News from the front lines of the grassroots!

Volume 3, No. 19 www.uaprogressiveaction.com
Friday, November 3, 2006

Special Mid-Term Election Issue!

 

THE POLLS FAVOR OUR CANDIDATES, BUT THOSE NUMBERS MEAN NOTHING IF WE DON’T MOBILIZE OUR VOTERS TO GO VOTE!

Life is busy. Life is full of demands.
But there is nothing more important in the next seven days than electing Democratic leaders with the integrity and vision to move Ohio in a new direction!

We’re asking each of you to dedicate as many hours as you can between now and Election Day to TURN OHIO BLUE.

Karl Rove has arranged for busloads of people to flood Central Ohio to mobilize the Republican base. That won’t be enough to defeat the Democratic message of hope and progress!

We need each of you to work to get out the vote – the progressive, Democratic vote!

 

VOTE EARLY
AT THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS!

In an election year where so much is at stake, UAPA encourages you to go to the Board of Elections to vote early. Early voting began October 3 and runs through Monday, November 6. It's quick and easy. There are no long lines. There is less chance of Election Day fraud. Plus, voting early frees you up to work all day on Election Day.

We have been told that significant numbers of mailed-in absentee ballots are not counted due to voter error in filling out the envelope. If you are voting by absentee ballot, SIGN THE ENVELOPE and fill in all applicable blanks before you mail your completed ballot, or your vote will not be counted. You can also turn in your completed absentee ballot directly to the Board of Elections instead of mailing it. That way, the envelope can be checked for accuracy and reduce the risk of your ballot not being counted.

If you applied for an absentee ballot, you can't change your mind and decide to vote in person -- you must vote absentee if you applied for an absentee ballot.

EXTENDED HOURS: The Franklin County Board of Elections is located at the old COSI building, across from the original Wendy's (280 East Broad Street) and is open Monday through Friday 7 AM - 7 PM, and Saturdays 8 AM - 12 Noon, now through November 6th. You can park free in their parking lot by getting your parking ticket validated at the security desk inside the building.

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UAPA is a young organization comprised of non-paid volunteers. Unfortunately, our organization has not yet developed a process for specifically endorsing certain candidates or issues. Our mission statement, at this time, provides that we support endorsed (Franklin County) Democratic candidates and progressives where there are no endorsed Democratic candidates on the ballot. http://www.uaprogressiveaction.com/about.html

Please note that we provide this ballot to you as a guide in helping to remind you who the endorsed Franklin County Democratic candidates are when you go to vote. We encourage everyone to study the candidates and issues, and to decide for themselves their own choices. In the future with greater participation from the community, we hope to have an endorsement board in place who will carefully and seriously study all issues and candidates, and make recommendations upon which the entire membership will vote. The end result being a sample ballot of UAPA endorsed candidates. We appreciate your understanding of our current policy.

Other issues:

 

 

After Pat's Birthday

By Kevin Tillman

Editor's note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

It is Pat's birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

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UAPA would like to thank Phil Liesenfield and California Catering Company for their generous donation of hors d’oeuvres for the recent Sherrod Brown event.
Check California Catering Company out for your next catered event!

 

Paid for by Upper Arlington Progressive Action and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. UAPA, P.O. Box 21224 Columbus, Ohio 43221.