posted March 30, 2004 09:03 PM            

"Dear MoveOn Member,
MoveOn’s new book has hit the streets and is already at #2 on Amazon. Can we push it to #1 at all booksellers? All royalties go to support our work together. The book is called MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change. With introductions by Al Gore, Gail Sheehy, Nancy Pelosi, and the MoveOn team, the book focuses on the best fifty personal stories amongst thousands submitted by MoveOn members. These uplifting stories demonstrate the power of the individual, with tips and resources to turn inspiration into action. They’re about ordinary citizens changing laws, getting out the vote, hosting meet ups, and much more.

50 Ways to Love Your Country should now be available at your local bookseller. Be sure to ask for it. You can also buy the book online. Here’s the link to the book at Amazon:

http://www.moveon.org/r?490

Priced at around $10, we’ve tried to keep the book affordable. Arianna Huffington calls it “political Viagra.” And the president of the United Farm Workers, Arturo Rodriguez, invokes Cesar Chavez to remind us that ordinary people can right wrongs. He calls 50 Ways to Love Your Country “a vital primer for every activist interested in progressive social change.”

Get your copy now to keep the momentum going. In the next two months, there will be 100+ bookstore events around the country for community discussion, voter registration, and more. MoveOn members will be presenting. If a bookstore event comes to your area, we’ll let you know.

Thank you so much for all you do,

- Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Laura, Mari, Noah, Peter, Wes, Zack
The MoveOn Team
March 29th, 2004

P.S. As a sample, here’s an excerpt from Former Vice President Al Gore’s introduction to our “Every Vote Counts” section:

Woody Allen has famously said that 90 percent of success is showing up. That’s true of democracy too. I’d argue that the other 10 is making sure you’re registered beforehand.
It’s easy to be cynical about politics and to believe that one vote barely matters. But consider these facts: John F. Kennedy’s 1960 victory over Richard Nixon—a victory that ultimately led to sweeping changes in civil rights laws, the first great wave of space exploration, and the creation of Medicare—was decided by just 100,000 votes nationwide. In 1994, the year Republicans won both houses of Congress, the redistribution of about 10,000 votes nationally would have kept Congress in Democratic hands. One of my former House colleagues, Connecticut Democrat Sam Gejdenson, won reelection by twenty-one votes that year. (“All you need is one,” he remarked; “the rest are for your ego.”)

The democratic political process isn’t perfect. Winston Churchill once said it’s the worst system for governance “except for every other system that has ever been tried.” Often, you may find no candidate who completely reflects your views. But as voter participation has declined—from nearly two-thirds of eligible voters in 1960 to less than half in many national elections today—strong and decidedly undemocratic forces have stepped in to fill the void.

In a democracy, the future isn’t something that just happens; it’s something we shape for ourselves, together. Special-interest lobbyists get the government they pay for only when we stay home from the polls—only when we abdicate the electoral power that is mightier than any soft-money check, more decisive than any million-dollar ad blitz or corporate misinformation campaign."

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