From 10AM - Noon on Saturday, May 19, we'll be cleaning up the roadsides of our adopted two miles of Palmer Wasilla Highway (from Trunk to Hyer Rd).  We'll meet at the East end of the Three Bears Parking lot and safety vests, disposable gloves and bags will be provided.  It will be an easy job if we have plenty of volunteers - please join us for a good cause and some exercise! Pizza when we're done!

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

Drinking Liberally

If you haven't attended one yet, come out and join us!

Enjoy a friendly libation and civil discourse, all in moderation, of course.

5 - 7 PM at the Grape Tap, 322 N. Boundary St, Wasilla

 

 

 

Our May Egan Dinner is Friday evening, May 18, from 6-8PM at Turkey Red in Palmer.  Our guest panelists will be speaking to us about the "homeless" situation in the Valley:

Joe Irvine - Retired Counselor from PHS: Unaccompanied Youth

Israel Nelson - Substance Abuse Counselor: Homeless Families

John Weaver - Executive Director, Valley Residential Services: Housing and Alaska Family Services

Mollie Boyer - Executive Director, Valley Community Recycling Solutions: Recycling connection to the Homeless

Dave Rose - Director of MatSu Coalition on Housing and Homelessness:  homelessness in the Valley

 

Also, Doug Urquidi, one of 4 Candidates hoping to unseat Don Young in the fall will stop by to introduce himself to us.

 

We will also give you a recap of the very successful Democratic Convention held in Fairbanks last weekend - find out who will be representing the MatSu in Charlotte at the National Convention!

There's lots to learn at this Egan dinner, so we hope you will plan to attend and show your support for all the organizations that are doing positive things to help with the homeless problem in our Valley.

As usual, we'll be collecting food items to donate to the Wasilla Food Pantry - so remember that as well!

(A letter of individual comments from Matsu Democrats to President Barack Obama.)

 

MatSu Democrats

P.O. Box 3365, Palmer, Alaska 99645

in This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it / http:matsudemocrats.org / facebook: Mat-Su Democrats

April 21, 2012

The Honorable Barack Obama, President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We hope all is well with you and yours.

We are the MatSu Democrats, representing the 5,317 registered Democrats residing in Alaska’s 25,260 square-mile Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The seat of Palin Country sits on the shore of Wasilla’s Lake Lucille, just down the road from the site of our recent Democratic Party Presidential Caucus.

We unanimously endorsed your candidacy for a second term during our regional four-District Caucus a week ago.

Last night we held our monthly Egan Dinner in honor of our 49^th State’s first Governor, Alaska-born Democrat Bill Egan. During the dinner, several of us wrote you notes thanking you for your first-term accomplishments and recommending issues we hope you will resolve during your second term.

Herewith, Our Messages to Our President:

§ Thanks for having Women’s Backs! And thanks for caring about the Middle & Lower Classes. I appreciate everything you have been doing.

Keep up the good work in your second term! And don’t let the detractors affect you.

§ Thank you for what you’ve accomplished with Health Care, for what you’ve done for Women and for fighting for Social Security and Medicare.

In your second term I’d like to see the Patriot Act ended, Gitmo closed and Taxes Raised on the Wealthy.

Kudos to Michelle. You have my vote. I am on the OFA team here in Wasilla. –PR, Wasilla

§ I am a practicing Catholic. The bishops do NOT speak for me!

Please make time this spring to greet the 2012 Presidential Scholars when they come to the White House. Thank you. –AK, Wasilla

§ Thank you for ending the War on Iraq.

What I ask of you for this upcoming term is to stop the War in Afghanistan.
Please keep us out of Syria & Iran.

§ Thank you for defending Collective Bargaining Rights, Women’s Reproductive Rights and for encouraging College Education.

I want you to be more Assertive & Aggressive against the Republican majority in the House.
We are working hard to re-elect you.

§ Thank you for taking out Bin Laden.

In your next term eliminate TSA and the Patriot Act (the worst misnomer in history). –HG

§ Thank you for saving the Auto Industry.

Next time please push for a Single-Payer Universal Health Care System. –HG

§ Thank you for the fine work you’ve done during this first term. Maybe all your goals weren’t accomplished. We know you are sincerely committed to making America a better place for all of us.

§ I just wanted to thank you for all the hard work you did on getting the Affordable Health Care Act passed by Congress.

After your reelection, I would like you to bring the US Troops home from Afghanistan as quickly as possible. –BS

§ Thank you for your stand on helping out on Mortgage issues.

§ Thank you ending the War in Iraq. Thank you for Health Care.

Please end the War in Afghanistan. Please spend time on Education Issues and on Civil Liberties Issues.

§ Thank you for passing Health Care Reform. As the mother of an unemployed 24-year old college grad with a kidney condition & chronic back problems due to athletic injuries, I can now rest easy knowing that she can remain on our insurance and can no longer be denied coverage due to her pre-existing conditions.

§ Your Administration’s attacks on our Bill of Rights are tragedies of historical import—indefinite detention without due process, assassination, black sites, torture, warrantless spying, suppression of dissent—shades of 1798. I had hoped you, as a professor of Constitutional Law, would reject the Bush/Cheney/John Adams’ disdain for our Bill of Rights.

Please restore our Bill of Rights.

§ Thank you so much for your tireless work on Health Care Reform. As someone who worked on your campaign, I believed in you from the beginning and still support you 100%. Thank you again, for all that you do. I look forward to supporting you in your next term.

§ The Lebetter Law appears to support equal pay (equality?) for women.

I used to receive $70 a month in Social Security until my recent 3.6% increase. Now I receive $40 a month. I’m outraged to hear this Republican-speak from your Administration.

If my Social Security is decreased because of my husband’s salary, what will be tampered with next—Women’s 401(k)’s? I need my Social Security benefits and would like to receive them.

I do know how to share for the greater good. Thank you very much for your compassion and understanding for the other thru Health Care, Tax Reform and doing the right thing.

§ It is tragic that you are using cluster bombs, depleted uranium weapons, land mines and remote controlled drones to indiscriminately kill and maim innocent children, women and men in our pursuit of domestic security / global empire—all for whose benefit?

Please halt the production, deployment and sale of cluster bombs, drones and other weapons of indiscriminant annihilation.

§ Thank you for the Affordable Health Care Act! Many Americans are already benefiting. The general public still needs to be educated about the benefits. However, should the Supreme Court deliver an unfavorable decision, then that is the Opportunity to go for Single Payer!

And we do plan to re-elect you in the fall. Please, during your second term, devote your attention to improving our Infrastructure: Bridges, Highways and especially Education.

§ Thank you for your efforts to save our financial system from complete collapse.

During your second term, I pray that you will reign in the voracious greed of our nation’s plutocracy. You will need to bring some new blood into your Administration, if you truly intend to break big money’s stranglehold on our economic, financial, political and judicial institutions. Talk is cheap, action will leave a legacy for our children.

§ Thank you for the Affordable Health Care Act, getting rid of Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell and fighting for Women’s Rights & the Middle Class.

For the good of our Country, I would like to see our Troops brought Home, Protection of Civil Rights and Reduction of TSA’s intrusive searches.

§ Thank you for your efforts to engage our Country in cooperative efforts with other nations.

During your second term, please tell Israel to get its settlements out of Palestinian Territory and to end its apartheid dehumanizing suppression of the Palestinian people. We will never achieve a stable Middle East with our endless acquiescence to Israeli intransigence and aggression.

§ Thanks for the Affordable Health Care Act—my diabetic grandson in on his parents’ account.
I got reimbursed for my first eye exam ever!

Please stop the military/security/industrial complex—particularly the use of drones to kill human beings. –SGH

§ I would like to thank you for carrying the torch of hope in a theme of caring and hope and the new direction this Country had to take from where we were going in the previous administration. Thank you for standing up for average Americans.

Keep up the good work. Thank you. –GBB

§ Thank you! You have been amazing. You have had to fight prejudice, racism, anti-Obama everything, and yet you just keep soldiering on with your eye on the goal (basket). Score two (terms) for our Team.

We look forward to supporting your efforts to restore hope in the hearts of our children, our families, our homeless, our unemployed, our troops, our beleaguered middle class, our senior citizens and our international neighbors. It is a small planet. The 1% will look out for themselves. We need you to look out for the rest of us.

We hold you close in our hearts and wish you Godspeed in your life’s amazing journey.

Respectfully,

Gwen Heynen, Chair

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
MatSu Democrats
Supporting Healthy Families, Healthy Jobs & our Healthy Valley

cc: First Lady Michelle Obama