Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

LIVE from Las Vegas: Opening session kicks off with mix of comedy and activism

Well, here we are at the end of our first full day in Las Vegas. Netroots Nation 2010 is turning out to be an marvelous convention, and we're not even a third of the way through it yet. After a full day of panels and an excellent reception sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, we have gathered together in the main pavilion for the convention's opening session, hosted by Elon James White, who we're listening to now. He seems at ease on stage, which always helps lighten the atmosphere. He's certainly one of our community's best comedians.

(Quick programming note: We're also microblogging on Twitter and In Brief... be sure to follow along there for quotes and short takes on the opening session).

7:47 PM: The opening session seems to have been planned to showcase the great diversity of the progressive movement. We've heard from Nevada State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, AFSCME Associate Director of Public Affairs Gregory King, Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead, and the wonderful Majora Carter, who is incredibly inspiring. Four speakers already, not counting Elon.

Horsford spent roughly half of his speech defending President Obama's record and the other half urging the community to live up to its ideals.

"I am a proud progressive Democrat. It doesn't matter where we are in the polls, we are committed to making things better," Horsford declared, asserting that elected leaders and activists must not be afraid to be authentic. He identified strengthening public schools as his perhaps his greatest passion in politics.

AFSCME, America's largest public sector employees union, was up next. The union made a big splash last year in Pittsburgh when it exhibited this old fake PSA which is heavy on profanity but very, very funny.

This time around, the union's public affairs department had prepared a powerful video showing Fox Noise hosts trashing and lying about public sector employees. Following the video, Gregory King took the stage to share a message of solidarity with the convention attendees. "Attacks on unions attack the philosophy that government can be a positive influence in our life," King reminded the audience.

"The time has come to be strong and of good courage. To fight back, to defend our values, to sustain our vision, and to lead our country forward."

Then we heard from Lizz Winstead, co-creator of the Daily Show, a founder of Air America, and a great standup comedian.

Reminiscing about how she came to incorporate politics in her comedy, she told us a story from the early 1990s, explaining that she went out one day on a blind date to a movie with a guy she'd been urged to hook up with.

She was ready to head home immediately after the movie (the guy had fallen asleep midway through, she said) but she acquiesced to his request to go out for drinks. At the bar, the news was on, and it was about the conflict in the Persian Gulf. The guy's response to the footage, she said, was something along the lines of, this is awesome. That was when she realized something was wrong.

As she put it: "Is this media showing me a war or selling me a war?"

Then Winstead confirmed why we are here. "The point of this weekend is to show we are the voice of sanity, we are the majority, we are the progressive movement."

Winstead humbly tiptoed offstage to enthusiastic applause and was followed by acclaimed activist Majora Carter, who was momentarily overcome with emotion at the podium after meeting Winstead backstage.

She recovered, however, and launched into her presentation, highlighting the work she has been doing through her Green the Ghetto initiative.

We saw from her slides that environmental inequality is an injustice she's been working to correct for many years. "If we located our [dirty industries] near rich people we would have had a clean and green economy a long, long time ago," Carter concluded, drawing sustained applause.

Then she made a connection which has never been explained to me:
Proximity to fossil fuel emmissions causes learning disabilities. We find them in poor communities. Poor kids who do poorly in school have a better chance of going to jail than to higher education.

It is a form of violence. It produces violent reactions.
Majora is one of the most accomplished young activists our movement has. It's wonderful to see her up on stage talking about her work. Kudos to the organizers for giving her an opportunity to address the entire convention.

And now, on to Ed Schultz!

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