Flobots.org | Activating Change

The Denver-based band Flobots is teaming up with non-profits Fight With Tools and Let Us Rise on Monday, August 25, to launch a new nationwide campaign, America Will Be!, in which people are invited to share their vision for a better America.

“What the Obama campaign has shown is that a lot of Americans want change,” said Flobots lyricist Jamie Laurie, also known as Jonny 5. “But real, long-lasting change only happens when a lot of people put pressure on whoever is in power. This means it is our responsibility to determine what that change will be.“

The campaign title comes from a line in Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again”. The historical inspiration for the project can be experienced at www.americawillbe.org. The site features an interactive web-collage guiding users to a forum at www.letusrise.org, where people are asked to complete the sentence “America will be…” The results will be coalesced into an independent, grassroots vision for change.

“Effective action starts with clear vision,” said Let Us Rise Convener Kris Abrams. “If we don’t like the way this country is going, then lets embody the spirit of true democracy by listening to every voice and creating a vision for change from the grassroots up. Then we can act together to implement that vision.”

The Flobots’ songs contain powerful calls for social change, and emphasize that ordinary people have the power to change the world for the better. The band skyrocketed to fame over the past several months with appearances on Jay Leno and Carson Daly, two music videos airing on MTV, and the song “Handlebars” reaching number one on the iTunes hip-hop chart.

Let Us Rise is a new Denver-based community which recently launched a visioning campaign to create an independent, grassroots vision for Colorado and the US. All are invited to share a vision for a better society at www.letusrise.org, either by hosting a “Visioning Circle” with friends or colleagues and uploading the results, or by blogging one’s individual vision at the site.

Fight With Tools is the Flobots’ non-profit, whose goal is to harness fans’ energy into action for positive change. At concerts, fans are invited to utilize a social networking site, www.fightwithtools.org, to connect with other audience members and form “Street Teams.” Street Teams then engage in voter registration and other volunteer activities in their local communities.

“When an idea’s time has come, things just naturally fall into place,” said Fight With Tools Executive Director Carol Mehesy. “Let Us Rise, which is focused on Colorado, developed the idea of a grassroots, democratic visioning campaign, and the web technology that allows everyone to participate. Independently of that, the Flobots were considering a campaign based on the Langston Hughes poem “America Will Be” to help ordinary Americans reclaim the promise of our country. Add to that the tremendous popularity of the band, and the fact that Fight With Tools has a network of Street Teams organized nationwide, and you get the America Will Be! campaign.”

To participate, people can go to www.americawillbe.org. Flobots Street Team volunteers will also be fanning out throughout the Democratic National Convention to ask people what their visions for America are. Let Us Rise is convening “Visioning Circles” at Resurrection City Free University, on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday at 3 p.m. in Cuernavaca Park. And starting in October, Flobots.org Street Teams around the country will convene Visioning Circles in their communities.
From the very beginning, America has been a country of contradictions. Our founders gave voice to humanity’s deepest desires for freedom, justice, and equality; and yet this country built its wealth by taking land from indigenous peoples, enslaving untold numbers of Africans, denying rights to women and poor people and people of diverse faiths.”

Today, our country is in a violent, unjust war. We lead the destruction of our planet. Many of us can’t afford to visit a doctor when we are sick. Most of our children can’t get a decent education. Many of us can’t afford a place to live. America’s founding values of freedom, justice and equality remain illusions for many.”

It is time for us to break the chains of our apathy, to take an unwavering look at both the beauty and the pain of our country, and then to square our shoulders and create America anew. As Langston Hughes wrote, “America never was America to me. And yet I swear this oath: America will be!”