Upcoming Events: Happy Birthday, Mr. President….
This sounds like a cool panel to check out. The Delaware Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare (NCPSSM) are co-hosting an event on the former President’s birthday as a tribute to President John F. Kennedy, who strengthened Social Security, fought for the establishment of Medicare, and advocated for closing the same corporate tax loopholes that corporations still abuse to this day. The speakers will be Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams, retired Delaware Social Security executive Tom Tobin, NCPSSM Grassroots National Director Ernie Powell, and businessman Andrew Groff, and Jon “Bowzer” Bauman, former lead singer of the famous Sha Na Na, will sing Happy Birthday to the President, hopefully not in the Marilyn Monroe style.
What: Event to celebrate JFK’s legacy and learn more about the choice between closing corporate tax loopholes and cutting Social Security or Medicare.
When: Wednesday, May 29, 7pm
Where: Wilmington Senior Center, 1901 N. Market St.
Additional speakers at the event include: Delaware ADA and NCPSSM are members of the national coalition Americans for Tax Fairness. Additional co-sponsors include DSEA, AFSCME Council 81, Delaware NOW, Delaware NAACP, Delaware DBTU, and SEIU 32BJ.
And the mayor of Wilmington has what to do with this stuff?
I know he’s probably the best that the utterly irrelevant ADA could get, but still. Wasn’t crime supposed to be cut by now?
He’s a Democrat. He probably remembers back when Democrats used to come together to support these kinds of things. I’m more worried about who ISN’T there.
Today ADA has all of 12 chapters – one in another country – and claims “thousands” of members, a weasely, meaningless figure. PDD has more influence here in Delaware than ADA does. I’d say that’s the reason no one bigger is showing up – not because Democrats don’t support these issues, but because this event will draw a handful of fellow true believers and have no impact on the debate whatsoever. JFK is far gone from the political scene, folks.
Of course, if Mr. Temko has details on the exact number of members here in Delaware, I’d be happy to hear them and reconsider my position.
PDD has more influence here in Delaware than ADA does.
Yeah but which one is holding a rally against Social Security and Medicare cuts?
Yeah, I really don’t like your comments, Sussex Watcher. If you are a liberal or progressive, we are all on the same side no matter if they are members of the ADA or the PDD. There is not a competition between the two. Kudos to the ADA for holding these and other events. Ezra Temko does an amazing job over there.
CRI can hold a rally. My crazy Uncle Pete can hold a rally. That doesn’t make either of them a legitimate player with any influence.
The ’60s are over. No need to worship at the altar of Hubert any longer.
I wasn’t aware that you needed to like my comments, Delaware Dem.
Oh, and I wasn’t setting up a competition between PDD and ADA. I was pointing out that PDD has more influence than ADA. But both share in the broad irrelevance of the far left activists within the broad sphere of Delaware politics.
I’m not a progressive. I consider myself a pragmatic liberal, and I don’t see the point in wasting time and energy on useless publicity stunts that no one will pay attention to.
Oh shut up. You are expressing your opinion that ADA sucks and I am expressing my opinion that your comment sucks. Shove your “oooh I wasn’t aware that you needed to like my comments…” crap where the good Lord splits ya.
As long as we’re clear on that, you can stick your bunch of Kowalko-hair-admiring, patchouli-dousing, tea-drinking, Birkenstock-wearing ex-Soviet symp commie lib traitors there too, aight? 😉
To return to the topic at hand, if anyone can tell me how many members ADA has in Delaware, and thus explain why anyone should pay the slightest bit of attention to it, I’m perfectly willing to reconsider. Also why Dennis Williams is chattering about federal issues when he can’t even get a majority on city council to approve his budget. We should listen to him why?
Lighten up SW, or find something serious to be cynical about.
The Delaware Stonewall Democrats don’t have a large membership but they were effective in bringing about change in Delaware. Numbers don’t really matter. Effectiveness does.
And what is Andrew Groff doing there? He was an independent candidate for Senate wasn’t he?
I’m cynical about lots of things. The circle-jerkery and self-puffery practiced in the mutual admiration society that is the liberal wing of Delaware politics is just one of them.
Andrew Groff was the Green Party candidate in 2012 for US Senate. He got 3,191 votes, or 0.8 percent. (Alex Pires got 3.8 percent.)
I hope you all attend and report back on the huge crowds eagerly awaiting to hear from an incompetent mayor and a candidate who was a failure even by Green Party standards. Go JFK!
“The circle-jerkery and self-puffery practiced in the mutual admiration society that is the liberal wing of Delaware politics is just one of them.”
Yeah, its a good thing that doesn’t happen anywhere else in politics (or society for that matter).
And the liberal wing of Del Dems actually has a pretty good track record on State issues.
Dear Sussex Watcher,
I’d ask that in the future you do your homework before making baseless comments.
Mayor Williams got his start in politics campaigning for JFK and this event is celebrating JFK’s legacy. The sequester cuts have a huge impact on the economy, jobs, schools, local government, etc., all of which affect Wilmington, and this event is part of a campaign that is focused on ending the sequester. Social Security & Medicare certainly impact Wilmington residents. I think it is entirely appropriate to have the mayor of the city where our event is being held be a speaker at the event.
ADA is not a Democratic organization, it’s a non-partisan progressive organization that promotes social and economic justice through democratic action. There’s a difference. Andrew Groff is a businessman and actually has personal experience in dealing with offshoring corporate profits and corporate tax loopholes, which is why we asked him to speak. I welcome working with Progressive Democrats for Delaware, which along with the Green Party of Delaware, has endorsed the national Americans for Tax Fairness campaign. The Delaware Democratic Party also adopted a resolution at their state convention in favor of our message on corporate tax fairness. I have no problem working with Democrats, Republicans, or members of other parties if it contributes towards moving our state and/or country forward.
In terms of ADA in Delaware, there was an advocacy campaign in 2009 in Milford around a specific issue, run by Mike Kerrigan. Though there have always been members of the national organization in Delaware (and in fact former and current board members who have homes here), our most recent efforts in Delaware began again in mid-October. Since then, well over 1,000 Delawareans have taken action on our federal and state campaigns as a result of our work.
If you are interested in knowing more about the work we’re doing or about some of the specific successes and contributions we’ve made on the state and federal level, feel free to contact me offline at Ezra@ADAction.org or 302-981-3007. While I live in Newark, we do engage Delawareans across the state. I had 5 occasions to be in Sussex over the past two weeks to talk about ADA’s federal and state campaigns and the related policy issues and encourage Delawareans to take action. I’d be happy to meet with you next time I’m in Sussex County if you are available and would like to do so.
To, Ezra,
Still no answer to the very simple question: How many members ya got?
Also: Is yours a paid position or volunteer? Why does the national org not provide its exact membership numbers? How many people do you expect to show up at this thing?
Forgive me for my baseless comments. I’m just going by what your org has advertised about this event and what it posts online about itself. Color me not impressed by either. I shouldn’t have to speak with you personally to get a positive impression.
The best-known speakers you could get for an event marking the birthday of a guy who was president a half-century ago are a bottom-barrel Green candidate and a mayor who – according to today’s paper – can’t even get a budget deal in his own city? (I’m not criticizing Groff for being Green, btw – I’m criticizing you for not being able to get anyone more prominent than a Green.)
Why should I or anyone listen to either of those goofballs about federal issues? And more broadly, why should I or anyone get involved and devote my time to an organization which appears to have little to no influence or presence in Delaware? If you’re going to make a difference, you’ve got to have a quick answer to the second question especially.
If you can convince me, you can convince almost anyone. Give it a shot.
Why so harsh, SussexWatcher? Ezra and PDD are trying to accomplish things – How’s that working out for you in Sussex? What are you accomplishing in Tea Party Land? Oh, is that unfair of me? Of course it is. True, but unfair. 😉
Especially since conservative, individualist, small-government Sussex receives the most direct government benefits per capita of all three counties.
For those coming tomorrow, here is the parking information:
The Wilmington Senior Center is at 1901 N Market St in Wilmington. There is parking for 35-40 cars in the Wilmington Senior Center’s lot behind the center and on 19th Street next to the Center. There is also free street parking available throughout the neighborhood.