www.GrannyVoter.org

[realFedUp]

letter from Ellen Goodman-(mods, this came as an e-mail
and Ellen wants it dispersed to others, so no copyright
issues here)

Dear Friends,

As some of you know, I've been meeting in a retreat with ten other
women over 60 in a soul-search and life-review that we call "Next Step
Women."

(The group includes: Mary Catherine Bateson, cultural anthropologist and author; Nancy Berkley, author and golf marketing consultant; Rita
Bornstein, former college president and consultant to higher
education; Geraldine Ferraro, consultant and former Vice Presidential
candidate; Letty Pogrebin, activist and author; Ruth Massinga, foundation president; Rosemary Masters, psychotherapist; Patricia O'Brien, journalist and author; Nell Painter, historian and artist; Pat Schroeder, former Congresswoman and publishing executive; and myself.

Our meetings, which began as an intensely personal exploration of what we hope to do with the rest of our lives, have expanded in this electoral season in a nonpartisan effort we call GrannyVote.

(As Letty puts it, We've appropriated the word "granny" as an activist
concept for older women and men in much the same way as Black is Beautiful transformed a supposedly negative trait into something strong and positive. Our logo is a rocking chair that's looks as if it's in flight -- i.e. an activist get-off-your-rocker image.)

If I may paraphrase what others in our group say, it goes like this:

A GrannyVoter, in our vision, is someone, granny or not, who is focused on the long-term impact of current policies upon our grandchildren, and is ready to hold every political candidate accountable for the long-term consequences of the positions he or she holds today. As Mary Catherine Bateson noted in one of our meetings, we are living longer and thinking shorter. We want to turn that around.

Rather than have our generation be perceived as worried only about
issues like Social Security, prescription drugs, and health care, we are asking our fellow grandparents (and potential grandparents), look at the sort of world we are leaving to future generations.

We're asking older people to cast their vote for the kids who don't yet have the vote or the voice to speak for themselves. We're asking
grandparents, if possible, to go into the ballot box with their
grandchildren -- literally hand in hand, to educate them about the
electoral process. Our goal is to change the national consciousness -- to help Americans see beyond the next stock dividend, annual report, or breaking crisis, to what life will be like in this country twenty years from now as a result of what we and our elected representatives decide to do today. Our intention is to motivate the grandparent generation to register voters and mobilize them to vote the interests of their grandchildren -- and yours.

We've established a website, an email campaign, and an activist agenda
to make this a grassroots effort that anyone can join. GrannyVote's
emphasis is on on five specific areas with an obvious and powerful impact on the future:

1) Environment 2) Peace and Security 3) Civil rights and Civil
Liberties, 4) Opportunity and Fairness and 5)Budget Deficits.

We plan to present these issues to the media and public at a
picnic-cum-press- conference on Grandparents Day -- Sept 12 --at 11 a.m. on the Ellipse behind the White House in D.C. We want to put a
face -- our sweet grandchildren's faces -- on the future. We want the
candidates to see the human beings who will reap the fruits that are
planted today.

To make GrannyVote happen, we've put up a website that explains
everything.

Please log onto http://www.grannyvoter.org/ and let me know what you
think. And, of course, come on aboard.

We would love it if you forwarded this to all friends, grannies, grampies, et al.

Best
Ellen Goodman