Pennacchio @ First Unitarian Church

I went to see Chuck Pennachio speak earlier today at the First Unitarian Church. It reaffirmed everything that I've read about him and made me even happier for putting his badge on my blog. And above are just a few pics from the meeting. The lighthing was awfully tricky: flourescent overhead mixed in with the generall shadowy feel of the high ceilinged room with direct sunlight pouring in through the windows. These were some of the better ones.

Some things I took away from the meeting...
I learned that Chuck already has 2000+ volunteers out there which is, he stated, more than Hoeffel had at this point in his campaign [and maybe overall?]. That Rick Santorum is on the record as calling W the first Catholic president of the U.S. and here's the article stating such from the National Catholic Reporter. W is a Methodist; some guy named John F. Kennedy was Catholic — and President of the United States. Pennacchio was a member of previous victorious Democratic Senate races which is more than any Dem can say in the past thirteen full-term elections in PA.

But what is he about...
He is Pro-Life via being Pro-Choice. He believes, as President Clinton believes that abortion should be legal, safe and rare. What good comes from banning abotions? That's what W wants and look what has happened during his terms in office, abortion rates have skyrocketed from Clinton's administration. Education is the key.

He wants to prevent gun violence. People have the right to bear arms, he does not dispute that. But what good comes from owning an AK-47? What kind of deer are you going to kill with that? An armor plated Terminator-deer? But how can those who want to keep their hunting rifles be courted to the Democrats? Perhaps through conservation efforts. By reaching out to the hunters and saying that we want to conserve the land they hunt on, as opposed to cutting down the trees and increasing sprawl, they get to keep their land to hunt on, but without assault rifles. Pennacchio supports the bill banning assault weapons which W let expire. I believe his words were "my hands are tied" and that he didn't have the authority. What the fuck? Isn't he the President?

On Social Security: Pennacchio believes it to be a safety net and not a pension plan. That is what it was created to do by some guy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. W wants to privatize something that should be provided by the government to keep people from falling below the poverty line. Pennacchio believes in a living wage which is very different from what "minimum wage" is. If people had a living wage as the minimum wage, people would not fall below the poverty line. Social Security has done so much for the children under eighteen who lost their parent[s] in the 9/11 tragedy. Without it, more lives may have been lost.

Pennacchio supports a Balanced Budget Amendment. We know that W doesn't really care for a balanced budget, just that his buddies get richer and richer while the rest of us end up in debt and he has his credit card buddies write up new laws in their favor.

He is a populist, not an elitist. He is progressive, not conservative nor regressive. He wants education from Kindergarten through Graduate School to be a right, not a priviledge — education empowers. The U.S. ranked 49^th in literacy in the world as of December 2004. He wants credit card reform. He wants universal health care — the U.S. is the only industrialized nation without universal healthcare. He believes in a separation of the Chuch and State, those Founding Father guys were adamant on that.

Pennacchio is the only logical choice to go against and defeat Santorum. And we have to support him. You can donate money directly from his website or mail it in. You can get involved and get others to join in. You can blog about the campaign and what you want to see out of Chuck.

The first public fundraising event is next Sunday the 17^th:

Pasta dinner for Chuck Pennacchio's US Senate Campaign
Sunday April 17, 2005: 6:30 P.M.
Ristorante Denicola, 130 Almshouse Rd Richboro, PA
$30/person, $50/couple
RSVP to: [email protected] or to Sharon: 267.880.1359

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it though, I may be in NY to celebrate my Mom's birthday.

Get involved, it'll make you feel good.

In case you were wondering, there were plenty of people at the event, between 15 - 20 I'd say. I didn't take any big group shots because I knew I was going to post the shots and I didn't have everyone's permission.

Comments

[Hilary]

Joe Hoeffel had not decided to run at this time so I'm not sure how Dr. Pennacchio is coming up with that conclusion.

[dragonballyee]

I learned that Chuck already has 2000+ volunteers out there which is, he stated, more than Hoeffel had at this point in his campaign [and maybe overall?].
Perhaps I misheard Pennacchio. It may be that he said that he had more volunteers now than Hoeffel ever had.

[Hilary]

I'm still not sure how he would know those numbers. It also seems like bad-mouthing Hoeffel's campaign efforts wouldn't be terribly successful considering so many Hoeffel volunteers would be likely to support Pennacchio.

[dragonballyee]

Bad mouthing? I don't think he meant it as bad mouthing. I think it was more of a Hoeffel did great and we're building on that and improving kind of thinking. Pennacchio is not out to divide, he's in this to unite.