Chatham County (NC) Changemakers

Obama Supporters Launch Chatham Changemakers

Easter weekend did not deter an enthusiastic group of Obama supporters from gathering in the  Chatham County Superior Courtroom on Saturday, April 11 for a half-day of information-sharing and to launch a new organization: Chatham Changemakers. The group's three-pronged mission is to marshall local support for President Obama's national agenda by encouraging citizens to "take the pledge" in support of his plan for economic renewal, and urging their friends and neighbors to do the same; to inform citizens of ways to take advantage of national legislation such as the economic stimulus and environmental tax credits; and to tackle a plethora of local issues, including:

• health care
• immigration
• education
• transportation
• environment
• economic development and stimulus
• labor
• race relations
• affordable housing
• media and communications in Chatham County
• a SUSTAINABLE community

Though most of the attendees were Democrats, they unanimously agreed that Chatham Changemakers should be an independent entity, to draw support from political independents and moderate Republicans. The group will work in coalition with existing organizations, and will be ACTION-ORIENTED, focusing on tangible RESULTS.

Get involved NOW by

• contributing comments to this blog. Introduce yourself. Discuss any of the issues on this page. Ask a question.
• joining our Facebook group

40 Impassioned People Attend Health Care House Party in Chatham

Photos by Gary Greenberg:http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1067840014/a=738760023_83098464/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

After Long Strike, Chatham's Moncure Plywood Settles With Union

Union workers at Moncure Plywood are going back to work. After striking for eight months over a mandatory 60-hour work week a 200 percent increase in health care premiums, the workers now have a new contract with Moncure Plywood. See Mary Montford's report.

Chatham Clinic Makes Front Page of Washington Post As Example of Health Care Crisis

Washington Post: "In North Carolina, Recession Breeds Health Care Crisis: Job Losses Leave State With Highest Percentage of Uninsured." Article quotes Brian Toomey, who runs Piedmont Health Clinic, which has a branch in Moncure. Despite dramatically higher demand since October, 2008, funding had dropped and he feared he'd have to cut staff. But thanks to the economic stimulus money, he can retain 10 to 15 positions. "In all, North Carolina community health centers have received $11.2 million in stimulus money." The article describes the people for whom the clinics are lifelines.

Beginning May 15, Chatham Will Have It's Own Currency, PLENTY

Capital Bank in Pittsboro will on May 15 start accepting the Plenty Currency Cooperative -- Piedmont Local Economy Tender. The idea is to keep commerce circulating locally rather than through big national corporations. Other business that accept PLENTY include Piedmont Biofuels, the Chatham Marketplace and the General Store Cafe. Learn more from this Herald-Sun article.

Tim Keim, a Pittsboro resident, writer, radio news and documentary journalist and member of the Chatham County Planning Board, explained: "Go to Capital Bank, plunk down $9 and get a colorful 10 Plenty note. Merchants redeem the Plenty at Capital Bank for cash at face value." More.

Smart Growth for Chatham?

Chatham County commissioners will this summer discuss a "smart growth" proposal that regulates  development near major corridors, in an effort to avoid future traffic congestion and turn Chatham's major thoroughfares into something like Capital Boulevard in Raleigh.

Some landowners oppose the plan, as WRAL reported:

 

What You Can Do At Home to Help the US Reach Energy Independence

At Changemakers, John Hammond presented a powerpoint on what we each can do at home to help President Obama achieve his goal of US energy independence. Click to download.

Health Care Working Group Is On The Move, Exploring Connection Between Health and Wealth

By Ken Boggs

Since the Chatham Changemakers retreat in January, our group has been doing research on local, state, and federal health care programs and proposals.

We are considering going door-to-door to support and explain the Obama health care plan when it becomes available. We'd like to use the Obama volunteers from the campaign and provide them with a synopsis of the plan along with talking points.

A group of us gathered on March 12 at the Community Health and Advocacy Office in Pittsboro to view and discuss the 60-minute documentary,  "Unnatural Causes," about the connection between wealth and health. Excerpt:

We'd like for more people in Chatham County to see this powerful video.

We've met with the Chatham County Public Health Department, Walmart, the Chatham County library (to see what kind of materials they have), senior citizens (to see what services are available to them in Chatham County) and the public schools (to see what kind of health care they are providing). We've learned about the Piedmont Health Services, which provides discounted health care for people without insurance, and has clinics in Moncure and Siler City.

Several of us have volunteered with the public health department.

• Ken Boggs will help with IT consulting
• Kitty Griffith will help with PR and communications
• Mary Lucas will help organize volunteers for specific projects
• Fred Sparling will serve on the Health Dept. Board and on the Healthy Chatham Task Force Board.
• Joyce Sparling will work with Vanessa Farrar on the survey focus for rural areas.

Would you like to join our group?

Related:

• Obama's Health Care Reform Website
• Pam Cash-Roper: National Spokeswoman Lives Right Here in Chatham County.
• Read Pam's story

Obama Inspires Resurgence of Interest in Community Organizing

"Once thought of as a destination for lefty radicals committed to living lives of low pay, frustration and bitter burnout, community organizing is now seen by many young people as an exciting career," the New York Times reports in an in-depth look. "With their jobs, students envision helping communities address urgent issues — economics or the environment, education or social justice — while developing leadership skills."

...Certainly, there is an Obama effect. Through his presidential campaign and in his memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” Mr. Obama managed to glamorize and, more important, explain community organizing. He wrote about meeting with people in their homes and churches, listening to their stories, the failures and small victories.

...Mr. Obama “said it was the best education he ever had,” Mr. Rallins said. “Young people, they’re looking for certain intangible skills. They see the experience Obama got from community organizing — his concern, the way he relates with everyday people.”

Related:

• Obama's Organizing for America launching "Listening Tours" to "reengage, reenergize" base in states like TX, IA, IN, MI http://bit.ly/gAN6

Stimulating the Stimulus: Think Global, Buy Local

By Del Turner

Margie Ellison, representing the Chatham Community Development Corporation gave us a presentation on ‘buying local’ and supporting local entrepreneurs.

Changemakers will begin ‘stimulating the stimulus’ by:

• buying local throughout the county instead of just one area ( e.g. meet at General Store Cafe, Meana Beana's, Elois's or The Old Place on 421 N, etc.
• Meeting in groups of two or more to shop at local stores, thrift shops, etc. Small or large groups of Changemakers will visit local places in Pittsboro, Siler City, Goldston and other Chatham hamlets to re-circulate money any and everywhere we can.  Targets include local stores, restaurants, produce markets, events, e.g. Shakori Hills, Chatham Arts Films and local entrepreneurs offering investment activities for starters.

Chatham Conservation Partnership

The Chatham Conservation Partnership has a mission to develop and implement strategies for a community conservation vision that builds awareness, protection and stewardship of Chatham County's natural resources. Here's the agenda for the April 23 meeting, to be held at the Agricultural Auditorium in Pittsboro. The agenda for the May meeting is also below :

'Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy'

Chatham County resident Lyle Estill has written Small Is Possible: Life in a a Local Economy.  This book is focused on the local economy in Chatham County, and touches on sustainability, co-ops, biodiesel, whole foods, slow food, small business, and more. Lyle is a founder of Piedmont Biofuels. He will be leading a discussion on Friday, June 5, 2009, from 6:30pm - 8:30pm.Location: Carrboro Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro Street, Carrboro. To RSVP, go to this page on Facebook.

Book Description:

In an era when incomprehensibly complex issues like Peak Oil and climate change dominate headlines, practical solutions at a local level can seem somehow inadequate.

Green Living Blog, Monthly Meeting and Annual Celebration

Fearrington Green Scene is a new blog that includes recommendations of green services and vendors, links to choosing a green vehicle, and NC solar incentives. A Green Living group meets the 4th Tuesday of every month from 3-4;30pm. "We are dedicated to finding ways to lessen our environmental impact individually and collectively. Activities include speakers on a variety of safe environmental practices and concerns, as well as projects in support of environmental responsibility within Fearrington Village." Ann Deupree  542-4507

They are sponsoring

First Ever
Green Living Celebration!!

11am – 2 pm on Saturday, April 25

National Broadcast Features Chatham County's Innovative Efforts Toward Local Self-Reliance and Sustainability

By Jerry Markatos

A national / international broadcast of Democracy Now! with host Amy Goodman features, well, ...us!

DemocracyNOW is a daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 750 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S. Lyle Estill of Piedmont Biofuels discussed "How a town [Pittsboro] proposes to  be self sustaining." The segment begins at about 43 minutes and continues to 51:55.

The text of the program is here.

Among examples of innovation and cooperative development models, local currency was spotlighted as a means of affirming and supporting a local economy. The "Plenty" has achieved "on par" exchange with US currency at the Capital Bank in Pittsboro as well as being honored at Chatham Marketplace, General Store Cafe and other businesses,

  Plenty is an acronym for Piedmont Local Exchange tender,   which has circulated in Carrboro for years.   http://www.ncplenty.org/scrip.php
  http://www.ncplenty.org/images/oneplenty.jpg

Chatham sustainability programs at CCCC and the revival of the Pittsboro mill were also given as examples of CCCC sustainable ag program, with local businesses bringing the mill back to life.
While signing books at a local gathering for a talk, Amy Goodman and her colleague Denis Moynihan were impressed that four local groups had cooperated in presenting the evening, and today's broadcast closed with a recognition of that cooperative spirit.

The groups are the three broadcasters: WNCU (at NC Central in Durham), The Peoples Channel, WCOM, and Balance & Accuracy in Journalism.  Hopefully one day, Chatham Radio can join the four!

Chatham Rejects Harassment of Immigrants; Interfaith Group Dramatizes Plight of Undocumented Workers

Despite a small but highly vocal group expressing anti-immigrant sentiments, Chatham County commissioners came out strongly and unanimously in opposition to a program to harass, arrest and deport hard-working immigrants. Many citizens rallied in support of the commissioners, including the creation of a Facebook group nearly 400 strong. In addition, several Chatham churches have supported the Carolina Interfaith Task Force on Central America, which is dramatizing the plight of undocumented workers.

April 16-May 5, Chatham Residents Vote on Liquor-By-the-Drink

Between April 16 and May 5th, Chatham residents will have an opportunity to voice their support or opposition to whether mixed drinks should be served in hotels, restaurants, private clubs, community theaters and convention centers in Chatham County and its municipalities. Currently, restaurants are only allowed to serve glasses of beer and wine. Pittsboro Mayor Randy offers details on how to apply for an absentee ballot. A website for supporters is http://chathamvote4mixedbeverages.org.

Drill Deeper:

• Liquor-by-the-drink foes, backers weigh in (Herald-Sun)
• Supporters, Foes Rally Ahead of Vote (Herald-Sun)
• Something Strange Is Happening in Chatham: Everyone's Uniting to Eat, Drink and Raise Revenue (Carrboro Citizen)

How Do We Get Our Message Out in a Fragmented Media Market?

At the Changemakers meeting, we discussed developing a radio program to inform the public about our activities and to achieve specific community goals. Many interesting Chatham County people are not covered or heard by the media. It is difficult to reach the 60,000 citizens of Chatham County through the media because the media marketplace is so fragmented, and county media seem to be run on a financial shoestring. The county has only one radio station, WNCA 1570AM, a 5,000-watt station in the west. A radio station in Sanford only reaches the Southern part of the county. Television stations in Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro cover the county only occasionally. Newspapers in Raleigh, Greensboro and Durham, faced with cutbacks, seem to be reducing their coverage of Chatham County. That leaves the local print and electronic media, which is fragmented.

• Chatham County Line
• The Chatham News & Record
• Chatham Journal Community Newspaper
• Chatham Chatlist
• Chatham County Online Bulletin Board
• http://chathamncblogs.com
• Chatham County on Twitter

What can be done to improve Chatham County media, so that more citizens can be seen and heard by larger audiences?

   

How Did Obama Win NC? Obama Campaign Manager Marc Farinella Offers Lessons

By Jim Buie

John Hammond and I attended "Lessons from an Obamanaut: Marc Farinella, NC Campaign Manager," sponsored by BlueprintNC. For background, see N&O profile: Farinella led Obama's uphill win. The Obama organization had about 50 offices and 23,000 volunteers in North Carolina who knocked on 100,000 doors in the state. In terms of applying the lessons of the Obama campaign to the future, Farinella said Obama won NC by

• first of all, engaging in cultural validation: recruiting "people like me" to talk to other similar people in their neighborhoods and communities about Barack Obama. In that way, the potential cultural divide between a black man from Chicago (former member of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church) and moderates in NC was bridged. Moderates came to see Obama not as an angry militant and a threat but as a genial fellow, a teacher or professorial type who loved Carolina basketball and had friends (campaigners) like North Carolinians Andy Griffith and Opie (Ron Howard wasn't a North Carolinian, but he played one on TV), James Taylor, Jim Hunt, Michael Jordan, Bev Perdue.
• utilizing online social networks. Obama's Iowa and Texas primary campaigns established the model that was replicated in North Carolina. See "Obama Campaign Builds Unprecedented Grassroots Internet-based Movement."
• face-to-face contact.  In any "bottom up" political campaign, it's important to engage "people like me" -- friends and neighbors. They are the most trusted messengers.  Citizens are far less trusting today of politicians or "big media" who they think are out to manipulate them, treat them as demographic targets rather than respect them as citizens and to engage in conversation. With a massive door-to-door grassroots effort, the Obama campaign was able to break through the clutter of media messenging and engage people face to face, get neighbors talking to neighbors. 
• a massive get-out-the-vote effort two weeks before election day. Obama actually lost NC on election day, but he won the race in early voting, by mobilizing the base.
• Independents -- people unaffiliated or skeptical of both political parties -- determine who win, especially in a state like North Carolina. That's where the face-to-face contact from "people like me" can be most persuasive. Political independents and unaffiliated voters who could articulate why they supported Obama, to other independents and unaffiliated voters were powerful persuaders.
• "a perfect storm" -- bad national economy, high unemployment in NC, due in part to Bush administration trade policies that decimated the textile industry. NC experienced an influx of new voters from the 1990s and the state's demographics have changed. Obama had a huge financial advantage and spent a great deal on television (7 to 1 over McCain). The state has a  large population of blacks and students, who turned out in exceptionally high numbers.
• McCain neglected the state. Even so, Obama won the state by less than 16,000 votes, so NC will probably continue to be a swing state.  

Farinella will give another presentation at the NC Conservation Network's retreat in May.

Related:

• David Plouffe, Obama's Campaign Manager, Speaks at Harvard (he has a book coming out in fall, 2009)

Does Chatham County Need More Affordable Housing?

County commissioners are studying a report that includes a recommendation that developers be required to set aside a portion of their lots for affordable housing.

Watch This on WRAL

Introduce Yourself: Chatham's Online Obama Community

This blog is a place for Obama supporters in Chatham County to network with each other, get to know each other a little better, learn about events and issues in our community, and work to bring progressive change "from the bottom up."

You can help build this movement for change by introducing yourself in the comments section below.

'Race in NC: Looking Back, Moving Forward' Documentary Film Festival. What Did You Think?

On March 21 and 22, four films were shown in Pittsboro for a www.chathamarts.org 100 Mile Sustainable Cinema Series special event, “Race in NC: Looking Back- Moving Forward.” This documentary feast included a thought-provoking forum with a panel discussion with the filmmakers and African-American community leaders, post-screening Q&A’s with producers and directors, a gospel performance, and local art.

The four films were

"Changes Comes Knocking: The Story of the NC Fund", by Rebecca Cerese and Dr. Steven Channing (listen to WUNC interview). An online discussion of the presentation in Chatham has begun on the documentary's website, here. An audio clip or podcast of the discussion at the festival, featuring Ann Atwater of Durham, one of the activists featured in the film, can be downloaded and listened to: 

Download RACEINNCPITTSBORODISCUSION3212009

“FBI-KKK” by Michael Frierson. A preview of the film and details about the film and the filmmaker can be found here.

“We Shall Not Be Moved- The Story of the Tillery Resettlement Community,” in Halifax County, NC, the fourth poorest county in NC, by Gary Grant, Christ Potter and Charles Thompson

“Family Name,” by Macky Alston. Details and excerpts about the film can be found on the PBS website here.

Proceeds benefited the development of an at-risk youth documentary arts program and ChathamArts.

Former Durham resident Macky Alston, who now lives in New York City, cannot attend the event but participated in an email interview sharing thoughts about his film, “Family Name,” which was partially filmed in Chatham County. Read the Q&A online at www.chathamcountyline.org 

Excerpt from 'We Shall Not Be Moved: 'The Tillary Resettlement Project'

What did you think of the festival or of particular films? Did it make you think? Can you help arrange for the showing of these films for local church groups or other community organizatons, to spark continued thought and discussion? Post your comments!