Proud Member of The Moms Clean Air Force
Print This Post
Jan
14
Although I’m unable to attend or cover the inauguration from Washington, DC, I’m trying to take my most influential person of Pepper Pike moniker (just humor me on that) and help another group of movers and shakers who hope to cover the inauguration for Ohioans in unique fashion.
A group of NE Ohio bloggers, many of whom I know personally, have, as bloggers so often do, taken matters into their own hands. Tim and Gloria Ferris are spearheading an effort to cover the inauguration of Barack Obama in a completely unique and Ohio-centric way.
A few days ago, on the 7th [of January], a friend in Cincinnati proposed sending out a blogger call for a road trip in conjunction with the inauguration. The response was pretty positive. Today, we have the resources lined up and the plan partially fleshed out. Tomorrow, we start pounding the phones for money.
To this point, we have a bus reserved for 4 days. It carries 55 and has two drivers. It will start in Cleveland late on the 18th, stop in Akron, and hit Columbus at midnight. From there, it will proceed to Cincinnati, where there is an event at 3 PM, after which it will go on to DC, where it will arrive sometime early in the morning of the 20th and disgorge its load at the end of a T1 line, where the load will proceed to live blog and tweet and stuff for the entire day. We have made arrangements for clearance papers–I guess it involves the metropolitan police and the Secret Service. Then, on the 21st, it’s back home. Coming and going, there will be photo ops and other media events.
We have lodging arranged for the only night when a bed will be possible, between the 20th and the 21st. A few other people and I are getting the money together for the bus, for food and lodging, and for a modest amount of walking-around money for each participant. Gloria and I can’t go due to her recent retrofit, but we can certainly get vicarious. The bus will populate itself, we think, with three generations–it’s a great opportunity for recording oral histories and the varied perspectives of the past 50 years.
Tomorrow, in addition to sponsorship, we’ll be trying to get in-kind participation, as in air cards and wireless services. If we could blog and tweet all the way from Cleveland to Akron to Columbus to Cincinnati to DC and back, wouldn’t that be a marvelous advertisement for a new wired America? The bus trip is a story in itself, and there are lots of other stories within that story.
If this sounds like something you think is cool and deserves more attention (or support, or money), please feel free to link to this post or blog about it yourself. Tim blogged about it here. Also, Tim created a Facebook cause for Bus the Bloggers and it’s getting bigger and bigger – please take a look and consider joining.
I would be going but I am speaking at a previously scheduled event in Akron on Tuesday, inauguration day, that involves interests and causes close to my heart (media, social work and children and family services). But I will be eagerly and excitedly following the NE Ohio bloggers.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:43 pm January 14th, 2009 in activism, Barack Obama, Blogging, Media, Ohio, Politics, Writing
Comments
2 Responses to “Bus the Bloggers: An Ohio Odyssey to the Inauguration”
Voted into Top 25 Political Mom Blogs
Now on sale-WLST essay included!
Posts About Pepper Pike City Council2010 WE Magazine 101 Women Bloggers to Watch
Category Specific RSS
Pepper Pike Cleveland+ Politics Women Ohio Elections Law Jewish
Jill, this idea originally came to us from a group from Cincinnati and from Columbus working toward true participatory democracy-with-a-small-d and open, transparent public dialogue.
Our local government, secular nonprofits, and foundations show little interest in helping get the bus on the road. I sometimes think they want to pay lip service to the ideas, but they don’t really want us talking together. If we talk more, we need them less.
I’m mainly looking for our money to come from commercial sponsors and from think tanks.
Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong on this one, but I don’t think that’s likely.