A True-blooded American Activist

Mother to the MMOB (snippets):

Bolinas woman mobilizes moms to change country Tricia Cambron, Special to The Chronicle - Friday, July 9, 2004 The fact that Megan Matson has spent the last four years pretending Martin Sheen is president of the United States might make you think the Bolinas resident is one vote short of a majority. The truth, however, is that this Yale graduate and former advertising executive has all her marbles and then some. In the last four years, she has organized or participated in grassroots campaigns that reversed the status quo in state and federal legislatures. She is also founder of the MMOB -- Mainstreet Moms Opposed to Bush -- a grassroots campaign aimed at convincing the 22 million women who didn't vote in the 2000 election to register and vote in 2004. So far, the campaign's more than 200 volunteers have written letters to more than 30,000 unregistered progressive women voters in six swing states -- Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Nevada, Washington and South Carolina. "And we've still got four months to go," Matson says..... "I really began to think about mothers and how mothers have a tangible connection to the future because their children are going to be there. The Bush policies are so short term, I call them 'The Rapture' policies: You can't see them through unless you throw in The Rapture. "When you speak of children, all of your issues become very mainstream -- we all need clean air, clean water, we want that for ourselves and for our children, and we could speak to mothers about that.".... As of the first of July, more than 200 volunteers from 30 states have written more than 30,000 letters to unregistered women voters in Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Nevada, Washington and South Carolina. A volunteer in South Carolina combined her MMOB house party with a summer solstice party; at a party in Manassas, Va., 100 letters were mailed to Florida with specific information on numbers of uninsured, job losses, tax deficits and education shortfalls in the state. In Vermont, 12 volunteers wrote 60 letters in honor of their host's 60th birthday. Everything a volunteer needs to host a house party is on the MMOB's Web site -- registration forms for each of the swing states, phone numbers for volunteers and state offices, sample letters, party-planning tips and information on voting by absentee ballot, which MMOB is pushing hard as an alternative for working mothers. A volunteer in Georgia does all the formatting for PDFs; while Matson's longtime friend, Caroline Quine of Colorado, runs the Web site and 527 operations. Overhead has been almost nonexistent, so very little time has been spent on fund-raising. There's a shift to the positive under way at the MMOB now, with an added emphasis on the significance of every woman's vote in a tight election, and the development of a new fact sheet titled "Top Reasons For Moms To Love Senator John F. Kerry." Traditional "women's issues" such as reproductive choice and equal pay are recognized, but not singled out. "There's got to be another door open for women to dive into politics," Matson says. "If choice is not their door, we have to offer them other issues. For a lot of people, including women, choice is not their issue, but getting rid of Bush is. "Bush trumps all causes."

This is an example of a real activist who puts all of us armchair liberals to horrendous shame. Be sure to visit the no-nonsense MMOB website.