Last night, here in Albany, we honored four incredible people who devote their lives to leading us all to push the edge of the possible – four people who don’t let a day go by without having done something to make the world a better place.

Over 100 Citizen Action members and supporters from the Capital District came together at The State Room to honor Norma Chapman, Judith Mazza, Vera “Mike” Michelson, and Joe Seeman as they received the Jim Perry Progressive Leadership Award.

In the past few weeks, I’ve posted each of their stories. I hope you were as inspired by reading them as I was.

It occurred to me, though, that I hadn’t posted anything about the man for whom the celebration is named, Jim Perry.

There were many folks in the room last night who knew Jim. They all have fond memories, and feel a profound sense of loss. But, they all also recognize that his contributions are seen everyday throughout our community.

He played a key role in the formation of the Empire State Pride Agenda, was the President of the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club in Albany, central to the fight for Albany’s Human Rights Ordinance, and was a founding member of Citizen Action of the Capital District.

Jim was a true coalition builder.

Most importantly, he brought people together to take collective action toward a common goal – he lead people to come together to push the edge of the possible.

I never knew Jim Perry, but his legacy lives on every day through the incredible leaders involved with Citizen Action.

Here are some photos from last night’s event:

Shanna Goldman, our Organizing Director, and Chris Scoville, our Capital District Organizer, opened the conference with a dynamic discussion on far reach of economic concerns. Leaders then chose among 3 workshops that were divided into 2 days. Jess Wisneski, our Legislative Director, and Cynthia Ward, Northeast Action Executive Director, moderated the health care workshop. Cleo Oliver, Citizen Action Campaign Coordinator, and Carin Schiewe, Northeast Action Field Director, moderated the civic engagement workshop. Karen Scharff, our Executive Director, managed the education workshop.

Citizen Action staff loved the level of engagement–especially since we all put so many hours into organizing the conference.

The engagement, though, reached into the Internet this year. We live-streamed portions of the conference and actively used Twitter and Facebook. Leaders especially loved the Twitter projection. Be sure to click on the link to see what the buzz was all about.

We ended the conference on a riveting and uplifting note. William McNary, President of USAction – our national affliate-, brought everyone to their feet and some even to tears. Luckily, in yet another example of technological versatility, Charlie Albanetti, our Communications Director, captured this provocative engagement on video.

Here is a collection of photos that highlight our very active weekend:

We’re also embedding the informational binder that each attendee received. The pages highlight our major projects and is chock full of useful summaries. Please take a look!

2010 Leadership Conference Binder Docs

That is what Joe Seeman said to himself in the early 1980s when he and his wife, Linda, embarked on parenthood. Fifteen years later, Joe understood that life actually never would get easier. After hearing Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins speak from the founding convention of the Alliance for Democracy about building a movement to oppose Corporate Power (on Democracy Now on WRPI Radio), he realized that it was time for him to return to his activist roots.

Joe was raised in Brooklyn. His parents were Holocaust survivors who taught him that powerful people can do terrible things to the powerless. They also explained to him that people in Europe who participated in the Holocaust weren’t all that different than the people of our current society. His parents’ experiences made Joe understand that some of the underlying causes of Nazism are with us, and that there is an ongoing struggle for justice.

Joe’s first political activity was participating in a student walkout at his New York City High School against cutbacks in education and in support of public school teachers. When Joe was in college in California, and later back in New York City, he was an anti-nuclear activist, first with the Abalone Alliance in California, and then with the Shad Alliance in New York City.

In 1996, Joe attended one of the early meetings of the local chapter of the Alliance for Democracy. The Alliance advocated public funding of elections to take corporate money out of the election process. When it came time to pass the sign–up sheet around, Joe volunteered to set up a computerized member list. This was Joe’s first step in a long journey that eventually resulted in him editing the Capital District Peace and Justice calendar. After many years, Joe passed this calendar on to ActivistResource.org, resulting in the larger, self-automated calendar that we all use to share information about our meetings and events with each other and with the general public. His data bank of names and address, coupled with Joe’s readiness to use his computer skills and his commitment to expand the horizon for organizing, has resulted in Joe taking on leadership of many issues – all primarily focused on building an anti-corporate / pro-democracy movement.

On August 13, 2005, as Cindy Sheehan started an anti-war vigil outside former President Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch, MoveOn.org called on its members to organize local vigils. Joe (and others) responded, and four days later there were vigils in Albany and Saratoga with 300-400 people attending each vigil. Many of these people were not connected to any local organized anti-war group. Joe realized the potential in internet organizing and was hooked.

In 2006, Joe helped organize the “caught red-handed” campaign which bird-dogged former Congressman Sweeney and tied his pro-corporate, pro-energy voting record to substantial campaign contributions and junkets that he had received from corporations in those sectors. This campaign weakened Sweeney’s political base and undoubtedly made it easer for Kirsten Gillibrand to be elected in 2006. Joe continued his work with MoveOn.org focusing on clean energy, the election of President Barack Obama and, more recently, national health care reform. Joe is presently a volunteer coordinator of the local MoveOn.org Organizing team.

Joe has continued his work with Alliance for Democracy. He has worked with Citizen Action on Clean Money, Clean Elections and other issues. He is an active member of the Interfaith Alliance of New York and the Saratoga Peace Alliance. He has participated in the election campaigns of Kristen Gillibrand, Scott Murphy, and Barack Obama.

He is always ready to share his point of view that the root of our political problems is the corruption that follows big money into politics. His organizing goal is always to bring groups and individuals together into a progressive populist movement that can build a Progressive Majority.

Joe is addicted to jogging every day, regardless of the state of the world. Joe is a father of four: three adult children, Rebecca, Jeremy, and Matthew; and a nine year old son, Matthew. He is a husband and a grandfather of two. Joe proudly retains his Brooklyn attitude!

This year’s event will be held at The State Room, 142 State Street, Albany, NY from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Click here to RSVP now!

Simply reviewing Vera’s contribution for only the last few months is impressive… and exhausting. In the last year, Vera finished up her 8 years as a Board Member of the Underground Railroad History Project. As a volunteer for UGR, she focused on board development, worked on a fundraising plan for large donors, and organized several jazz-themed fundraising events. In the Summer and Fall of 2009, Vera was the full-time Volunteer Coordinator of the Corey Ellis for Mayor campaign. She is currently a member of the Gun Violence Implementation Team Advisory Committee. In addition and most recently, Vera – working with others – has taken on the task of making sure that all members of the Common Council, the press, and the Mayor all know that people in Albany want an independent Albany City Police Chief, committed to community policing.

Vera is also a member of the Capital District’s Working Families Party Steering Committee and had been heavily involved in several key elections. In 2000, Vera was one of the first volunteers in Mark Mishler’s campaign for Albany County District Attorney. In 2004, she volunteered for David Soares’s campaign and played a key role in recruiting volunteers in that landmark election. In 2005 she was the Volunteer Coordinator for Common Council Member Barbara Smith’s first electoral victory as the representative of Albany’s Fourth Ward.

Following the David Soares campaign, Vera became a member of the District Attorney’s Accountability Board. She also helped recruit and train three new classes of CAB volunteers and worked hard to expand the number of volunteers available to serve on CAB panels. Each panel meets with a defendant charged with a crime and attempts to work with the defendant (frequently young, first time offenders) and other affected parties to work out a plan of restitution and mitigation as an alternative to a judge imposed criminal sentence.

Vera is also a founding member and serves on the Steering Committee of ROOTS (Re-Entry Opportunities and Orientation Toward Success), an organization established by ex-offenders and supporters to mentor persons who were formerly incarcerated. ROOTS is working in partnership with NYS Division of Parole, the Rensselaer Re-Entry Task Force and the Schenectady Re-Entry Task Force to conduct monthly re-entry orientation and mentoring sessions. ROOTS members model a long term, proven and positive re-entry into community life.

Vera helped organize the Capital District Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism in 1981 to oppose the US tour of the South African Springbok rugby team. This team played its only public game in Albany’s Bleecker stadium. On the eve of the national demonstration in Albany to protest this game, Vera and three others were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on her apartment by the FBI and other police agencies. The arrest was based on false information that the demonstration was going to be violent from a discredited informant. The charges were eventually dismissed. From 1983 to 1994, Vera was the co-chair of CDCAAR and led the local efforts to isolate the apartheid regime by organizing local participation on numerous cultural boycotts, demonstrations and by participating divestment in New York State of public pension funds. During this period, Mike testified at several UN conferences and attended anti-apartheid conferences in South Africa, Namibia, and Mozambique. Mike also participated in the Mandela Friendship Brigade to Cuba.

In the 60s and 70s, Mike was a supporter of the Brothers, a local action-oriented civil rights group. She was also one of two organizers that helped create a Welfare Rights Organization in Rensselaer and start a Teen Center. During this period, Vera was also a founding member of the Whitney Young Health Center.

In her spare time Mike is a jazz aficionado, movie buff, and busy godmother and auntie.

This year’s event will be held at The State Room, 142 State Street, Albany, NY from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Click here to RSVP now!

Judith is a ‘democrat’ in the original sense of the word. She is committed to social justice, honesty, fairness, equality. She believes in accountable and transparent government. Judith is a real “doer.”  Judith started “doing” politics before she started elementary school. Her mother’s (Margaret Gaffney Mazza) passion was running Democratic political campaigns in Onondaga County. Judith was her youthful, able and eager assistant.

Judith first became involved in local Albany politics in 1989. She was an early supporter of C.A.R.E., a city-wide grassroots organization that helped elect the first independent candidates to the Albany City Board of Education.

Also in 1989, Judith was a founding member of the First Ward Improvement Committee, which was organized to deal with an unresponsive (and non-responsive) First Ward Alderman. The Alderman eventually resigned. The group re-organized as the First Ward Committee for Responsible Government, first to block the Mayor’s preferred replacement candidate and then to run an independent progressive candidate. Ever since 1993, the First Ward has had progressive, independent representation on the Albany Common Council. Judith was instrumental in this happening, first by managing both of Carol Wallace’s successful campaigns to be elected from the First Ward and more recently by being Dominick Casolaro’s campaign manager for his City Council races.  She has also managed George Infante’s campaigns for the Albany County Legislature from the First Ward. Judith has worked hard in support of candidates for other political offices that she believes are principled and committed to social justice and good government.

In the summer of 2009, Judith convened the first meetings of a group that became Albany Neighborhoods First. This group issued a critical assessment of state of the City. Albany Neighborhoods First suggested specific goals and actions the City could take to reverse the decline of all of our neighborhoods and ensure a solid future for Albany and its residents. The release of an Albany Neighborhoods First white paper stimulated policy discussions of these issues during the Fall 2009 Albany City election campaigns.

Judith is a former member of the Board of the Capital District Chapter of Citizen Action, a former six year member of the Albany Citizens’ Police Review Board, and a former First Ward Leader. Judith was a founding member of the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York.

Judith is presently Vice President of the Second Avenue Neighborhood Association, a Democratic Committee person, and a Board Member and Group Facilitator of Caring Together (local Ovarian Cancer support group).

Judith is employed by the New York State Health Department AIDS Institute as the Director of the HIV Comprehensive Case Management Program.

This year’s event will be held at The State Room, 142 State Street, Albany, NY from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Click here to RSVP now!

Just this past Tuesday, April 27, racists slashed the tires of Washington Community Action Network staff members, spray-painted “Heil Hitler” symbols, and even threw a metal ball through a window. Washington CAN had planned a rally to demonstrate against the extremely idiotic Arizona immigration bill SB1070. Click here to watch a segment about the vandalization from a local news station.

Furthermore, Rolling Stones reporter Greg Palast says investigation shows Jan Brewer, Gov of AZ, has tried to keep American citizens of Hispanic heritage from voting in the past. Please take a few minutes to watch Rachel Maddow explain the personnages and groups behind SB1070:

Just to be explicit, these groups do not function in isolation. Kris Kobach, for example, works for the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), which featured prominently in the tumultuously racist climate in Suffolk County on Long Island. Kobach is also “birther.”

Judith Warner of the NYTimes wrote a succinctly clarifying blog entry on November 6, 2008. I’ll quote just a paragraph:

And it was. An era of unbridled deregulation, wealth-enhancing perks for the already well-off, and miserly indifference to the poor and middle class; of the recasting of greed as goodness, the equation of bellicose provincialism with patriotism, the reframing of bigotry as small-town decency.

So where does this subset of American thought come from? How is it such a powerful force in our culture–rearing its force from time to time? Look to my next post for that discussion.

A few weeks back, AQE launched a campaign going door-to-door in communities across the State to speak with voters about the proposed cuts. Six out of every 10 people we talked to actually sat down and wrote out a letter to their Senator in opposition to the cuts.

The Governor’s Budget Proposal included $1.4 billion in education cuts. The State Senate passed a Budget Resolution that didn’t restore a dime of that funding. The State Assembly then passed their Budget Proposal, which dropped the damage down to only $800 million.

Worst case scenario (i.e., if $1.4 billion is cut from the education budget): 15,000 teaching position will be eliminated. After-school programs will be eliminated. English as a second language (ESL) classes will be eliminated. Class sizes will balloon.

And, on top of all that, your property taxes will go up. By a lot.

The past two years haven’t been easy on New Yorkers. Ordinary folks across this State have made one sacrifice after another. The tanking of the economy – largely due to Wall Street’s greed and incompetence – has resulted in an increased (and consistently high) unemployment rate.

There’s no two ways about it – cuts to eduction will permanently hurt our children, and will make it harder for New York’s economy to rebound.

But, there’s an alternative. A temporary two-year banker’s bonus tax on compensation over $250,000 would bring in almost $7 billion back to the State, allowing for easy restoration of the proposed cuts to education.

After a press conference where some of the letters’ authors read their messages aloud, the group delivered the wagons to Senators Darrel Aubertine, John Bonacic, Brian Foley, Kemp Hannon, Craig Johnson, Owen Johnson, Jeffrey Klein, Kenneth LaValle, Frank Padavan, William Stachowski, and David Valeski.

Here’s some quotes from the letters:

We need you to do this for children like my grandchildren who will have a bleak future if you allow our district to suffer cuts of over $6million. My newest granddaughter Kacey is only 13 months old and I worry about what will be left of our schools by the time she is in the district if these cuts happen.
-Amparo Sadler, a Central Islip grand-parent, from her letter addressed to Senator Brian Foley

As a student in your district I think cutting the budget that will result in teachers getting laid off will be bad because less teachers will produce less students being taught. Wall Street is the same as you and I and they should pay their fair share to rebuild this economy.
-Jacob Merrill, a 9th grader at Oswego High School, from his letter addressed to Senator Darrel Aubertine

If we do not ask Wall Street to help stop the pending school budget cuts our children will be deprived of the necessary requirements needed to succeed and they will fall further behind. In order to keep our children competitive in the 21st century job market, we need Senator Valesky and his colleagues to prioritize their education.
-Gerald R. Lotierzo, a resident of the 49th Senate District, from his letter addressed to Senator David Valesky

As press clips come in from today’s event, I’ll post them below.

WNYT NBC 13 – Senators Receive Some Handy Advice

Norma is serving her second term representing the 5th Legislative District in the Albany County Legislature. Her district lies entirely within the City of Albany and is generally bounded by Henry Johnson Boulevard on the east, Western Avenue on the south, North Manning Boulevard on the west and Livingston and McCrossin Avenues on the north.

Norma is a member of the following County committees: Court Facilities and Public Works, Finance Committee and Mass Transit.

Norma has long been an active leader in the community. In 1989, she founded Asiatic Enterprises Fashion and Entertainment Co. for youths and adults. She is also one of the founders and advisors to the Frank Chapman Memorial Institute, a non-profit organization providing quality programming for inner-city youth from Arbor Hill, West Hill, the South End and North Albany since 1995.

Today FCMI is needed more than ever to help with failing schools and a wave of gang and street violence. The number of murders and gang-related violent events has left the community reeling. The lack of community resources threatens to leave a great many of our disadvantage and impoverished children and their families behind in the race for social advancement.

The Chapman Institute has employed hundreds of youngsters through the Institute’s Summer Day Camp in collaboration with the City of Albany Summer Youth Employment Program, and has provided a safe place for children to assemble for after-school activities, mentoring, performing arts, fashion shows and other activities. She also was instrumental in forming several other after-school programs.

Norma has lent her time and skills to organize the African-American Festival Day Community Stage, the Martin Luther King Jr. Observance March and the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus Youth Talent Showcase. She has been involved with Equinox, the Northeast Regional Food Bank, Ronald McDonald House, the Capital District African-American Coalition on AIDS, the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS and various volunteer teams associated with the New York State Comptroller’s Office. She also established the West Hill newsletter providing information to residents on issues and accomplishments in the community.

Norma retired in 2007 after 37 years with the State Comptroller’s Office as a member of the Retirement Employers Service Department.

Norma’s decision to server her community as an elected public official does not mean she has left her community work behind. Her energy and dedication to her community remains as strong as ever. Thank you, Norma, for making a difference to so many people.

This year’s event will be held at The State Room, 142 State Street, Albany, NY from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Click here to RSVP now!

But New York Rep. Michael Arcuri says that he’ll be voting against the bill. We have only a few hours left to turn him around. Send him a fax now!

Last Thursday (January 28th), we kicked-off a new campaign to end prison-based gerrymandering, the undemocratic system for using people in prison to inflate population counts.

At the campaign kick-off, Rev. Al Sharpton said that this is “the voter rights and civil rights issue of the year in the state of New York.”

Here’s the problem: right now, the US Census Bureau counts people in prison as being residents of the area in which they are incarcerated.

While New York’s constitution (Article II §4) states that incarceration will not change a person’s residence, the State still uses the Census numbers for the purposes of drawing legislative district lines, effectively denying fair representation to the communities where most people in prison come from: specifically urban areas and communities of color.

That’s why we’re working with a coalition of organizations from across the State of New York to pass legislation to end this practice. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Eric Schneiderman in the Senate and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries in the Assembly, will use Department of Correctional Services data to amend the Census population counts used for redistricting. Because the legislation doesn’t change how the Census actually counts people, and instead changes how the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment uses Census data to draw district lines, this won’t affect any state or federal funding for any community that is tied to Census data. It will, however, correct the decades old injustice of giving certain communities more representative power at the expense of others.

13 upstate counties that have large prison populations have already rejected the Census counts when it comes to county-level redistricting. Essex County didn’t use the Census counts when they drew districts for their Board of Supervisors. They gave this explanation:

“Persons incarcerated in state and federal correctional institutions live in a separate environment, do not participate in the life of Essex County and do not affect the social and economic character of the towns… The inclusion of these federal and state correctional facility inmates unfairly dilutes the votes or voting weight of persons residing in other towns within Essex County…”

On Monday (February 1st), we held a press conference in the Capitol in Albany to announce new support for the bill from upstate legislations Senators Antoine Thompson and Neil Breslin and Assemblyman Jack McEneny.

With the 2010 Census already underway, and New York’s redistricting process just around the corner in 2012, now is our chance to finally end the distorted system of representation in New York and restore the fundamental principle of ‘one person, one vote.’