WOW stands for WOMEN ON WATCH. I am so proud that I belong to a group of women in their fifties, sixties and seventies who first banded together after the political conventions to take an active part in making change happen.
We put our heads together and came up with a number of activities that we believed could help elect our new president. Some of us called or wrote to Seniors in swing states, explaining why we were voting for Barak Obama. Some of us traveled with our grown children to swing states to go door to door. In our local communities we helped put up banners, plant candidate signs in yards, and get out the vote.
And we won!
But that wasn't the end.
A group of us decided that we want to be sure the future is better than the past. Our responsibility didn't end with the election of the president. We want to keep track of the promises made and see them properly fulfilled.
So we continue to meet once a month to drink tea and coffee (no cookies; fruit only, thank you very much) and discuss where we think the bailout money should and should not go. Then we decide on, and take, action steps by contacting government officials locally and nationally-- sometimes individually, sometimes as a group. We also are actively collecting food and clothing for food pantries and people in need locally.
Tomorrow we are meeting to talk about education (a number of members are teachers), healthcare (a number are nurses), and energy issues (all of us have seen our oil and electric bills skyrocket). This will lead to more action steps.
There is a wonderful kind of energy in this group that makes me feel the way I did in the 1960's, when so many of us worked together to end the war in Viet Nam. I would like to thank the women who care so much about our country that they are willing to band together and continue staying on watch.
P.S. For anybody else interested in doing this, here is one more suggestion: besides using email for emergency notifications, we have set up a free telephone bridge line for times when we can't meet in person--this winter's harsh weather is an example. To set one up, simply go to a service like freeconferencecall.com or freeaudioconferencing.com. They are simple to use and you can even make recordings of your meetings--all for free!
