The Let's Plan For Change House Party

While much of the mainstream media is continuing with their obsession over Illinois Criminal Governor Rod Blagojevich, those of us who supported Barack Obama were gathering together in a series of house parties this weekend. The whole idea is for people to provide suggestions to the upcoming Obama Administration on what should be done in this country. 

It's not unusual for a politician to ask supporters for ideas during a campaign. But the idea of an elected official asking for ideas after an election is totally novel and I'm surprised that no one else had considered something like this before. It all started with an e-mail from Obama's website where it said that Barack Obama really wants some ideas from people on what kind of course to consider. All you had to do is either agree to host a house party or sign up for one in your area, talk among some like-minded people for a few hours, have one person gather the ideas on a sheet of paper then e-mail the ideas back to Obama's website.

There were a lot of house parties in my area but the vast majority of them were held tomorrow, which we couldn't make due to a scheduling conflict on my husband's part. We ultimately picked a house party at a place about 10 miles from our home because it was held today.

My husband and I arrived around noon and ate lunch that was provided by the hosts. There were about a total of 10 people who attended, all of whom we had never met before. The discussion was slow going and it was kind of disjointed at times since the slate was opened as to what to suggest. (For example, one person present explained in length about her own personal cause--the effects of electronics emitting electromagnetic fields that can afflict some people who are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation of any kind. Until I met her, I never realized anyone could be allergic to whatever gets emitted from a cell phone or alarm clock.) It also veered off-topic when people began to talk about how valid or invalid the methods of research can be.

The vast majority of the people at our house party were either researchers (either for a university or the government) or worked for a non-profit group. There was one person who worked for a cemetery, which provided some diversity. There were two African-Americans present but the rest were whites. Most of the people there seemed to be over 55 as well.

But there were some common ground among us like health care and global warming. At the end we were pleased that we were able to get some issues out on the table.

It was a pleasant meeting and I hope something good comes out of all of these house parties. By the way, there will be more house parties tomorrow so if you haven't registered for one, you can do so at Barack Obama's website.