Dear MoveOn member,

I am writing to you today because of MoveOn’s petition platform. I have been working on the petition platform for almost a year now, and sometimes things happen that remind me why I work on a platform that allows people to share their powerful voices.

I hope you will start your own petition so we can support you.

Most recently, what I saw with MoveOn member Elizabeth Rowin's Obama Avenue petition reminded me that petitions are as exciting as they are powerful.

I saw the petition demanding that New York City change the name of Fifth Avenue in front of the Trump Tower in NYC to "President Barack H. Obama Avenue” on our platform and chuckled. It was a smart and clever way to troll a man who has repeatedly trolled people in this country, as well as spreading racist and xenophobic policies as often as he can.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only person who was amused, because over the course of a week, Elizabeth's petition gained traction and began to take off. It was featured in various news media outlets, including CNN, Reuters, USA Today, and Newsweek and the signature count soared to almost 450,000 people. Not only that, the petition led to responses from city council members in NYC. People were paying attention.

I was amazed. Not because this petition did so well, but because it reminded me why I do the work that I do. It reminded me that something as simple as writing a petition can have a deep impact, whether it's a bit cheeky or highlights an issue that is of profound importance.

Mark Hamill retweeted the petition. Stephen Colbert mentioned it on his "Late Show." CNN covered it and interviewed Elizabeth, the petition creator, twice. The petition became a cultural phenomenon and an unconventional way to push back against a horrible administration.

I am in awe, and that’s why I am asking you to also step up.

Will you take the lead and join us by starting a petition of your own? Your petition can focus on an issue that is important to you, whether national, statewide, or local. It can be serious. It can be clever. Whatever resonates with you.

From the initial Obama Avenue petition, Elizabeth has taken to organizing in person as well. She coordinated two events in front of Trump Tower that got media attention, gave her a chance to meet dozens of local supporters, and continued the pressure in trolling the sitting president.

Organizing is a powerful tool, and the petition platform is a wonderful and simple way to engage on whatever resonates with you!

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?

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