Joan Blades

I find it odd that there’s such strong objection to what is a clear way to assure that our elections are reliable and we can do a recount if there are any questions.

I have a real sense of optimism that we are revolutionizing the way we do politics in this country.

People think of us as an information distributor because that’s how they relate to the Internet. But most of the time people already have pretty well established opinions.

Most jobs today are still structured the same way they were 50 years ago, when most families had someone who could stay at home.

I’m a mediator by training and inclination.

Touch screen voting is a fine thing so long as they have a voter-verified paper trail.

When you become active in the system and communicate to your representatives, and they don’t vote in accordance with your values, your responsibility is to support candidates who will.

It is time for us to focus on the issues that bring us together as a nation. Supporting parents’ capacity to raise their children with the love and resources they need is simply the right thing to do.

Moveon is not a one-way broadcast media. The Internet, when used best, is a two-way media. We have a forum in which people can post comments and those comments can be rated. We get a sense of what people feel most passionately about.

We are mortgaging our future.

We put together a one-sentence petition asking Congress to censure President Clinton and move on to other pressing issues. We sent it to under 100 friends and family, and within a week we had 100,000 people sign the petition.

A book reaches a different crowd of people. There are 50 different stories of very different individuals participating in their communities either locally or nationally in meaningful ways.

The purpose of The Motherhood Manifesto is mothers really need to be given the ability to parent.

Most families need both parents to work. Moms need to be able to work and earn fair pay and have the flexibility in their jobs to also be primary caretakers.

When we compile a petition, we often have members go to their representative’s or Senator’s offices and deliver it in person. This way they can experience a real connection with the staff.

What we do is not going to be successful unless our members care about it.

What is the biggest public forum in the United States? We were told it’s the Super Bowl. The ad shows kids working at blue-collar jobs, and the final statement is just written text: Who’s going to pay for the trillion dollar deficit?

Even though mother’s issues are not front page news, they touch us all personally, some more than others, and I believe passionately in the power of grassroots engagement.

Common sense as well as common values all lead us. Our future depends upon it and our present is going to be vastly better when we get back to these basics.

I have referred to myself as an accidental activist on more than one occasion.

We’ve got 50 percent voter turnout for presidential elections. That’s appalling. We can do so much better.

We aim to express the passion of our members in something actionable that we can all in fact do.