MoveOn organizers are planning rallies today in both Port Angeles and Port Townsend to urge lawmakers to create jobs to save the economy and to hand out copies of the new Contract for the American Dream.
“We have a simple message: We need jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Richard Gray, an organizer in Port Angeles.
“The only way out of this recession is putting more people back to work with good-paying jobs,” Gray said.
“The corporations won’t do it, so government must do it.”
Carol Gallup, an organizer in Port Townsend, agreed: “Our focus is jobs,” she said.
The Port Angeles chapter plans a rally at noon at 332 E. Fifth St. at the office of Rep. Norm Dicks, who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Port Townsend group plans an all-day rally at the Food Co-op, 414 Kearney St.
Demonstrators with signs will begin gathering at 8 a.m. at the small triangle park at the corner of Sims Way and Kearney Street.
A table will be set up outside the north door of the co-op from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. handing out copies of the Contract for the American Dream and soliciting signatures.
“It’s part of a national event,” Gallup said.
“A lot of MoveOns are choosing to go to a congressional office.
“But in Port Townsend, we thought that people who don’t usually get our message, who might be driving by, could see that’s there a program, that we support them, that we could turn this around.”
Hand out copies
The highlight of both rallies is to hand out copies of the Contract for the American Dream, which was released Tuesday and had gathered more than 42,000 signatures by 1:30 p.m.
To create the document, which can be found online at http://contract.rebuildthedream.com, “131,203 Americans came together online and in their communities,” the website says.
“We wrote and rated 25,904 ideas. Together, we identified the 10 most critical steps to get our economy back on track and restore the American Dream.”
The 10 points are:
■ Invest in America’s infrastructure, by rebuilding such structures as bridges, dams and railways as well as an energy-saving electric grid.
■ Create 21st-century energy jobs through investing in energy-saving technologies.
■ Invest in public education in ways ranging from early childhood education to equitable school funding to affordable higher education.
■ Offer Medicare for all.
■ Make work pay through fair minimum and living wages.
■ Secure Social Security.
■ Return to fairer tax rates.
■ End the wars and invest at home.
■ Tax Wall Street speculation.
■ Strengthen Democracy through “clean, fair elections.”