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Providing the Swing Vote : Alliance for America
By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, FCUSA
See also:
- Fly In Focus : Father Michael Beers of the Interfaith Council for Environmental Stewardship; and Alliance for America Fly In for Freedom 2001
- And Cold Shoulder or Thaw in the Political Ice? FCUSA post-election commentary, Jan. 15, 2001.
| May 20-24: I made my annual pilgrimage to Washington, DC, joining others at the Alliance for America's 10th Annual Fly In for Freedom. I have worked with the Alliance for over a decade now and currently serve on the executive board with other resource providers from around the country. The Fly In is our chance to gather in DC, talk about issues facing all of us, reinvigorate ourselves, and learn, learn, learn.
The theme for this year's Fly In was "Providing the Swing Vote in Election 2000". "Some 20% of Americans live in rural areas," explained Alliance president Bruce Vincent. "However, since only 36% of the American voting public exercise their right to express their opinion at the ballot box, that 20%, if energized, is a powerful voting block. Consider the national implications: 20% of 270 million is 54 million. If only 70% of eligible rural voters walk into the voting booth armed with information on who is good for our families and who is harmful, we have a whopping 30 million plus potential voters that will change the face of politics and ensure that our voice, our issues and our communities are heard." Fly In 2000 provided attendees with a tool chest of information and programs to energize our rural electorate at the ballot box this fall. Additionally, the newly established League of Rural Voters is organizing large numbers of constituents into a cohesive voting block with a common focus: rural communities and values. "Standing alone, we may not be a potent political force," observed Fly In chairman Brett Johnson. "However, by standing together as a single issue (rural values), multi-sector (farmers, ranchers, miners, loggers, fishermen, fur farmers, recreationists, private property activists and others) voting block, we can be a voice of necessary change that politicians and regulators would be loath to ignore." |
 AUTHORS' RECEPTION: Ron Arnold (right) hawks a copy of Undue Influence to Brian Bishop of the Fly In Organizing Committee, while Ron Bailey (below) signs a copy of his latest work, Earth Report 2000, for committee member Pat Bradburn.
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| Chainsaws at School
Saturday and Sunday of the Fly In were filled with panel discussions, workshop sessions, and lots of networking with DC-based staffers and representatives. On Sunday, I spoke on the Resource Provider Pals program, an effort by resource providers to connect urban kids with the producers of all their "stuff". In the year 2000, the disconnect between urban dwellers and rural resource providers is almost complete. Through a combination of the Internet and personal appearances in schools, Resource Provider Pals aims to bridge this great divide. Thus it was that Monday morning found Alliance members hard at work at a DC elementary school. While presentations on farming, forestry, ranching and fishing went on inside the classes, loggers with chainsaws in the parking lot explained how to count the rings on an old redwood. The kids loved it! |
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| Authors and Teddy Bears
The Authors' Reception on Saturday night was to be a small and intimate gathering in the hotel bar. However, the room was quickly packed with fans of writers and editors. Among those they had come to see was Ron Bailey, who signed copies of his latest work, Earth Report 2000. Also present was prolific author Ron Arnold, looking dapper in his tuxedo as he hawked copies of Undue Influence: Wealthy Foundations, Grant-Driven Environmental Groups, and Zealous Bureaucrats That Control Your Future. Many thanks to the fur farmers for helping support this event. The Alliance, a 100% volunteer organization of ordinary working folk, is always under financial strain. Over the years, it has replenished its budget with bake sales, chili cook offs, raffles of homemade quilts, folk art and a host of novel ideas. At this year's Fly-in, thanks to the fur farmers' Furry Friends program, mink teddy bears were raffled, raising over $500! |
 Mum and daughter Kim and Marlee Jo Cable hug their mink teddy after winning one of three Furry Friend raffles. Kim's ticket was pulled out of the hat by Marlee Jo, ensuring the teddy goes to a good home. No, the drawing wasn't fixed – they're just a lucky family! |
| Undue Influence?
Between their own appointments with elected reps on The Hill, on May 23 Fly In attendees gave moral support to those testifying on the influence of huge foundations on rural issues. With assets in the billions of dollars, US foundations once focused their wealth on programs directly benefiting people such as building hospitals and immunizing children. Over the last two decades, this has all changed. Tax-free foundations now engage in "advocacy" funding, often dramatically skewing public policy debates and negatively impacting how rural resource providers live. For example, Pew Charitable Trust, with assets of $4.9 billion, founded by Sun Oil money, now annually bequeaths $35 million to "environmental" groups specializing in conflict generation, no-use policies and animal rights, groups which include the Humane Society of the United States. In testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Resources, Eric Williams of Spokane, Washington spoke on the "Funding of Environmental Initiatives and Their Influence on Federal Land Policies". (Click here for the full testimony.) "It's not news that there is a widespread effort to dramatically change the culture and economy of rural America," Williams began. "What I'd like to talk with you about today, however, is a little-discussed aspect of the strategy. The tacticians of the effort realized that while it's not particularly difficult to get the public up in arms against 'polluters' and 'corporate giants', another, stickier hurdle was in their way. Real live people live out there, and the public wasn't terribly keen on displacing them. "A recognized and critical part of every successful battle strategy had to be employed. The rural residents had to be demonized. If the general public viewed the folks who live in the hinterlands of Idaho and Nevada as romantic and healthy ties to our heritage, Necessary Change would be extremely difficult. Yet if they could, collectively and stereotypically, be cast as Overpaid, Undereducated Social Misfits who hate Mother Earth, then Necessary Change would certainly follow. ... "I'm not an anti-government right-winger. I was raised a lunch-bucket Democrat and believe strongly in my country and my government. Yet I find it extremely disconcerting when nonprofit organizations and federal land agencies are stating loudly that most people carrying lunch buckets are over-paid, under-educated social misfits. It's unfortunate that certain foundation funding of environmental groups makes it possible for the government to use this type of language, and to use these types of programs to destroy rural America." Imagine what would happen to your community if a grant-funded conflict group were backed by millions of dollars to advance policies to shut down your business! Maybe it's already happening. To establish if initiatives are locally led and driven, we must follow the money trail. And all too often, it leads thousands of miles away to city-based foundations intent on removing rural Americans from the land. Sad but true. |
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For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 575-5578/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com.
To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit Fur Commission USA's Fur on Film at http://www.furcommission.com/video/index.htm