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Utah, April 12, 2006--Who says one person can't make a difference? As a member of the Genesis Chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America in Salt Lake City and co-vice chair of the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus, I know for a fact that one person can make a difference, and that a small group of committed people have the power to change the world, at least for Helen Thomas.
Recently, Ms. Thomas wrote an Op-Ed piece that was printed in the Salt Lake Tribune, which mentioned the Project for a New American Century's role in the war in Iraq and our presence in the Middle East. So my interest was piqued on Thursday March 23, when I read a post from User KAT119 on Democratic Underground's forum, indicating that they had emailed Helen Thomas a thank you for asking President Bush what the real reason was for the US invasion of Iraq.
Like most folks on the forum, I cheered when Ms. Thomas asked the hard question, and I thought about e-mailing Ms. Thomas a thank you as well. But something inspired me to do more. I thought back to 2005 when Sen. Barbara Boxer received thousands of roses and how touched she was by that gesture. Certainly Ms. Thomas deserved no less.
Next, I posted a thread suggesting we send roses to Ms. Thomas. Support for the idea quickly formed. I quickly posted a web page on my campaign software management site and using my personal PayPal account, the fundraiser began in earnest. The support was overwhelming. By the following Monday, enough money had been raised to send 100 dozen roses in vases to Helen Thomas.
We went one step further though, the roses were ordered from Organic Bouquet. They were wonderful to work with and rushed to get the roses to Ms. Thomas on Thursday. Within a week of the inception of the idea, Helen Thomas received 1,200 roses, all organically grown.
This was a real group effort--six people who had never met agreed to be on the ground to clean and arrange the roses, and spent the entire day doing so. The vases arrived late (a couple had broken) but by that evening, Helen Thomas was led into a conference room overflowing with roses of all colors. She was gracious enough to sit with these volunteers and talk with them for almost an hour. I wish I could have been there personally to thank Ms. Thomas and the donors and volunteers who made this happen.
I was delighted that this story appeared on the front page of The Hill, and was picked up by the Salt Lake Tribune. This was a wonderful thing to do for Helen Thomas, but more importantly, it shows the power of grassroots activism through the Internet.
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