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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels August 11, 2004 MoveOn event courts youth By John Darling Tidings Correspondent It was like an old-fashioned political picnic, with lots of watermelon, stickers and buttons and an auction to raise money for MoveOnPAC - an event that doubled as a primer on the 2004 presidential race. A couple hundred people turned out at Hidden Springs, picnicking, listening to live rock music and bidding princely sums for auction lots to raise $3,000 to $5,000 for MoveOn, an increasingly potent player in national politics. It will use the money - and millions more raised on the Internet - mainly for Democrat John Kerry's presidential race, said organizer Steve Coffman, with special attention to registering voters and getting out the vote. "Our agenda was to have a good time and not come from the perspective of bashing Bush," said Onnolee Stevens. "We're here to take back America and do it by focusing on parts of his agenda that we want to change." To that end, public radio talk show host Jeff Golden auctioned off donated artwork, ceramics, dinners for six, resort lodging, jewelry, legal services and such, along with fanciful certificates attesting to the bearer's support for church-state separation, repeal of the USA Patriot Act, campaign finance reform, public ownership of the airwaves and other issues. An imaginative cyber-force in politics, MoveOn formed during the impeachment of President Clinton to urge Congress to "censure and move on." It raised $7 million for re-election of imperiled U.S. senators, contributed to environmental causes and sponsored a competition for the best 30-second TV spots, submitted for use against President Bush. Organizers focused on fun, food, music and socialness, so as to demonstrate "democracy in action, which means that money is not the big thing - it's the community response," said organizer Leslie Lanes. "People want a change in administration and direction and MoveOn represents that change," she said. The food-family-fun approach was also intended to draw in young adults, who've been notably absent from mainstream politics, said Golden, and have told him they find it boring and in need of being reinvented as a celebratory process. Twenty-seven-year-old Kelly Shelstad agreed, noting, "It's easy for my generation to get apathetic, because we want to get involved and make a lot of changes but we don't know how and we don't want to go protesting all the time. MoveOn makes it real easy. You feel like you're doing something and it gives you hope." Said Golden, "A lot of people in politics, including me when I ran (for county commissioner) have dreamed of taking that energy of young people who care about community and harnessing it somehow to stiff, old mainstream politics." Cecil said MoveOn has "people coming off the shelves to participate who never did it before. I felt I was called this time to do something because this is the most important election of my life, with the safety and health of the human spirit at stake." In a pre-auction talk to the crowd, Golden said TV ads have reached the saturation point, so spending more there will not net more votes. "Americans are jaded by the soft-focus candidate shots with the flag waving in the background. It's not working anymore. That's why the focus now is on door-to-door canvassing and registration and reaching out to people who you know are not going to vote." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams