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As a constituency representing the ultimate nonpartisan issue, we consider it a great honor to work with office holders from all parties--Green, Democrat, Republican, Independent…the list goes on. Our commitment stays the same:
- To seek first to connect, rather than convince;
- To educate ourselves, our communities, our members of Congress--and our President--regardless of party affiliation.
So we're asking you today, right now, to craft a message to our nation's
new President-Elect, write it on a postcard from your community, and have it ready to mail on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009 (this is the first date we can be sure we have a good address for him). You can also send an email right now through change.gov (you can read more about that below).
On January 20, 2009, mail all of your postcards to:
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenuew NW
Washington, DC 20500
Collect as many as you can between now and January 20, 2009!
Report on You Action!
Once you have mailed your postcards, please let us know how it went by completing this report . Thanks!
Change.gov
President-elect Obama's transition team is soliciting your stories and input about the direction you feel the nation should take. After you write your postcard, take another moment to share your vision for where the new Administration should lead our nation. We have set up a form to make it easy for you to contribute your thoughts, just click here.
Remember, one of the President's first actions will be to present Congress with a
budget. We want funding for effective violence reduction and prevention
programs to be included in that budget in amounts higher than we've
ever seen before.
Your personal note to your President will
- Help the Department of Peace campaign build a relationship with him
- Help the President understand the importance of reducing and preventing violence and
- Expose the President to a new kind of citizen lobbyist--one who is a peacebuilder, committed to lasting solutions.
Keep your note as brief and personal as possible, and strive to:
-
Offer Congratulations
- Introduce yourself
Say you are a Mom, a student, a plumber, a bank teller, whatever is true for you.
- Say why this issue concerns you
- Ask him to make funding violence prevention programs a top priority of his presidency.
- Use a statistic or two that strengthens your message.
You can find some statistics on violence on our website.
- Ask him to use the State of the Union Address to talk about the importance and urgency of funding violence prevention in all sectors of our society--in our homes and schools, in our streets and prisons.
- Most of all make this your personal message. Tell him, in very few words, what is most important to you.
This action won't stop with just your postcard. We are eager to see thousands of postcards sent between now and the inauguration.
Ways you can help:
- Urge all your friends and family to join you in this effort over the holidays
- Offer people postcards from your state or city
- Wait while they write it and give it back to you with a stamp
- Mail it in for them
- Talk about this action with all those in your daily life for the 10 weeks between the election and the inauguration
A few reminders:
- Do not send letters. All letters with envelopes require more complex screening, which is why we're encouraging everyone to USE POSTCARDS.
- Mail all postcards by Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009.
- Keep it simple! This is, after all, a busy time and you don't want to pack so much into a single postcard that it can't be read!
- Every card counts!
- Let us know you are participating via this link
Need help crafting your message?
Here are a few phrases you can use or adapt:
- Make violence reduction and prevention a top priority in your first term
- Invest in proven violence prevention efforts for our schools and homes.
- Strengthen peacekeeping efforts internationally through our foreign assistance and diplomacy.
- Lead us to peace with all your efforts.
- As part of the Department of Peace campaign, I am urging that violence prevention and peacebuilding programs and policy be one of the top priorities of your legacy.
Thank you for joining us in welcoming our new President, and for standing with us for a culture of peace. Together, we are making a difference.
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