Democracy For the Heart of America

Open Communication, Cooperation, and Community. These are three fundamental progressive values that bring us all together. Open communication, Cooperation, and Community. These are values that unite us.

Today, Kansas City seems to be a community divided. We allow ourselves to be divided by the state line, county lines, rivers, and issues. We allow ourselves to be divided in many ways that, when you step back from it, are artificial and insignificant divisions. Although policy details divide us, our values unite us. We are united in our world views. We are united by the things that really matter. We are joined at our hearts. We call this area the Heart of America, and for good reason. It's more than just a geographic area in the heart of the country. It's also a place where people care about each other, and they feel a mutual responsibility for each other.

There is currently a hole in the Heart of America. We must not allow these artificial divisions to keep us apart. Kansas City needs an organization committed to reaching across these divisions in our progressive community. There's no need to debate who's too liberal or not liberal enough. There's no need to debate who's too secular, too wonkish, or too cosmopolitan. There's a hole in our heart, and it needs to be filled.

It is my pleasure to announce a brand new DFA organization, "Democracy For the Heart of America", or DFHA for short. DFHA will be a DFA group with a heart. DFHA will strive to provide open communication channels between the many area progressive organizations. DFHA will strive to facilitate cooperation amongst these progressive groups. DFHA will strive to build and strengthen our progressive community.

For those of you who don't already know me, my name is Jim Herrmann, and I will be the president of Democracy For the Heart of America, DFHA. The DFHA leadership team is a group of fun and productive, progressive activists who are not afraid to laugh and have a great time, while being committed to their cause. This exceptional leadership team will make DFHA a great organization. We have six officers in DFHA, three traditional positions, and three positions that represent the three value pillars upon which the organization will build, Open Communication, Community, and Cooperation. So without further ado, let me introduce:

Jim Walsh as our Open Communications Officer
Anne Pritchett as our Community Outreach Officer
Pamela Smith as the Cooperation Organizing Officer
Phyllis Sheaks as our treasurer
Dave Negrau as our Vice President

While DFHA will be a distinct DFA organization from the one meeting tonight, we encourage you to be a member of both groups. DFHA will focus on having fun and making the process of activism a pleasurable thing. We will consider all opinions from our members and represent those opinions with fairness and equality. We will provide opportunities for member voices to be heard. Our whole organization will be run with a nurturant parent world view, a progressive world view. We will emphasize what unites us, and we will negotiate what divides us. We will put the party back into "political party".

You can find Democracy For the Heart of America on the web at DFHA.ORG.

If you want to be a part of a fun, caring, effective, activist organization, come be a part of connecting our community.