Television coverage from KWQC can be viewed here.
Alta Price spoke on behalf of PACG. Her remarks are below:
My name is Alta Price. I am the President of the Board of Directors of Progressive Action for the Common Good. We are also known as PACG, but I am going to use our full name because it explains what we do.
Progressive Action for the Common Good. We work for the Common Good of our cities, states, country, and world. The Common Good includes many different things that we work for – access to health care, a clean environment, and civil rights are some of them.
Immigration promotes the Common Good. Our country has been enriched by earlier immigrants, just as it is enriched by the Dreamers and other immigrants today.
Members of Progressive Action for the Common Good are Dreamers. We dream of social justice and a welcoming community that cares about everyone. But, as in our name, Progressive Action, we know we must take action to make our dreams come true. Dreams are important, but if you don’t take action to make your dreams come true, then I guess you’re just sleeping.
You have taken an action by attending this rally. We challenge each one of you to commit to taking three additional actions to help the DACA recipients. Be creative and practical when you choose your actions. And give yourself a deadline – 3 days, 3 weeks, or 3 months to do all 3 actions. But act soon, as the situation for DACA recipients is dire.
Here are 3 suggestions:
- Call your members of Congress, both Senators and your Representative. It is easy to find their phone numbers online. It doesn’t matter if you call their local office or D.C. office. It is very simple. Dial the number. Tell the staff person that answers that you want your member of Congress to vote for the 2017 Dream Act. That’s it. Simple, but extremely effective.
- After you’ve made your calls, ask your friends and family to call their members of Congress. If millions call, Congress will pass the 2017 Dream Act.
- Join with others to strategize more actions. It can be a group of your friends, or join one of the organizations here today and help them work on helping DACA recipients and other immigrants. I would invite any of you to join with the Civil Rights Forum of PACG to work on DACA and other civil rights issues. We will be meeting at the Spanish Mennonite Church in Moline (613 3rd St, Moline) on Thursday, Sept 21 at 5 pm to figure out our next steps.
We are all Dreamers. But we must all take action if we want our dreams to come true, and if we want to help the Dreamers.
September 16, 2017