Have You Ever Signed a Petition That Was Successful?

[rucky]

With all the emails, I think I'm up to signing a petition a day, on average. I don't think I have ever signed a successful petition.

What's the point?

Any petition success stories would be welcome.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. The Declaration of Independence?

But seriously, it would be nice to rattle off some petitions which have clearly had an effect. But I don't keep close track of mine, I'm afraid. I just sign 'em and cross my fingers.

[rucky]

2. Come to think of it, DSHEA was a successful petition campaign.

Dietary Supplement Health Education Act - 1996

[larco]

3. The petition protesting the removal of the word "evolution"

from the Georgia educational curriculum. I don't know if it influenced the decision to backtrack and keep it in there, but the Secretary of Education did cite public outcry as one of the reasons.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi larco!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[John BigBootay]

4. yes. n/t

[denverbill]

5. Moveon. Their very first one. Their reason for being as it were.

I don't know how many people signed the petition urging Congress to criticize Clinton and then get over the whole Lewinsky thing, but IMO, it damned near ended the whole process in it's tracks.

[teevee99]

6. I don't think I've ever voted for a winning politician:)

uh oh, sorry wes...lol

[RebelOne]

7. Yes, I have signed a lot of on-line petitions that have helped

put animal abusers in jail.

[adriennel]

8. yes, for the paper kind

I'm not sure about online petitions, but residents in my town circulated an old-fashined (read: paper) petition against building a condo complex in a non-residential zone. The city planning board tried to get creative with the zoning definitions, but the condo plan was squashed by the same planning board after receiving a petition signed by 100+ residents.

[rocktivity]

9. It's better than doing nothing--in a related story

When I tried to log on to Mediawhores and Bartcop from my new job, the corporate firewall forbade me on the grounds they were "sexually explicit" and "fringe politics" respectively. However, the firewall does provide a way for you to "defend the honor" of a site. I wrote that the sites dealt with political events and that the "whores" were journalistic rather than sexual. I didn't think for a second that my efforts would pay off. But a couple of weeks later, I received an e-mail saying that Bartcop had been "reclassifed" as a current events site! After logging on sucessfully, I decided to push my luck by logging on to Mediawhores, and that worked, too. And since my employer is multinational with tens of thousands of employees, it feels fantastics to realize that I'm the reason why they can now check out Bartcop and Mediawhores from work!


rocknation

[MISSDem]

10. Twice we signed petitions to keep riverboat

gambling out of our county.

[Robbien]

11. The FCC one!

That one worked,,,well until the bastards stuck it onto another bill which sneakily passed in the wee hours of the morning.

And the Overtime one worked,,,well again until the bastards stuck it onto another bill which sneakily passed in the wee hours of the morning.

[seventhson]

12. Yes. It can work/

I tend to think that internet petitions have value but not much unless there is huge support.

My wife and I started a petition to save a historic building in my former community which was slated for demolition for a bank parking lot and drive-thru teller.

Knowing a bit about PR i took the rather meager petition to the local newspaper and met with the arts editor (the building had been used by an arts organization whch had been displaced and I was involved in this organization) breifly to give it to her and ask her to write something on it.

The editors wrote up an editorial supporting the petition and ultimately we convinced the historical commission and the attorney general to get an injunction to stop it.

hundreds of volunteers offered free labor and tradesman skills to rehab it and we NOW have created an awesome art center, museum, sculpyture garden, and artists cooperative apartments for low income working resident artists.

Since none of us had a profit motive and were willing to work our hearts out to save the arts in our community, the effort was hugely successful.

This is the kind of grass roots effort that COULD take hold nationally and globally with leadership like Howard Dean IMHO.

We will not see this with the DLC/PNAC shlub Kerry.

Conformity and the status quo (and self-serving political profdit motive) will kill us all and democracy with it.

Moveon.org - though - gives me a glimmer of hope. As does DU.

But I am almost completely disgusted and hopeless as I watch the DLC status quo squash Dean and get us all to role over for their same corporate agenda.

Keep the faith.

But work hard and never let them make you give in.

[NoPasaran]

13. I think so

I remember signing a petition to keep the Austin Music Network on the air (or cable actually). The city hasn't pulled the plug yet so perhaps it had some effect.

Whether that was a worthy cause or not may be open to debate.