Eli

Wow. What an incredible day! This morning I actually met Eli Pariser, one of 5 or so people who actually are employed by MoveOn PAC. If you are a MoveOn member, then you've most likely received (many) e-mails from him. Being that MoveOn is almost exclusively internet-based group, I considered it a pretty rare opportunity to meet one of it's key players, face-to-face.

Eli came to speak to us, because MovOn and Grassroots Campaigns are working together on the Leave No Voter Behind campaign. His story is amazing, and honest, and humble.

Basically, after September 11th, Eli wrote up a petition that supported the idea that the Bush administration should use the post-9-11 unity to support peaceful resolutions, and utilize the global community for peaceful ends. Overnight he e-mailed it to 30 friends, and the next morning he was told that the response had crippled the servers hosting his petition. Over 50,000 people had signed the petition overnight. Eli got a call from the BBC the same day.

He went from an interested citizen to someone who could be invited to the White House for his efforts next year. It is amazing how the Internet has brought politics back in the hands of people.