End the Echo weblog

Tonight was the kick-off for the Club 2030 Action Team.  This is the grassroots marketing effort by the SPCO to reach 20-39 year olds, the folks eligible for Club 2030

The great thing about this idea is that using the passion of Club 2030 members who want to support the SPCO and help them expand their audience.  Really tapping into fact that we know we have a great deal and appreciate (and want to share it widely).

The people in attendance were a nice mix of people.  Gender wise pretty evenly matched.  There were a number of SPCO staff, many from marketing, participating.  In the introductions there were a number of people that seemed to be employed in the marketing field (maybe be a little professional development).  They also had Bernhard Scully, principal horn involved, not just for the introduction, but for the whole process, which was nice to see.

Overall this was a good process.  There were a lot of great ideas.  The group will get together in late August, to work on action, not just ideas.  They will be meeting four times a year.  If you want to get involved with this, post a comment and I will connect you with the staff.

I still feel that Club 2030 is the best deal in town for classical music, free to sign up (so click here and just do it), can get best seats available (up to $50+ tickets) for only $10 each for Ordway or Ted Mann concerts.  There are some other programs with Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Opera that cost money to join and give you more of an experience.  But you can make your own experience with the saved money from the great Club 2030 deals, maybe dinner at POP!! before hand and great appetizer deals at Kincaid’s bar after the show (on nights when the MN Wild didn’t play at the Xcel).  Plus there were ideas to make it more of an experience, we will have to wait and see what ideas they might incorporate into the Club 2030 program in the future.  Don’t worry, I will share more as it happens.

-Josh

On this week’s episode of To The Contrary, Tara Satmeyer reinforces my theory that certain segments of the Republican party or as she identified her self as a Christian and a Conservative, are living in a world that includes an incredibly narrow defintion of what pro-life is.

I missed the very beginning of the discussion, but it seemed that it was about family planning, and families who have an unplanned pregnancy are having to choose abortion because they can’t afford to raise the children they already have.  Ms. Satmeyer, who is the Communications Director for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), ran with the standard that all life is sacred (makes me think of Monty Python) and in making her point talked about how people may need to forgo that large tv or four bedroom houses.  Irene Natividad was so angry, and rightfully so, at this dismissive comment about the economic challenges people are facing in this country.  You would think that Setmayer isn’t aware that we have increasing unemployment and a foreclosure crisis.

The conversation went on, and the most important point that was made, is that Setmayer and her boss consistently end their pro-life support when the children are born.  When the issue of feeding a child that is born into a family that may have otherwise choosen abortion, then the personal responsibility kicks in, that the family should “figure it out”, that means that the government is not responsible to help the family have food on the table – against food stamps and most forms of welfare (in a later segment she talked about the rampant fraud in the food stamp program).

Now personally, I can’t stand Setmayer, I really think that To The Contrary would be better served with other conservative, but rational voices on their panel.  I have made that comment before, and I will continue to make that comment.  If you watch this show and agree, you can contact them at  ttcviewers@yahoo.com.

Of course the struggle with seeking to have Setmayer’s voice off the program, is that it removes the perfect example of the rank hypocriscy of these Christian Conservatives regarding their supposed morals and values.  After all if you must insist that the family must have the child, but then turn around and say good luck on caring for that child, how can that be anything but hypocritical and morally bankrupt.

So as I have written before, even as a pro-choice advocate, I am far more pro-life than Ms. Setmayer will ever hope to be.

-Josh

Do you know how many houses you own?

-Josh

I was out of town on vacation in Toronto, so I am doing a little catch up on stuff from the past few weeks.  I have already posted on two concerts I saw just before leaving.  Now I will switch gear and get to some policy and political stuff that happened just before or while I was out of town.

-Josh