Activists meet for Network’s 12th annual Fall gathering
by Becci Robbins

Blogging last weekend’s Progressive Summit is late in coming. Sorry ’bout that. But these are heady, hectic days for the Network, and we’ve been distracted. We are in the process of buying a headquarters in downtown Columbia to house offices, meeting space and a social hall, a reprised GROW Cafe. The three-building complex, now occupied by Habitat for Humanity, is in a great location. It’s close enough to the college campuses to attract students, and the State House is just blocks away – the better to keep our eye on the scoundrels. More on this when we actually have the keys.

But back to the Summit. It was, judging by the feedback we’ve received, a smashing success. The statewide gathering may have been our best – most productive, most inspiring, most fun – since our founding conference in the spring of 1996.

One of our guest speakers, Angela Canterbury, outreach director at Public Citizen, said in an e-mail. “I am really impressed at the good work you all are doing. It was a great day – a little like a day at church, worshipping at the altar of hope and change.”

Nice.

Real numbers are hard to come by, as not everyone signed in over the course of the weekend, but it must have been 150 or so. The Summit kicked off on Friday night with a reception at The Big Apple to welcome folks from out of town.

The next morning we gathered back at the Big Apple, a great facility if your group is looking for meeting space with character, and its own caterer. The building was built in 1907 and served as a synagogue until 1936, when it turned into a dance hall, where the Big Apple dance was born. It was a tight fit, since more people showed up than we had expected, but that’s a problem any organizer welcomes.

We started off, as we do here down South, with prayer. The Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge, who ministers at Garden of Grace United Church of Christ, offered the invocation.

Then Amara Camara performed a routine that made clear how he earned the title of Master African Drummer. It was way better than coffee in getting the room up and ready for action. The first order of the day was taking care of Network housekeeping: treasurer’s report, deferring elections to the executive committee, and reviewing the coalition’s new organizational structure.

The meat of the morning sessions was an overview of policy work on our members’ legislative calendar for 2008. It promises to be a busy session tracking bills and lobbying for legislation that will move South Carolina forward, challenging the forces that keep the state mired in its past and beholden to a power structure that benefits the whitest and wealthiest of this state’s citizens.

The policy discussion was followed by church.

The Rev. Dr. Neal Jones, pastor at Columbia’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, offered what he called “A Bible Lesson for Liberals.” It was truly inspired, and earned him a standing ovation.

The second standing ovation of the day was inspired by Elaine Johnson, whose son, Darius Jennings, was killed in Iraq, one of the early casualties of the war. She talked about her two meetings with President Bush. The first time, she was angry and bitter, and she shared that with the president. By the second meeting, she told him she’d forgiven him. She has turned her grief into activism, and is a seasoned speaker and fixture at anti-war rallies not just in South Carolina, but across the country. She’s also raising funds to open a community center in her son’s memory. To find out more, or to make a donation, contact her at ejohnson@mommajonamission.com.

Rep. Joe Neal (D-Richland), one of the Network’s founding members and longtime Co-chair, offered an overview of how things work – and don’t – in the state legislature. Drawing on his talents as a Baptist preacher, he stirred the crowd to its feet. He got the third standing ovation of the day. And it was only a little after noon.

Sergio Delgado of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service led a workshop on the differences between the generations and understanding how to use that information to communicate more effectively and to work more collaboratively. The room was split into four sections, and participants segregated themselves by age bracket: Traditionalists (born before 1946), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation Xers (1965-1981) and Millennials (1982-2000). Ranging in age from 14 to 83, they were guided through several exercises that revealed some surprising truths about the differences in values and motivations between the generations. Boomers made up the largest group, a fact they claimed reflected their belief that they could – and can – change the world.

The afternoon session focused on electoral work projected in coming months. Participants mapped strategy, took a big-picture look at the upcoming elections, and talked about a model project to be piloted in Fairfield County that will identify and involve new voters using high-tech software and boots on the ground.

For fun, we took a straw poll, which also offered us the chance to demonstrate the concept of instant run-off voting, a system that asks voters for first- and second-choice in candidates. Dennis Kucinich won, no surprise, considering the source. Barack Obama came in second, followed by John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.

The Summit closed with an evening Thunder and Lightning Awards celebration to honor two of the Network’s best and brightest. This year’s honorees were the Rev. Dr. Bennie Colclough and Tommy Gordon. Congratulations to them both.

Here are the bios from the program:

The Rev. Dr. Bennie Colclough worked courageously on behalf of the LGBT community in its fight against the marriage amendment last year. “There is only one size of equality,” he says, “and it must fit all people, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.” Rev. Colclough was born in Sumter in 1952 — during the era of Jim Crow segregation — where he learned about discrimination first-hand. He attended Cal. State, later receiving a Masters and Doctorate in Ministry from Yale Divinity School. He put in 30 years with the United States Postal Service, where he served as president of his local union. For 13 years he pastored churches across South Carolina. He has served on the SC AFL-CIO Executive Board, the Christian Action Council, and is currently a Co-Chair of the SC Progressive Network. He was recently appointed to the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council by Columbia City Council.

Thomas “Tommy” W. Gordon III is a 14-year-old freshman at Dutch Fork High School. He is a South Carolina Junior Scholar, and is part of the DUKE Talent Identification Program. He is an excellent student and musician, playing drums and the guitar. Being raised by an outspoken mother, Jennifer Tague, and an outspoken grandmother, Harriet Hancock, Tommy has learned to stand up for his beliefs, and be able to make educated decisions about those beliefs. Tommy’s civil rights activism began at the age of four months, when he attended a SC House of Representatives subcommittee meeting with his grandmother, who was testifying against a proposed bill to prohibit gays and lesbians from adopting children. His gay uncle stood beside her at the podium holding Tommy in his arms. From that point on, he has been protesting against the confederate flag, Nazi groups, President Bush and the war. He is also a passionate and outspoken advocate for civil rights for the LGBT community and a volunteer with the SC Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement donating his time to help with fund-raisers and whatever else he is asked to do. He took a bold stand last month by wearing a pro-choice T-shirt to school the day others planned to wear shirts with pro-life slogans. He was forced to cover up his message with a shirt that read: “Today I Violated the Dutch Fork High School Dress Code.” The administration later apologized.

The Thunder and Lightning Awards are given each year to recognize those who take risks to fight for what’s right. It is named for the famous quote by Frederick Douglass, who said, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are people who want crops without plowing the ground . . . rain without thunder and lightning. Power concedes nothing without demand and struggle. It never has and it never will.”

For more photos of the Summit, see our photo albums.

We couldn’t have pulled off such a successful conference without our fabulous volunteers. Thanks to John Dawkins, Melissa Harmon, Melanie Knight and Maris Burton for working so hard to make the Summit run smoothly, and to Harry McMillan for making our penny pins to promote clean elections. We appreciate Steve Compton of the independent store Open Book in Greenville for offering a great selection of lefty wares at the Summit and donating a percentage of the proceeds to the Network. Thanks also to Publix and Rosewood Natural Foods for their generous donations of vittles.

Finally, I know that this post smells suspiciously hyperbolic, but it really was a special day spent in great company in a spirit of solidarity and shared vision. The Summit left me feeling gathered in, lifted up, blown away.

Power to the people, y’all.