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Nov 09

Embarrassment... (a clarification)

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Comment from: Chris · http://www.chris-moss.com
Why would we be embarrassed? We got up off our asses and worked really hard to try to defeat it.
11/09/05 @ 18:28

That is true, and that is something to be proud of. It is just a shame that the efforts put forth weren't more effective.

Let me put it this way, I am embarrassed for all of the various organizations efforts against Proposition 2.

As usual, there was very little evidence of cooperation between the groups. I received 4 messages from people reminding me to vote and/or informing me about Prop 2. 4. That doesn't seem like a very efficient use of resources.

It's also interesting that there were so many organizations created explicitly to fight this. Wouldn't having one org under a central umbrella to have a common message be more efficient? Local sub-groups I can see, but that is not how it seemed to work. It seemed more like many entirely autonomous organizations, all doing their own thing.

Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware that it was an uphill battle. We were, after all fighting the Juggernaut that is the Southern Baptist Church (among others). And while I have very little experience in the activist area, it seems as though the effort could have been run more effectively.

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6 comments

  1. § Chris said on : 11/10/05 @ 16:17
    You got 4 phone calls, one of them from me I assume, because you didn't early vote. That's why the groups who were working on this begged and pleaded with our friends to vote early: so we could scratch you off our list and focus our limited resources elsewhere. You probably also recieved a call from No Nonsense and from the Democratic Party. There was one message that just encouraged people to vote, not necessarily for or against anything.
  2. § maxhedrm® Email said on : 11/10/05 @ 17:11
    Nope. I didn't even count the contacts from you, because those were just in the course of normal interaction. This was 4 individual calls. And they had no idea whether I had voted or not. It just struck me as preaching to the choir, of course they had no way to know how I was going to vote either. Interestingly it was also to my cell phone, which means it was probably from signing up for updates on the NNiN website or someplace similar. Who knows, there may be more on my home phone, but I've been pretty much ignoring that answering machine since the last time the number changed. :^)

    If you are so concerned about being able to "focus (y)our limited resources elsewhere", next time, please feel free.
  3. § Chris Moss said on : 11/10/05 @ 20:52
    So how did you contribute to the effort against Prop 2?
  4. § maxhedrm® Email said on : 11/11/05 @ 00:57
    I contributed the only way I had the time or resources to. I voted. And reminded people I knew to vote. Going to school & working a full time + job takes pretty much all the time and energy I have, so pedal your guilt trip elsewhere.

    I never claimed you didn't contribute, nor did I say I contributed more. I did say that from my perspective it seemed like the limited resources the movement had were not used as efficiently as they could have been.
  5. § Chris Moss said on : 11/11/05 @ 19:35
    I'm not peddling a guilt trip on you. I'll save that for the people I know that didn't vote at all.

    But, I do think it is pretty shitty of you to say that you are "embarrassed for all of the various organizations efforts against Proposition 2." Constructive criticism is cheerfully accepted and appreciated, but it ought to be given in a constructive manner.
  6. § James said on : 11/12/05 @ 00:57
    Rather than post a comment here, I thought I'd post a link to my comment here:

    http://www.livejournal.com/users/melbguy/171545.html

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