Kansas People’s Agenda 2017

Kansas People’s Agenda 2017” is a multi-issue coalition of secular and faith organizations from all over Kansas that plans to get over 1,000 people to Topeka on January 11 to ask their Legislators to support what the organizers believe matches the real concerns of most Kansans. It is inspired by and modeled after Reverend William Barber’s Moral Mondays movement in North Carolina. Planning sessions in Salina in November and December attracted a total of more than 80 people from all over the state.

In this episode, host Craig Lubow interviews some of the lead organizers of “Kansas People’s Agenda 2017”, including Oshara Meesha, Ashanti Spears, Moussa Elbayoumy, and Moti Rieber.  Oshara is a creative artist and the newsletter editor for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka.  Moussa is the Chairman of the Board of the Kansas Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).  Moti is a Rabbi and is Executive Director of Kansas Interfaith Action.

Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan, the Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Topeka and a member of the core team that began planning in October, said, “This event is the result of planning across organizations and geography. We are not an organization but rather an organizing collective. We seek to bring together organizations that already exist and constituencies that can gain by standing together. This is an event that we hope will spark a movement instead of a moment. We are not hiring staff or looking for ongoing funding. Any funding we seek will be to help people get to the rally. If your organization wants to be part of a collective voice, then you should invite your members to come and join us. We seek to lift voices that don’t get heard. We seek to not speak for someone else but rather to create a space for marginalized voices to be heard. We are not in competition for members of other organizations or funds for other orgs. Rather, we seek to help your organizations build relationships with each other and to be more visible when you come to the capital.

“A movement, not a moment.

“Everybody in, nobody out.

“I can’t wait to see 1,000 people in the capital together, singing and speaking and witnessing and collaborating. This is what I look forward to in 2017. This is the gift we give each other. Open the gift, my friends, and say yes to the movement.”

More information can be found on their Facebook page. A skeleton for research on their issues is available on Wikiversity under Category:People’s agenda.


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