Meetup Chicago

Rethinking the Village:
How Do We Protect and Sustain Families with a Public Policy Run Amuck?
A nonpartisan public interest forum

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
6:00PM

Parental notification. School choice. HPV. Mandatory HIV and mental health screening. DCFS reform. Contested divorce and child custody. Does Illinois have a problem when it comes to protecting families inclusively? What are the social, economic, and political implications to the community at-large when family relations become unjustly marginalized by our public policy? Can we create a sustainable future
where the position of parents will be nurtured and protected?

Rik was our "official Representative" to the YearlyKos Convention in Los Vegas. He did a couple of good and informative write-ups about his experience and came back hugely enthusiastic and inspired. By way of thanks, we bestowed on him the coveted IDN Teeshirt. Note: you can get your's by going to: http://illinoisdemnet.com/onlinestore

Ed Yohnka from the ACLU gave a powerful talk about the danger our civil liberties are in. You can learn more about the ACLU in Illinois (including how to join!!!) by going to: http://aclu-il.org/

Christen from the Blagojevich Campaign came to speak about why we need to support Gov. Blagojevich in his race for reelection. You can find out more about the Governor (including how to volunteer) by going to: http://www.rodforillinois.com/

This month, Illinois DemNet had a city-wide Meetup at Goose Island. There were five speakers including Democratic Congressional candidate Dan Seals. They spoke on some very critical issues: immigration and refugee rights, the Impeachment Bill, Anti-marriage petitions and more. The Meetup room was packed with people and there were some very spirited discussions.

Dan Seals, Democratic Candidate for Congress in IL-06 was one of our speakers at the Goose Island Meetup for May.   More photos and info to follow.

Related links from the Meetup: 

• Dan Seals for Congress
• Fair Illinois (email: fairillinois@yahoo.com)
• Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR)

At the February Meetup at Goose Island, we heard from four speakers.

Luke Hayes from Edwin Eisendrath’s campaign in the Illinois gubernatorial primary described the three main issues for Edwin Eisendrath: campaign finance reform, budget reform and education reform.

Megan Meagher spoke on behalf of the Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care. This organization is fighting for more accessible, affordable, quality healthcare for all citizens in Illinois. To promote these goals, they are supporting the Health Care Justice Act in Illinois.

Address:
Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago

Group:
IllinoisDemNet

Cost:
free

Description:

Join us for the DemNet meetup at Goose Island, 7PM, Thursday, February 16:

Our featured speakers will be:

• Megan Meagher from the Campaign for Better Health Care will be on hand to discuss advocacy of quality, affordable health care in Illinois .
  
• Luke Hayes will speak about Edwin Eisendrath's campaign against Rod Blagojevich in the Democratic primary for Governor.
• Also on the agenda: A "Contract with America" for Democrats?

Bonnie Grabenhofer, President of Illinois NOW, gave a very engaging presentation about reproductive rights issues. She revealed a number of ways that a women's right to choose is at risk and how we can take action. John P. Sullivan, candidate for U.S. Congress, spoke passionately about his progressive views on ending the war, protecting our privacy, universal healthcare and choice. He pointed out how his views contrasted with those of his opponent, Daniel Lipinski. Illinois DemNet member, Rob Moon enthusiastically introduced the group to candidate for Cook County Sheriff, Tom Dart.

Address:
Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago

Group:
IllinoisDemNet

Cost:
free

Description:

Our featured speakers will be: Bonnie Grabenhofer, President of Illinois NOW, will speak about the Alito nomination and reproductive rights in Illinois.

As part of the program, Catherine Caporusso, an attorney who is a member of NOW will speak about legal aspects of reproductive rights. Also we will be election news, the fallout from the White House scandals and more!

We had a great meetup and an overflow crowd last night at Goose Island. Included in the evening:

* Dr. Patricia Jones told us about her chairmanship of State Senator Jacqueline Collins' upcoming campaign for reelection in the 16th District. Senator Collins has long been a champion of progressive causes.

* Bob from the Forrest Claypool campaign for Cook County Board Commissioner and President spoke about Commissioner Claypool's background in reforming and improving County services and his plans for the future.

*Siobhan Murphy, Democrat for Circuit Court Judge in Cook County, told us about her background in bringing progressive issues to the forefront in the court system.

Address:
Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn, Chicago

Group:
IllinoisDemNet

Cost:
free

Description:

Hey everybody, Join at Goose Island at 7PM on Tuesday, November 8:

• Dr. Patricia Jones, campaign chair for Senator Jacqueline Collins will be with us to discuss the race for the 16th district in 2006.
• A representative of Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool will be on hand to tell us about Forrest's campaign for County Board President and the upcoming primary.
• Also we will be discussing the Supreme Court nominations, the fallout from the White House indictments and more!

See you there!

Hey everybody,
Join at Goose Island at 7PM on Tuesday, November 8:

*Dr. Patricia Jones, campaign chair for Senator Jacqueline Collins will be with us to discuss the race for the 16th district in 2006.

*A representative of Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool will be on hand to tell us about Forrest's campaign for County Board President and the upcoming primary.

*Also we will be discussing the Supreme Court nominations, the fallout from the White House indictments and more!

See you there!

David Goodfriend is a nine-year veteran of the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Afghanistan earlier this year, and has in the past been posted all over the world including Uzbekistan, the Republic of Georgia, Guam, Korea, and Colombia when not at his home in the Gulf Coast.
On September 13, he will be visiting the DemNet meetup at Goose Island to talk about the challenges facing enlisted men and women today.

Address:
Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago

Group:
IllinoisDemNet

Cost:
free

Description:

Speakers: Brett Smiley (Melissa Bean for Congress); Debra Shore (Candidate, Water District). Plus a range of other interesting activities and agenda items.

Address:
Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn, Chicago

Group:
IllinoisDemNet

Cost:
free

Description:

Speakers: Brett Smiley (Melissa Bean for Congress); Julie Sweet (People for the American Way); Catherine Carusso (Lawyer, Activists, Code Pink). Plus a range of other interesting activities and agenda items.

Address:
Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago

Group:
IllinoisDemNet

Cost:
free

Description:

Independent grassroots event with a thoughtful, engaging program. We work to feature interesting local speakers and meaningful discussions. Learn what activist groups all over the Chicagoland area are doing and how you can get involved.

Well, this took a while but it was worth the wait.. At our February Meetup, we passed a resolution in support of Social Security.

Part of my charge as Meetup Host was then to distribute the resolution to our Congressional Delegation including Senators Durbin and Obama, and Congressmen, Schakowski, Emanuel, Davis and Bean. So what should come in today but this message from Senator Barack Obama:

Dear Leo:

Thank you for advising me of the Democratic Meetup Group of Chicago's opposition to the President's Social Security reform proposal. I appreciated receiving your resolution on this important matter. I apologize for the delay in my response to your email. I'm afraid the challenge of answering the nearly three month backlog of correspondence the Senate post office delivered to me in late January has slowed the process of responding to the letters and web messages I've received since I took office.

First thanks to all of you for coming. We had a great crowd (40?) and managed to fill every chair in that big hall!

I put up some of the photos. Have a look!

WHAT HAPPENED:

Anyway, Leo opened up with a description of the activities of IllinoisDemNet, how we're an organization of people active in last year's campaign and how we decided to focus on the DNC Meetups because that's where progressive democrats of all stripes can meet.

Leo explained that it's important for us to have engaging Meetups with interesting speakers and meaningful discussion. IllinoisDemNet is expanding to two more locations for next month (April): Ann Sather's and Heartland Café. Kensey will be co-host at Ann Sathers. We hope to have Alderman Tunney at the Ann Sather's inaugural Meetup.

Address:
Several Locations

Group:
IllinoisDemNet

Cost:
free

Description:

Independent grassroots event with a thoughtful, engaging program. We work to feature interesting local speakers and meaningful discussions. Learn what activist groups all over the Chicagoland area are doing and how you can get involved.

By an overwhelming majority, the Democratic Meetup Group of Chicago has passed the Resolution on Social Security originally featured on MyDD.

Closely based on passed by the San Fernando Valley model, one of the few modifications we made was to take out the word "democrat" from the original "will not actively support any democrat candidate" since, as one person put it, we don't care what party they're from. If they don't support Social Security, we won't support them."