle we could see the fireworks over Lake Union. We got a perfect parking place, right across the street. The vibe was great, the crowd was in a happy mood …
For a while I kept thinking about the Get FISA right campaign when I was dancing, coming up with ideas about how to get the word out on Facebook (what about outreach to the “6 degrees experiment” and “let’s set a world record groups?), YouTube (ask each presidential campaign to put up a 5-minute video statement?), Twitter (how to keep from crashing it?). Could we get TechCrunch or Slashdot to do a prediction thread? And so on …
Eventually I got into the music and stopped thinking about the details — there’ll be plenty of time for those during the rest of the weekend. Instead I reflected on the week. Last Saturday night, we were in San Francisco at Pink Saturday in the Castro, celebrating Pride in the ‘hood right after the California Supreme Court marriage equality decision, dancing to DJ Liam Shy. And then it just kept getting better. What a week.
The July 4 back when I was in college when we hung out on the Charles River esplanade and listened to Dave Righetti throw a no-hitter against the Red Sox, and then a Boston Pops concert, was pretty amazing. It still doesn’t come remotely close to this year. And so, at least for me:
Best. 4th of July. Ever.
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