Because of your efforts, yesterday a blue wave swept this nation and elected historic numbers of Democrats at the local, state, and federal levels.

To all of you who phoned, walked precincts, talked to your friends and neighbors, gave money and made this victory possible -- I thank you.

This election was about nothing less than the future of the world, and the American people spoke loud and clear: America is better than what we've seen under George Bush and his Republican allies. It's time to clean up the mess in Iraq; restore our moral authority to lead in the world; put the needs of ordinary families ahead of wealthy special interests; and begin to address the issues that George Bush has ignored or made worse during his six years in office.

I want to particularly congratulate the state minimum wage coalitions that did incredible work in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio, where voters passed ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation. Winning these minimum wage ballot initiatives is a huge step toward lifting millions of working families out of poverty.

Democrats scored incredible victories across the country, winning governorships in states in every corner of the country and winning critical state legislative seats. We also reclaimed control of the House and made impressive gains in the Senate -- the first step in putting the brakes on George Bush's nightmarish regime -- and today we should celebrate this historic victory.

But tomorrow we must begin anew. Yesterday's results are not the end, but the beginning of a historic transformation that our country must undertake in the coming years. We have to change direction -- not just put on the brakes. And in the coming months I look forward to working with you and building upon the incredible success of last night -- and building the One America that works for all of us.

Thank you, again, for everything you're doing to put our country back on track.

Your friend,

John

I just returned from a trip to Uganda and wanted to share my experience with you. Uganda is home to one of the greatest unreported humanitarian crises in the world — millions of people have been displaced from their homes and subjected to horrific violence. And with the exception of extraordinary groups, like the International Rescue Committee (IRC), whom I traveled with, most of the world is ignoring this tragedy.

Uganda has been plagued by a long civil war and a rebel army/terrorist group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Among other things, the LRA abducts children, turns them into soldiers, forces them to commit atrocities, and in some cases, turns them into sex slaves.

We first went to an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp outside Kitgum, just over 30 miles from the Sudan border. The people at IDP camps are the same as refugees, but they have not crossed a country border. This camp was one of hundreds throughout the region, and many of the people in this camp have been stuck there for several years, some for twenty years.

I sat under a tree with three adults and lots of children. They told me the stories of what they'd been through and what their hopes were. I met a little girl, about a year old, whose mother said she had never smiled — her father was killed by the LRA. I tried to get her to smile and almost got one.

The living conditions at the camp were awful — open sewage, little water, malnourished children.

There were children that had been abducted by the LRA, forced to commit atrocities against others, including their own families, but had escaped and come back to the camp.

The next day we flew to Lira, another region of northern Uganda. There, I visited with a family that had taken in a young girl, an orphan, named Lilly. Lilly's parents had been killed by the LRA. She was about eight or nine years old — around my daughter Emma's age. Lilly carried one baby in her arms and one on her back. It was heartbreaking to see her providing childcare for babies instead of going to school.

We then went to the Kira School, which is run by the IRC. In spite of everything they'd been through, the children at the school were remarkable — they still had hope and lots of love to give. A 14-year old boy performed a song that he had written. He had lived on the streets for 13 years, and a year ago had been taken in by the IRC. In front of us and hundreds of his classmates, he sang a song about how happy he was to have a new life.

I also had the opportunity to meet with the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. I talked with him about what I had seen, the critical importance of the peace process and what we can do to help it along, and all the suffering we had witnessed in Northern Uganda.

Although I am back in the United States, I know I will never forget the faces of the people I met in Uganda, especially the children.

What's happening in northern Uganda is similar to conditions elsewhere, like Darfur. But with a peace process underway, this is a great opportunity for Americans to show we care about the suffering of people around the world. But before people can care, they have to know what's gone terribly wrong. You can help spread the word about what's happening in Uganda by forwarding this message to a friend. Please help us spread the word.

Thanks for taking a moment to read this message.

Your friend,

John

Nearly a year has passed since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast near New Orleans, killing more than 1,400 of our fellow Americans and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Who could possibly forget the images from that awful week? People stranded on rooftops. Chaos at the Superdome. The desperate anguish of those unable to escape, simply because they didn't have a car or the cash to evacuate, or because they didn't want to leave behind the few meager possessions they had. I know that I can never forget the faces and stories of the people I met when I toured evacuation shelters in Baton Rouge shortly after Katrina hit.

Hurricane Katrina didn't just blow away lives and dreams, it blew away the shroud that was hiding the invisible poor and, for the moment, put home grown poverty in the epicenter of the national consciousness. It was a horrifying wake-up call. How could this happen right here in our own country?

To be sure, this disaster also brought out the best in America. Good neighbors all over the country opened their hearts, their homes and their wallets to people they'd never met. Many gave their precious time to bring comfort and relief to those who suffered in this disaster. I saw it with my own eyes; it was inspirational and my spirits soared when I joined 700 college students who gave up their Spring Break last March to help dozens of families devastated by Katrina clean up their homes in St. Bernard Parish. Individual Americans reached out to help one another. But individuals eventually have to get back to their lives.

In recent months it has become increasingly clear that, a full year after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the pace of recovery is agonizingly slow. People continue to hurt in a big way.

Despite all the official promises about "doing what it takes" to get New Orleans back on its feet, much of the city still looks as if the hurricane hit yesterday. Thousands upon thousands of homes remain deserted, windowless and covered with flood grime in desolate neighborhoods. The water and sewer systems are still in terrible shape. Fewer than half of the city's hospitals have reopened, and there are not nearly enough health clinics to adequately serve all the low-income families who need care. Vast areas are still littered with mangled cars and piles of debris.

Last week, the news media reported that New Orleans schools are turning children away because there just isn't enough room for them as the educational system struggles to recover. "It's hurting to your heart when a child says 'Mama, I want to go to school,' and you can't find one," one resident was quoted as saying.

To hear of a child being turned away from a school is disturbing enough. But how do we even contemplate the notion of a new and better New Orleans without there being a decent educational system to lead the way?

Just as Katrina's wrath exposed the two Americas in our midst, the sluggish road to recovery serves as a reminder to us about the everyday challenges faced by the underprivileged in our society — not just in the Gulf Coast but in impoverished neighborhoods and communities across the country.

The lesson is that the fight against poverty is an ongoing one — for government, for communities, for all of us. I know you join me in demanding accountability and pressing government leaders to do what's necessary to get hurricane-ravaged areas back on their feet. Joining together with the beleaguered residents of the Gulf Coast, something good can come out of this tragedy. The resurrection of the Gulf Coast can herald the rebirth of a core American value that we are all one nation, moving forward together — and that no one shall be left behind.

For the moment, in their hours of desperation, I ask that you continue to keep Hurricane Katrina's many victims foremost in your thoughts, remember their plight, and offer what you can to help and comfort them.

And let us continue to work together to ensure that America fully responds to the wake-up call delivered on Katrina's winds one year ago.

Your friend,

John

Many times I have asked for your help, and you've come through every time. Never before have I asked for your help on a matter of life and death. Before one more child is tortured, before one more woman is raped, we must urge President Bush to lead the effort to create a NATO force to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Sudan began a genocide against tribes of small farmers in its Darfur region three years ago. Militia groups backed by the Sudanese government have slaughtered an estimated 400,000 people and driven 2.5 million people from their homes. U.N. troops are on their way, but will take at least five more months to arrive in Darfur. NATO forces -- if the U.S. stepped up to moral leadership -- could end the conflict immediately.

Tell George Bush to lead the effort to create a NATO force for Darfur NOW.

America was once trusted and respected around the world. People around the globe expected us to provide moral leadership and inspiration to make their lives better. It's no secret that our reputation has been tarnished over the past six years. The Bush Administration put our country's military strength and vast resources behind a reckless war in Iraq and turned a blind eye to people around the world that desperately needed our help. The U.S. military's unique assets -- our airlift capabilities, logistical support and intelligence operations -- can and must be used to assist NATO peacekeeping in Darfur.

The Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of over 100 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations, has already sent one million postcards to President Bush asking for the immediate deployment of a robust peacekeeping mission. Clearly, many, many more voices are needed to get his attention -- we cannot allow the Bush Administration to stand by for five more months while thousands of civilians are dying in Darfur every month.

In May, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel called Darfur "the capital of suffering." He called on all of us to "tell the victims they are not alone." And just last week a senior United Nations official alerted the Security Council that Sudan seems to be preparing a significant military operation in the Darfur region that will leave aid workers increasingly in danger and hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

Please speak up for them and urge President Bush to take quick and decisive action.

Tell George Bush to lead the effort to create a NATO force for Darfur NOW.

The people of Darfur cannot wait five more months for U.N. troops to arrive. At the current rate of violence and destruction, another 30,000 civilians will die and another 300,000 people will become refugees over the next five months. In addition, as the international community stands by, violence and chaos is spreading to neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic. More than 100 Chadians were hacked to death in a single incident earlier this year.

I admire the African Union troops stationed in Darfur. They have done their jobs courageously and deserve the world's gratitude. But they need help. The African Union peacekeeping troops, which number just 7,000, have been unable to protect civilians or enforce a 2004 ceasefire. In the meantime, security has deteriorated dramatically.

At a time when the world is questioning U.S. sincerity and motives, what better way for the Bush Administration to show that we still believe in human rights and still have the moral authority to lead, than to step up and do our part to stop the genocide in Darfur? Tens of thousands of lives hang in the balance. So does our nation's moral credibility.

The time to act is now.

Thank you,

John

P.S. We need to raise every voice possible against the genocide in Darfur. Please forward this message to friends and family and urge them to contact President Bush immediately.

Dear Friend,

Thank you for participating in "One America Votes" to help decide which Congressional races should be my top priorities for fundraising help. The response of our online community was overwhelming - more than 20,000 people have already voted, and competition for the two top spots is intense. As you know, I will headline fundraisers for the two House candidates who get the most votes. The deadline for voting is tomorrow - there's still time to get friends and family to vote with you.

Veteran political observer Charlie Cook just issued an analysis showing that all the polling numbers point to "an electoral rout" for Democrats. The political climate has grown extremely hostile to Republicans, and Democrats are energized to volunteer for campaigns and turn out at the polls. But an electoral rout won't happen on its own. We have to make it happen. That's why getting your friends and family to participate with you in One America Votes is important.

I've already raised $6.65 million for Democrats and have attended fundraisers for strong congressional candidates in more than a dozen states this election cycle. I'm committed to helping as many candidates as possible before November, and want to hear from the people who are important to you.

Please let your friends and family know that voting in One America Votes takes only a moment, but could make a big difference to a Democrat fighting in a tight race. Ask them to select candidates they believe will work hard to build One America that works for everyone.

Ask a friend to vote.

When Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress, we'll put the brakes on George Bush's extreme right-wing agenda. We'll get about the business of building One America -- One America that is committed to ending poverty, lifting more families into the middle class, and giving everyone who works hard something to show for it. We'll begin to rebuild our reputation in the world and lay the groundwork to lead on the great challenges before us: whether it's preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, ending the genocide in Darfur, or fighting extreme poverty and diseases that ravage societies.

Expert observers are betting on Democrats this fall. But it takes money to win -- to get our message out, turn out voters and beat back the GOP attack machine. Democrats always have to work twice as hard because we rely on small donations from millions of people at the grassroots -- not small numbers of elite contributors like Republicans.

I'm ready to do my part - and more. I want to help as many Democrats as possible before November and invite your input on which races should be my top priorities. Please encourage your friends and family to make their choices before tomorrow.

Ask a friend to vote.

I learn so much from you, the members of our online community. Every contact - through email, blogs or podcasts - gives me fresh insight into the struggles and hopes of American families.

I thank you for taking time to be part of our community, and for asking your friends and family to help with One America Votes.

Your Friend,

John

Last week, I sent you an invitation to cast a ballot in "One America Votes." One America Votes lets you -- the members of our online community -- decide which Congressional races should be my top priorities for fundraising help. I've been traveling the country and have already raised $6.65 million for Democrats. I've attended fundraisers for strong congressional candidates in more than a dozen states this election cycle and I'm committed to helping as many candidates as possible before November. In the fall, I will headline fundraisers for two House candidates that you -- the voters -- select online. The deadline for voting is tomorrow.

Veteran political observer Charlie Cook just issued an analysis showing that all the polling numbers point to "an electoral rout" for Democrats. The political climate has grown extremely hostile to Republicans, and Democrats are energized to volunteer for campaigns and turn out at the polls. But an electoral rout won't happen on its own. We have to make it happen. That's why your participation in One America Votes is important.

Voting in One America Votes takes only a moment, but could make a big difference to a Democrat fighting in a tight race. Before tomorrow, please vote for the candidates you believe will work hard to build One America that works for everyone.

Cast your vote now.

When Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress, we'll put the brakes on George Bush's extreme right-wing agenda. We'll get about the business of building One America -- One America that is committed to ending poverty, lifting more families into the middle class, and giving everyone who works hard something to show for it. We'll begin to rebuild our reputation in the world and lay the groundwork to lead on the great challenges before us: whether it's preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, ending the genocide in Darfur, or fighting extreme poverty and diseases that ravage societies.

Expert observers are betting on Democrats this fall. But it takes money to win -- to get our message out, turn out voters and beat back the GOP attack machine. Democrats always have to work twice as hard because we rely on small donations from millions of people at the grassroots -- not small numbers of elite contributors like Republicans.

I'm committed to helping as many candidates as possible before November, and I need your input to help decide which races should be my primary focus. Over 20,000 people have already voted, and the competition for the two top spots is intense. Please make your choices before voting ends tomorrow.

Let's decide together. Vote now.

I'm interested in getting feedback from your family and friends as well. Please forward this message and ask them to participate in One America Votes with you.

Thanks for taking the time to help. Your input is important to me.

Your Friend,

John

The tide is turning in Democrats' favor. We have a strong chance of winning back the House in the 2006 elections. I've been working hard, traveling the country, and have already raised more than $6.65 million for Democrats. I've attended fundraisers for strong congressional candidates in more than a dozen states this election cycle and I'm committed to helping as many candidates as possible before November. Now, I'm looking to the One America online community to tell me which competitive races should be my primary focus.

Today, I'm launching One America Votes. This fall, I will headline fundraisers for two Democrats running for the House who have been selected by our online community. You - the voters - can choose candidates in any of the districts targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The DCCC has targeted critical races where extra help can make a real difference in November. We need to hear from you by Friday, August 4th.

Cast your vote now.

If we want to build One America, we need to change our country's leadership. George Bush and the Republicans have done everything in their power to increase the gap between rich and poor.

It's time to replace them with Democrats who will build One America - One America that is committed to ending poverty, lifting more families into the middle class, and giving everyone who works hard something to show for it.

I am committed to helping as many House candidates as possible before November and am looking for your input as to which races should be my primary focus. Please take a moment to vote and choose two candidates who will work hard to build One America that works for everyone.

The deadline for voting is August 4th.

Let's decide together. Vote today.

I'm interested in getting feedback from your family and friends as well. Please forward this message and ask them to participate in One America Votes with you.

Thanks for taking a moment to help. Your input is important to me.

Your Friend,

John

I want to invite you to visit the One America Book Club. This month, we're reading and discussing Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by President Jimmy Carter. I had the pleasure of discussing this remarkable book with President Carter, and you can listen to our conversation here.

Listen to the podcast here.

Our country's history is full of examples of how books sparked political organizing and massive social change. Think about how Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin provided a compelling — and widely discussed — argument against slavery. Or how Rachel Carson's Silent Spring started a national debate about pesticides and gave birth to the environmental movement. That's why book clubs can be so powerful.

In Our Endangered Values, President Carter draws upon his life experience as a president and as a Nobel Peace Prize winner to reflect on what's gone wrong over the past six years. President Carter and I agree that the current administration has made a radical break from the basic values that past presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, embraced as core governing principles — equality, opportunity and justice. They've been replaced with a rigid fundamentalism, disregard for the truth, contempt for people that disagree, and abandonment of basic human rights.

President Carter is an amazing person, and I was excited to have the opportunity to talk with him.

Listen in as we discuss his 20th book.

Listen to the podcast here.

I hope you will pick up a copy of President Carter's book and join in our blog and discussion for the rest of July. And if you'd like to make a book recommendation for the One America Book Club, we'd love to hear from you.

Your friend,

John

P.S. Click here to subscribe to future One America Podcasts through iTunes. It's easy and free!

If we want to lead - and in these times our nation is in desperate need of leadership in a different direction - we must dream big and act boldly. After all, we will never get what we don't reach for.

We need to be ambitious to build the kind of America that we all want - one where we are respected in the world, our homeland is safe and free, our schools are first-rate and we are less dependent on fossil fuels. Today, I am giving a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC that will focus on the first of several ambitious -- but achievable -- goals. I wanted you to hear about some of my ideas first.

I believe we can end poverty in the United States within 30 years. We can start by cutting poverty by one-third over the course of the next decade. That's moving 12 million Americans out of poverty in ten years.

Poverty is not an issue at the top of the polls. It doesn't come up first in focus groups. But it is wrong that we live alongside 37 million people who live in poverty. We all pay a price when the American Dream no longer seems American.

This is not about pumping money into a broken government program. It's about finding ways to help everyone who works hard and makes responsible choices get ahead. It's about creating a new kind of social contract that I call the "Working Society." Here's how we start.

First, we should make work pay fairly.

Raising the minimum wage to at least $7.50 an hour would be a huge step in the right direction -- a step that, by itself, would give full-time workers a $4800 raise and lift more than a million people out of poverty. Our online community has done enormous work to put the minimum wage on the national agenda. Just yesterday, the Senate voted 52 to 46 in favor of increasing the minimum wage - thanks to your hard work. However, a minority of Republican senators blocked the bill using procedural maneuvers. Our work continues, especially at the state level where we are winning ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage.

If we believe that everyone who is capable of working should work, then we need to make sure that they have the opportunity to do so. I believe that we should create one million "stepping stone" jobs over five years. These would be good jobs that will let people work their way out of poverty in the short term, and help them get experience so they can get better jobs in the future.

There are many other pieces we need to put in place - giving workers the real right to organize, helping families build assets, creating "work bonds" that would match low-wage workers' wages with a tax credit to jumpstart their savings accounts. The cornerstone is always the same: we expect people to work hard, but they have a right to expect they'll have something to show for it.

Second, we should radically overhaul federal housing.

Our current housing policies segregate too many low-income families far from jobs and good schools. We need to see that housing policy can be an engine of opportunity. For starters, we should create one million more housing vouchers for working families over the next five years. If conservatives really believed in markets, they would join with us and enable people to vote with their feet to demand safe communities with good schools.

We also need to put families ahead of bureaucracy. HUD is bloated and has a track record of mismanaging money. We should start by cutting back HUD's excessive, unnecessary, and sometimes incompetent contractors. Second, we should trim the agency by at least 1,500 employees and get the money out where it can do some good.

Next, we should make work the centerpiece of our housing policy. We should make a contract with folks getting new housing vouchers - they must work and we'll help them earn more and save more. A program like this already works for 75,000 families - let's expand on the ideas that work.

Third, we must make college affordable for every young person who's willing to work for it.

You have probably heard or read about a program I call "College for Everyone." It allows students to go to the first year of college for free if they are willing to stay out of trouble and take a part-time job. I have some good news. We've shown that College for Everyone works.

Last month, I attended a high school awards ceremony in Greene County, North Carolina. Through a pilot program we were able to provide students there over $300,000 in aid. That means kids who never before would have dreamed of going to college are not only leaving for school this fall - but paying for their first year without going into debt.

Imagine the opportunities we could create for our children if a program like this was available nationwide.

Fourth, we should open the world of learning to every child and teenager, and stop settling for failing schools.

There are many challenges facing our schools, but one of the most troubling is that more than a million students drop out of high school every year. We must stem the tide, while being careful not to write off the young people who have dropped out.

America is a nation built on the idea of second chances, and I'd like to see us create second chance schools. These schools would offer young adults who realize later that dropping out was a mistake the chance to earn a diploma and get on with their lives. For me, education was the key to achieving the American Dream. We have to make sure that's true for the next generation as well.

I'm sure that a cynic would hear all of these ideas and say all this is too much, too soon. But I am tired of people pushing for incremental gains and half-measures, even from our own Democratic Party. We do not have to accept mediocrity or compromise our values.

We can decide to be great, we can address great problems, we can see great possibilities.

Achieving bold goals like ending poverty in the United States within 30 years will not be easy. It will take the best in us - our sacrifice, commitment, hard work and deep faith. But how we respond to the plain fact that millions of our own people are living in squalor and despair says everything about our Party and the country we believe in.

I learn so much from you, the members of this online community and the people I meet as I travel around the country. I hope you will take a moment to post a comment on my blog and let me know what you think about what you've heard and read.

Click here to visit our blog.

Thank you for all that you've done, and all that you will do.

Your friend,

John

I just spoke to Senator Ted Kennedy. He needs our help.

Next week — possibly as early as Monday — the Senate will vote on his bill to increase the minimum wage. This will be the only time the Senate takes up the minimum wage this year — and we have to make a strong showing of support.

Sign the petition and tell your friends about it.

Where I come from, what matters the most isn't how much you have, it's how hard you're willing to work. Work gives pride, dignity, and hope to our lives and our communities.

But too many families are working full-time and have nothing to show for it. They are raising their kids in poverty and living in fear that one health crisis or pink slip will drive them over the edge. A single mom with two kids who works full-time for the minimum wage is about $2,000 below the poverty line.

The minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 per hour for ten years — while costs for health care, housing, childcare, transportation and everything else have skyrocketed. It's a disgrace — but not a surprise — that poverty is up for the fourth year in a row.

It is time — past time — to reward work with an increase in the federal minimum wage.

I was honored and excited that Senator Kennedy had learned about the power of our online community. He's put his faith in us. Now we need to deliver our signatures to him.

Sign the petition and ask your friends to sign.

You've heard me talk about the two Americas. One America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America that will do anything to leave its children a better life, another America that never has to do a thing because its children are already set for life.

Senator Kennedy's bill would increase the minimum wage in three increments to $7.25 an hour. That's an important step toward creating One America. One America where you have something to show for it if you work full-time — a savings account, your own home, the chance to live in a good neighborhood with good schools, and the ability to afford college.

Believe me, the lobbyists for the business interests that oppose increasing the minimum wage have tremendous influence over Congress. It's up to us to help level the playing field. We need to show our strength in numbers — please encourage your friends and colleagues to become co-sponsors of Senator Kennedy's bill as well.

Sign the petition and ask your friends to sign.

Thank you for taking action and for all that you do.

Your Friend,

John

When MoveOn and The Christian Coalition agree about something, it's a good bet they're right. Groups as wide-ranging as Gun Owners of America on one side and U.S. PIRG and the One America Committee on the other are fighting to keep the Internet the way it is now — free and open to anyone with access to a computer.

Today, everyone in the world can communicate through the Internet on an equal basis. A small-time programmer like Pierre Omidyar can start an auction site out of his home office and turn it into eBay. A blogger like Josh Marshall can post his opinions on Talking Points Memo and end up attracting more readers than the country's biggest newspapers.

On the Internet, big corporations are on equal footing with everyday people. And it needs to stay that way.

Right now, special interests are pushing bills through Congress that would divide the Internet in two. Corporate deals would determine which web sites would run incredibly fast and which ones would barely run at all. Some users might not be able to access sites operated by regular people.

I don't want Internet service providers to decide which web sites I can look at. And I know you don't either.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on "Net Neutrality" on June 8th. Please help keep the Internet free and open to everyone by signing this petition to Congress.

Sign the petition now.

Some people fear that creating two tiers of the Internet could allow service providers to shut down web sites whose politics they didn't like. But even if they didn't discriminate based on content, the access fees could marginalize smaller and poorer players.

This is the completely wrong direction. We should be making the Internet more accessible, not less. We should be working to connect rural areas, schools in poor neighborhoods and other areas where people have not yet benefited from access to innovation and technology.

I need you to sign this petition before Congress votes on a telecommunications bill on June 8th. That bill needs to contain provisions that protect the fundamental Internet principle of Net Neutrality.

The companies that want to charge for the Internet are running a slick public relations campaign to make themselves look like a grassroots operation. That's why the folks on our side need to wage a real — and overwhelming — grassroots effort to make sure Congress understands that Americans want to keep the Internet the way it is — free and open to everyone.

As a member of our online community, you understand the critical role of the Internet in promoting free speech and the exchange of ideas. Hearing from you through the help of technology — podcasts, blogs, emails — helps me learn what's important to you and make decisions about where the country should be headed.

I hope you will take a moment to stand up for Net Neutrality.

Sign the petition now.

Thank you for taking action.

Your friend,

John