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 Charlayne Woodard and Sally Field |
On Monday night October 18th, 2004, in the heart of Hollywood, a crowd of over 1,100 people turned out to see several prominent progressive actors reading a work in progress by the man often called "America's greatest living playwright," Tony Kushner.
Headlining the cast were Sally Field and Mimi Kennedy, who both played the role of Laura Bush reading to a group of dead Iraqi children. Also appearing in the cast were the actors Charlayne Woodard, John Glover, and Anthony Michael Hall. Mr. Kushner's rendition of the ironies of the Bush Administration's war-on-terror and its unilateral, illegal, unprovoked, unwarranted, and unwise invasion of Iraq drove several in the audience to tears.
The event was a joint benefit performance for Progressive Democrats of America and its sister organization, Progressive Majority. While PM focuses specifically on recruiting and supporting progressive candidates for public office, PDA focuses on articulating an overall progressive vision that can mobilize grass roots political muscle to elect political leaders with the conviction to pursue a progressive vision.
 John Glover, Charlayne Woodard, Tim Carpenter, and Mimi Kennedy We'd like to extend a special thank you to Mimi Kennedy for her all hard work and leadership in making the LA fundraiser such a tremendous success. We also wish to thank the LA PDA steering committee led by Thia Stephen and Lila Garrett. |
The actor Mimi Kennedy serves as Honorary Advisory Board Chair of PDA. Helping her to greet the bustling and enthusiastic crowd were Tim Carpenter, (PDA Director), the actor Ed Asner, and PDA initiating supporters Cindy Asner, Lila Garrett, Mario Romero, Henry Weil, and Tad Daley, who also serves on the PDA Policy Board. Many in the crowd were heard to say things like: "I've been waiting for organizations like PDA and PM to come along for a long, long time."
PM Executive Director Gloria Totten spoke before the performance on behalf of PM, while author, former California state legislator, lifetime activist, and PDA Advisory Board member Tom Hayden spoke on behalf of PDA.
Mr. Hayden discussed the importance of working to elect John Kerry on November 2nd, and of building the infrastructure and movement able to push Kerry in a more progressive direction. Hayden also spoke about the excruciatingly inexorable growth of inequality in wealth, participation, and power, both within the borders of the United States and among the nations of the world. He emphasized how often important ideas in American history have been generated by forces outside the mainstream, pressuring the powers that be on the inside. And he praised the long-term vision of PDA to expand and empower legions of grass roots progressive citizen activists, to elect more and more progressive public officials, to enact the progressive public policies that will promote PDA's vision of justice, peace, and hope.
The event raised approximately $65,000.00. Sparked by the publicity generated by this event, PDA hopes many new donors will step forward to support our work and to enable us to build the kind of progressive political force our country so desperately needs.