AS I PROMISED: Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes to meet with GRASSROOTS LEADERS on Dec. 4

[wndycty]

I have been hinting about this all week but now it is official. An organization I work with is having a forum for GRASSROOTS LEADERS on December 4 and the Obama team is sending two high level folks to participate: Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes. Its kind of hard to advance the argument that they are ignoring the grassroots when they do things like this:

Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes, Senior Advisers to President-Elect Obama, to Participate in Forum with Grassroots Community Leaders and Congress.
"Realizing the Promise" forum to bring local leaders together with decision makers to set people’s agenda.

WASHINGTON – The Center for Community Change and the Gamaliel Foundation today announced that Valerie Jarrett, recently appointed White House senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison, and Melody Barnes, the next director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, will join 2,000 grassroots community leaders from across the country at the "Realizing the Promise: A Forum on Community, Faith and Democracy" on December 4, 2008. Their presence is the fulfillment of a promise made by then-Sen. Barack Obama who one year ago pledged to sit down with grassroots leaders during his transition were he elected president.

Representatives Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and John Sarbanes (D-MD) have also confirmed their participation in the forum. Seasoned journalist and author Juan Williams will moderate two round table discussions with leaders of grassroots community organizations, members of Congress, representatives of organized labor, policy experts and Obama's transition team. Topics of discussion will include the economy, healthcare, employment, immigration reform and the role of community organizations in government.

"A year ago today, then-Sen. Obama promised he would have members of his transition team meet with grassroots leaders. Today, he fulfilled that promise," said Deepak Bhargava, executive director, Center for Community Change. "Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes are very important and influential figures in Obama's transition and White House teams. Their participation in the forum is an encouraging sign of the President-elect's willingness to listen to the community."

The forum builds on the Heartland Presidential Forum held December 1, 2007 in Iowa and the electoral work of hundreds of grassroots organizations, and is a continuation of a sophisticated effort by the grassroots community to stay engaged in shaping the policies that affect our country. After the forum, grassroots organizations will conduct weekly congressional visits for the first 100 days of the new administration.

"It's very important that everyday people be heard during the transition period and the first 100 days, so that the president can begin to address their concerns from day one," said Ana Garcia-Ashley, Southern Territory director of the Gamaliel Foundation. "There's much work to be done in easing the country's problems; having the transition team's ear is a good start."

"Realizing the Promise: A Forum on Community, Faith and Democracy," will be held at 3 p.m., Thursday, December 4, 2008 at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, DC. The forum is presented by the Gamaliel Foundation and the Center for Community Change's Campaign for Community Values. For updates on Realizing the Promise, please visit www.realizingthepromise.org.

http://www.realizingthepromise.org/news-updates/press-release-alerie-jarrett-and-melody-barnes

ON EDIT: Edited to add videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpQxVqDb1q0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWXi89Z6lvk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EVZBwL0OxA