July 14

What a day! The morning started with the domestic plenary: perspectives on healthcare reform. Julie Barnew, Deputy Director of the Health Policy Program at New America Foundation spoke about bills pending which would create a single payer system in the US. This is colloquially known as Medicare for All, since there would be one payor, the government, but private providers (doctors and hospitals). Their web site is www.newamerica.net

At 10:30 was the campaign review and lobby requests sessions. I was already set with the global lobbying I was going to do, and the atmosphere in the domestic room was much gentler than in the global room so I sat in.

I had a candy bar for lunch because I set up the table for the NGO display for the RESULTS Diversity Task Force. I worked the table from 1 to 2 with Monica Jolles from Durham, NC. I had some great conversations with people about adding people of color and people of low income to our groups in order that they can tell their stories to members of Congress personally.

At 3 p.m. I sat in on a session about going deep with your member of Congress led by Sam Daley-Harris, founder of RESULTS. It had to do with finding compelling stories and telling them effectively in order to develop more than a superficial relationship with your MoC.

At 4 was a fundraising workshop with Gwen Garcelon and Sam, Growing Your Inviting Power. I did a share about my experience with inviting Nancy to join our group, the first of six invitations I'm going to issue on our behalf in the communities of color in Cedar Rapids. It was standing at the podium right next to Sam. I think he noticed me because he was listening to the story I was telling. I found out during the workshop that I'm basically not afraid of asking anybody for anything.

Then it was time for supper, which I had while working on my lobbying presentations for tomorrow. At 7 Jos came down to the Hill Room and we went over strategy for an hour in preparation for our meetings. I'm not nervous. It's not that I don't care; it's just that these members of Congress don't scare me. They're human beings who wanted to come to Washington to make a difference in people's lives. I'm there to help them fulfill their mission by asking for legislation that will make a difference in the lives of people living in poverty and hunger. I hope that's not arrogant, because I don't mean it to be. It all seems quite simple to me.

I miss you all terribly. I wish Iowa were closer to Washington so it was easier for us to get here. I am going to thank Loebsack, Grassley and Harkin for coming to Cedar Rapids during the flooding. I want them to know it meant a lot to us that they would make that trip to let us know they were watching out for us all.

July 13

The highlight of the morning was the presentation by Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Before heading up the Global Fund, which is a fund countries like the US contribute to in order that the GF might make grants to developing countries to fight these diseases of poverty, Michel was a physician, researcher and diplomat around AIDS.

Ninety percent of the burden of diseases is concentrated in developing countries. Yet developing countries account for 20 percent of global health dollars and 12 percent of medical expenditures. Therefore, health is now a prerequisite for development. health is an investment for the mid- and the long-term.

What people thought was impossible is now becoming possible. Action is necessary for change.

There is now evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of AIDS drug treatment.

2002 was the initiation of the GF. It has to date disbursed $6B in 584 grants to 134 countries. Responding to demand, 60 percent of the grants have been to fight AIDS; 14 percent to fight TB; and 25 percent to fight malaria. Ninety-three percent of the funding is to low-income countries. In the years since the GF started, 1.7 million people have been treated with intivirals and 60 million bed nets have been distributed. There have been decreases by 40-90 percent of malaria deaths in two years.

The risk today is conplacency.

The afternoon started with a panel featuring David Lane, executive director of the ONE Campaign and Michael Petit, founder and president of Every Child Matters Education Fund. Jos works with the Every Child Matters group in Des Moines. I am going to talk to him to see about us doing some partnering with them. They will Thursday release Homeland Insecurity II, a report on the sad state of affairs for the children in this country.

The skills workshop I attended was the one put together by the Diversity Task Force. It was rather sad. The African-American woman on the panel let it be known in no uncertain terms that unless you were black, she had nothing in common with you and didn't want to hear what you had to say. I was saddened by that attitude. How limiting it is. And how limited is the growth potential.

At 5:30 was the Grassroots Awards Celebration. Douglas, our domestic regional coordinator encouraged me to attend. Now I know why. He and Allison, our global regional coordinator, took the stage and began talking about the Cedar Rapids group -- how much we have achieved in just a year and a half. Next thing I know I'm called on stage to receive the Energizer Bunny group leader award.

Tonight it rained, but Douglas wanted to take me to the Dubliner, a place he frequents when in DC and about three blocks from the hotel. We had a lovely dinner serenaded by live musicians. I had the shepherd's pie. It was scruptious. We dined for 90 minutes and then I came back to blog. Now I'm headed down to the Karaoke Party at which Jos does his Elvis channeling.

July 12

The conference began for me today with Leadership Day. And we weren't 15 minutes into Leadership Day when Ken Patterson asked me to do a share on how I came to RESULTS. I explained about hearing Jos Linn speak at the Zero Poverty Symposium and that it touched me at such an emotional level that I started to cry. I'll put the text of the share on the RESULTS page on the Christ Church web site yet tonight so you can see it.

Important point here -- don't ride 28 hours on a train by yourself and expect to be emotionally strong. I got to the part in the share where it said, "I started to cry." and I started to cry. Must have been okay, though, because I got a rousing ovation when it was over and five or six people came up to me to thank me for sharing.

I also told the story of why I call Jos "Grandfather." I'll put the share on the website tonight. You can find it at www.christepiscopal.org and look for the RESULTS page on the left side of the screen.

I had supper with Jos and that was a delight. I had a caesar salad. Had missed breakfast and lunch, so getting some fiber sounded like a good idea.

Tomorrow Gwen Garcelon, fundraiser expert for RESULTS, is going to do a share about our ice cream social.

July 10-12

Well, my friends, I'm finally in Washington. The 28-hour train ride was exhausting. My sight-seeing afternoon was spent on a slow train from Chicago. I did get to sit next to a very kind and delightful man from Newport New, VA, who was kind enough to leave me alone for the most part, as I was busy thinking about my presentations.

I feel like this conference is going to be the Diane Show! I make a presentation this afternoon (Saturday) telling the story of how Jos Linn came to the Zero Poverty Conference to make a RESULTS presentation that hit me at such a deep emotional level that I ended up in tears and barely able to tell him I wanted to be part of RESULTS. I'm going to add to that story the reason I call Jos "Grandfather." Given that I'm part -- a very small part, but a part nonetheless -- Mohawk I feel okay about adopting that Native American tradition which gives the term of respect Grandfather to our elders. Jos started this group and kept us going and has always been there for us, and he is our RESULTS Grandfather. He laughs when I call him that.

Then Monday afternoon I give a presentation on our Pilot City program in Cedar Rapids for the RESULTS Diversity Task Force and report on our first meeting with a contact in a target population, and how Nancy wants to join our group. BTW, Nancy is an educator at Mt. Mercy. She has a degree in math and a degree in physics -- two subjects I've always avoided because they are so confusing for me.

And sometime during the three days Gwen Garcelon, the Fundraising Guru for RESULTS is going to talk about our ice cream social. I'm glad she does this presentation and not me. Otherwise, it would truly be the Diane Show!

I went to the Washington National Cathedral this morning and it's breathtaking. In its shadow, waiting for the doors to be open to the public, I wrote my presentations. And I've met the most fascinating cab drivers here. Kate, it was easy to get a cab from the train station to the hotel. The driver showed me a picture of his seven-month-old son Mohammed. And this morning coming back from the cathedral my cab driver was originally from Ethiopia. He takes his nine-year-old son to the library every two weeks and lets his son check out a book. Then, in order to get his allowance, his son delivers an oral book report on what he's read. So nice to see parents so involved with their children's education.

I'm beginning now to memorize what I'm going to say during our lobbying meetings. I have about an hour before I have to check out and the conference starts. After this afternoon's session, I check back in with my two roommates. I need to revise things a little for the Congressmen. And I saw on the news that Boswell just got out of surgery and "expects to be back to work soon." I don't know if he's going to be back by Tuesday. I hope so. Did you see Senator Kennedy came back for a vote?

July 3 update

Because of the holiday weekend we didn't have a global call last night.

On the domestic call today I learned that the results of the healthcare survey showed a majority of RESULTS volunteers who took the survey showed interest in a single-payer plan, but there was some trepidation as to whether RESULTS should back single-payer now or wait. Douglas says that, depending on the outcome of the Board meeting (he is a member of the RESULTS Board), RESULTS will probably back single-payer first. There is a summary of the survey coming soon.

Expanding Child Tax Credits passed the House in May and is currently active in the Senate. If it is still active at our July meeting, contacting Grassley and Harkin will be one of our options for action.

A mom was preparing pancakes for her two sons, Ryan, 5, and Spencer, 3. While she was prepping the breakfast, she overheard the boys arguing about who was going to get the first pancake. She decided to teach them a moral lesson. She went to the table and told them, "If Jesus were here, he would say, 'My brother, I want you to have the first pancake.'" Ryan then said to Spencer, "My brother, I'll give you the first chance to be Jesus."

Updates for Week of June 23

Seems like a long time since I've blogged. Forgive me for letting things slide.

The July Conference Call will be Saturday, July 26 at 1 p.m. This will be a joint Domestic and Global call recounting some of the adventures of the International Conference. Please let me know if you'd like to attend. I can see if the Library at Christ Church is open for us to gather.

The Diversity Task Force is going to have a brochure and four fact sheets for the International Conference. The brochure details some of the work of the task force and has a sign-up sheet for more information. The fact sheets are similar to the HR 3014 Healthcare Disparities Bill action sheet in that they detail ethnic statistics in four different areas. I will bring copies to the RESULTS meeting on July 21.

We have the go-ahead to start work on our Pilot City project for the Diversity Task Force. I hope to have a meeting with my Native American contact before I go to the conference. We have identified six minority communities in the Cedar Rapids area, as we discussed at our June meeting -- African American, Hindu American, Hispanic, Muslim, Jewish and Native American. I have contacts in each of these communities who can help me set up outreach meetings. What we learn we will share with the rest of the RESULTS community across the country.

Jos and I are going to be lobbying together at the conference. We have appointments with Senators Harkin and Grassley and Congressmen Loebsack and Boswell. Meredith Dodson suggested today that we also make an appointment with Congressman Latham. Jos is going to lobby on Domestic issues such as healthcare for all and child tax credits. I am going to lobby on Global issues. I have a phone appointment with Jenn Mauer for next Tuesday to talk about what global issues would be best for each of these members of Congress.

On the Saturday night of the conference, there is what they call the Parade of Groups. Each state name is called and groups in that state are introduced. Everyone brings something representative of their state. Polly and John Ely once brought an ear of corn. Since there's no corn this year, I'm going to take a bottle of flood mud.

I'm also going to take copies of our op-eds and letters to the editor to hand out to members of Congress and others who might be interested.

Polly Ely Memorial June 7

I knew Polly through RESULTS, the citizens grassroots organization that lobbies Congress to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty.

John and Polly were the RESULTS group in Cedar Rapids for many years. Then, a group of seven of us got together in 2006, and Polly joined us in 2007 after John died. I think she enjoyed working within a group rather than being the group!

We would meet in her home to listen to the monthly conference calls and Polly’s energy began to be apparent to me. She had previously been interested in the global side of legislation, especially Microcredit. But when she started listening to the domestic conference calls, she got excited about that legislation as well.

Around the first of the year we were doing our annual planning and one of the things I was looking for, as group leader, was help in establishing relationships with Congressional aides in Washington. I asked for a volunteer to work with Senator Grassley’s office, and Polly didn’t hesitate. She said, “John was in the Legislature with Grassley. I’ll call Chuck’s office.”

Then, when I asked for a volunteer for Senator Harkin’s office, she volunteered for that as well. When there was a bill in the Senate that needed a phone call from RESULTS in Cedar Rapids, all I would have to do was to call Polly. We would go over what the phone call should cover and I would ask her to let me know when she had made the call. I figured in a few days I’d get a call back from her. But only 10 minutes later, Polly would call me back. She had made calls to both Senate offices and she filled me in on the content of the calls.

In February our group met with Congressman Loebsack and Polly was excited to talk about Microcredit. When the Congressman came in, he asked Polly’s permission to give her a hug. I couldn’t have asked for a more well-connected RESULTS group member.

Polly was an inspiration to all of us in RESULTS. Her energy and enthusiasm for RESULTS is a model we can all aspire to.

The last conversation I had with Polly was when she was staying on Cottage Grove. She talked about how much she missed John and looked forward to being with him. We talked about the RESULTS International Conference coming up this July, and she said how great it would be if she were still alive for the conference. She and John will both be looking over the international conference and will continue to inspire us to work to end poverty and hunger.

LTE June 4

Cedar Rapids Gazette:
Forming New Department Could Help End Poverty
I would like to thank the Gazette for recent coverage of the global food crisis. Experts estimate the rise in food prices may drive 100 million people deeper into poverty. The problem is not a lack of food, but a lack of political will to ensure people do not go hungry.

Immediate relief is necessary, but will not address the underlying causes of global food instability. While the U.S. publicly states a commitment to helping poor countries, our policies frequently conflict with the achievement of those goals. For example, we deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of food aid every year, but mandate that the food must be purchased from subsidized U.S. agribusiness and shipped on U.S. vessels. For every dollar we spend on food aid, 65 cents is spent on shipping and other processing costs.

Foreign aid must be clearly focused on bettering the lives of poor people. Programs should be held accountable for demonstrating clear, measurable results in health, education and economic opportunity in the lives of the poorest — those living on less than a dollar a day.

As a RESULTS (advocacy organization committed to ending hunger and poverty) volunteer, I support a cabinet-level Department of Global Development which could help create the opportunity for such reforms. With the support of Congress, it should be a priority for the next administration to work efficiently and effectively toward the end of poverty.

Diane John-Smith
Marion, IA 52302