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April 11, 2009

Obama election supporters to continue work as ‘Wabash Valley Organizers’

Group to meet Monday with Rep. Ellsworth

By Arthur E. Foulkes

TERRE HAUTE — Local activists who helped Barack Obama win Indiana and the White House want to continue to fight for the issues in which they believe.

Wabash Valley Organizers, currently about 15 strong, is a group of similarly minded political activists with a “largely progressive” agenda, group members said Friday.

“We all have this internal drive,” said Kiel Majewski, a member of the new organization and former Obama campaign organizer in Terre Haute. “The work is still to be done.”

On Monday, representatives of the new group will meet with Indiana’s 8th District congressman, Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Evansville. Group members plan to tell Ellsworth of their support for a single-payer health-care system and climate change legislation. They also plan to discuss legislation that would protect organic farming and other issues, said Anna Carson, another member of the group.

Later, representatives of the Wabash Valley Organizers expect to meet with U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, members said.

Although all the group members worked for Obama, it is not a partisan organization, said Brendan Corcoran, another member. The group is actually “issue-centered,” he said. “Issues are primary.”

While the group remains small now, no real effort has been made to build the organization just yet, Majewski said. At least 60 people in the Terre Haute community were strong Obama campaigners and, simply by word of mouth, many new people have joined the group’s Google Groups Web site, organizers said.

In addition to meeting with lawmakers, members are planning to take their issues to the public through writing letters, talking, blogging various Web sites and handing out literature. They also plan to canvass neighborhoods to distribute information and collect signatures.

“It’s about organizing,” Corcoran said. “There are groups like ours all around the country.”

The Wabash Valley Organizers is currently canvassing in Terre Haute to obtain signatures in support of H.R. 676, a single-payer health-care plan before the House of Representatives, Corcoran said. The canvassers also are asking people to contact Ellsworth and Bayh to show their support for a single-payer system.

“The greatest thing about canvassing is talking with people about what affects their lives,” Corcoran said. “We’ve recovered the sense that people can make a difference.”

While each of the group’s original members worked for Obama last year, simply electing Obama was not their ultimate goal, Carson said. Nor do they consider themselves strictly tied to Obama’s legislative agenda. While they largely support that agenda, they have their own concerns that may not always be identical to the president’s or on his timeline, group members said.

The goal “is to move the ground beneath [Obama’s] feet,” Corcoran said. To get things done, Obama needs popular support, group members said.

“We want to look at the big, human issues,” Carson said. “It just seems as though social justice has been lost. We have to get back to values.”

For more information on Wabash Valley Organizers or to become involved, search Google Groups for “Wabash Valley Organizers” or call (812) 239-1839.



Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

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