ONE members were among the 12,000 people who attended presidential hopeful Senator Obama’s rally in Oakland, California, this Saturday. Lori, Lori’s mom, Kathleen, my sister Ronita, friend James and I, all rocked our black ONE shirts and ONE bands, determined to brave the massive crowd and make our presence known. We felt it was critical that Senator Obama know that extreme poverty and AIDS are important to us and have to be at the top of his agenda.

Our group endured the long entrance line, and large crowd, and positioned ourselves to see and be seen. Obama did face our direction a few times during his speech and might have caught a glimpse of Lori as she enthusiastically waved a ONE shirt in the air.

Though we didn’t get an opportunity to meet Obama this time, our presence demonstrated our commitment to the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty to the 12,000 other engaged citizens at the rally, and made clear our belief that politicians must be made aware and constantly reminded of these issues.