99% Spring: Local activist training planned

Talk about it

A three-hour session to prepare people to bring about change in the community will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at 208 South Main St. in River Falls.

To participate in this free event go to http://civic.moveon.org/event/99spring/128921

Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, this training is part of an effort by the organization Moveon.org, for which 30,000 people have signed up nationwide.

Called the 99% Spring, it is named for the 99% of the population in the United States who are not millionaires or billionaires, but who are increasingly impacted by laws meant to benefit the richest people at the expense of the less wealthy, according to Tracy O’Connell, who is setting up the local event.

Citing events over the past couple years that have increasingly stacked the richest few against the average person, O’Connell of Spring Valley is one of 1,000 people who will be leading a training event somewhere in the U.S. the week of April 9-15.

Ideas that may come out of this are as simple as moving one’s money from major banks, which have been major players in trashing the nation’s economy, to smaller local institutions where they do the most good in local communities, O’Connell said. A main effort will be empowering people to see they are not alone and that they are right when they feel there is something wrong with the way our country is headed, as well as giving them tools to speak out and act against the injustice they see, saud O'Connell.

“Many people are so busy trying to keep a job and keep their homes, they are isolated or afraid to admit something is wrong," said O'Connell. "We hear politicians and big businesspeople blame us if something happens that we can’t afford to fix alone.

“We heard that in the discussion of health care in the presidential debates. What to do when someone loses a job and then gets sick? ‘Let him die’ was chant from the audience. That’s not the America I was raised to love, and that’s not the version of Christianity that I grew up with.”

O’Connell invites those interested in learning more about the ways they can take back their communities from special interests and to participate in the discussion of the kind of future they want to attend the training.

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