Planning a Quad Cities Iraq War Forum

By Alta Price, DFA-Quad Cities, DFA-Link Host, altaprice@yahoo.com

Thanks, Sam, for bringing our Iraq War Forum to the attention of Blog for Iowa readers! We had a great planning meeting last night and want to tell you about this Democracy for America national action, and what we are doing about it in the Quad Cities.

Democracy for America (DFA) has come up with some great ideas for local groups all around the country (world?) to participate in more or less at the same time. The January 2005 Meetup was a framing workshop based on the George Lakoff DVD, How Democrats and Progressives Can Win,  sent free of charge to DFA Meetup hosts around the country, together with directions for the workshop. We had 55 people come out for that Meetup, even with a snow storm that closed the schools that day. My personal favorite was the April 2005 action to save Social Security – the “constituent visits” to the local offices of Senator Grassley and Representatives Nussle and Evans. Can you imagine the impact of 12 constituents showing up at a Congressperson’s local office at noon on a Thursday to share their Social Security stories – and demand Social Security not be privatized? The best part was the training DFA provided for exactly how to arrange and carry out the visits. (I have the instructions saved on my computer for future use – in fact, the Creative Leaders forum of Progressive Action for the Common Good intends to train issue forum facilitators to organize their own visits to members of Congress.)

This summer local DFA groups around the country, with support from the national office, are holding Iraq War Forums. You can read the rationale behind this action and see the materials available for planning your own event on this DFA website. Suffice it to say, judging by the excitement in the Quad Cities around this action, and the non-DFAers (new-DFAers?) showing up to help, this will be another DFA action to remember!

We started discussing our Iraq War Forum at last Thursday’s Linkup. (Translation: Linkup replaces the old Democracy for America “Meetup” and is a local Democracy for America group’s regular monthly meeting, usually held the first Wednesday of the month, but one day later in the Quad Cities.)

First we chose a date and location. DFA wants these done in the summer, so we figured by Labor Day. Progressive Action for the Common Good has us all so busy, we meet ourselves coming and going. PACG has big events in July, September, and October – leaving August up for grabs. So we snapped up the morning of Saturday, August 26. By last night’s meeting we had secured a location for that date, the Kahl Education Center in downtown Davenport. So it’s a go!

Second we chose topics to be covered. There is so much to discuss, but we want the event to only last three hours in order to make it more manageable to plan and to allow busy people to attend. We want our Iraq War Forum to be relevant to our area. We want to draw upon the expertise of the Iowa Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, who hosted a wonderful full day conference in March on the Medical Consequences of War. In the end we decided on the following three topics:

1) What are the mental health needs of our returning veterans, and is our area prepared to meet them?

2) What is the economic impact of the war in Iraq on our community?

3) Now that we are in Iraq, what are our options for getting out?

Now we are working on securing speakers and co-sponsors for the event. Soon we will be sending out press releases and advertising our Iraq War Forum to the community. If you live in the Quad Cities and want to help, please contact me – or go to DFA-Link and sign up here for our next planning meeting on June 27!

We encourage other local groups – whether DFA related or not – to host their own Iraq War Forums (click here for planning materials ). It could be as simple as one speaker for one evening. People are looking for answers and action – and you can help them find both. Please feel free to contact me with questions or for help finding resources.

Alta Price
DFA-Quad Cities, DFA-Link Hostaltaprice@yahoo.com