Democrats Fete Political Courage Winners

Five political and social activists were honored at the third annual Anne Froehlich Awards Dinner for Political Courage on Sunday at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. Hosted by the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club, the event drew a crowd of more than 300 (at $135 per person), despite its mid-summer timing, and celebrated the spirit of Anne Froehlich, who was one of the club’s founders and for over 50 years was its president, treasurer and matchless volunteer until her death in 2005. The first Froehlich dinner honored Daniel Ellsberg and Ron Kovic, who joined the festivities Sunday, and the 2007 awards went to Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson. This year, Anna Burger, a top-ranking officer at Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation’s largest and fastest growing union, introduced the first honoree, Robert Greenwald. ‘He’s a great filmmaker and a great agitator, who uses his creativity to take on important political battles,’ said Burger, who’s the first chair of America’s newest labor federation, Change to Win. ‘My grandfather was a union organizer,’ Greenwald told the audience, ‘and one of the highlights of my young life was going with him to Union Square to listen to people give political speeches.’ Greenwald’s films have addressed numerous social issues and include ‘Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers,’ ‘Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices,’ and ‘Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism.’ Through Brave New Films, he also uses the ‘quick strike capability’ of the Internet to produce video campaigns that are viewed by millions of viewers in a short span of time (e.g., ‘The Real Rudy,’ ‘Fox Attacks Obama,’ ‘The REAL McCain’). ‘An amazing revolution is going on,’ Greenwald said, thanks to the Internet. ‘We had a paid team of editors, producers and researchers working incredibly hard for six or seven weeks on the McCain video, but then we reached almost three million people in just four weeks’without having to buy one second of TV advertising, because people like you are sending it forward.’ Noting that ‘this ability to reach people and motivate them without a gatekeeper in the way”and without having to buy a cable network”is a whole new world,’ Greenwald challenged the progressive Democrats in his audience to capitalize on the Web revolution. ‘There’s no excuse not to do something, to get involved and take action to bring about the social change we want.’ Congresswoman Maxine Waters, one of the most vocal opponents against going to war in Iraq, introduced the next two honorees, Betty and Stanley Sheinbaum of Brentwood, who have toiled decades as political and social activists. ‘Betty and Stanley are two of the kindest, most generous and most caring human beings I have ever known,’ said Waters, who noted that they have given their home, resources and leadership to countless organizations over the years, while ‘calling people to task’ on various political and humanitarian campaigns. Betty, 88, delivered an inspiring, heartfelt speech that will be published in next week’s Palisadian-Post. Her husband, also 88 this year, spoke into a microphone at his seat and commented, ‘It is clearly happening, very rapidly, that the Democrats are on their way back. It’s very heartening to me that this is happening, and let’s keep going!’ Dinner co-chair Alice Lynn introduced the final three award-winners: former talk-show host Phil Donahue and filmmaker Ellen Spiro, who co-produced this year’s critically acclaimed documentary ‘Body of War,’ and Tomas Young (in absentia), whose story is told in the film. His mother, Cathy Smith, spoke on his behalf.