We've encountered some confusion from some of you who have received emails from The Progressive Center of Center of Texas, so we thought we'd address that.

The Progressive Center of Texas is a new organization based in Dallas, TX, that is a spin-off of the ObamaDallas organization created in 2007 to help elect Barack Obama as President.  For a good portion of you, that is how we came to have your email address.

The overwhelming majority of people with whom we were in contact during the campaign asked Molly Hanchey, one of the founders of ObamaDallas, and me what we would be doing next after the election.  There was great concern that our grassroots movement not die away when the central objective was achieved.  There was an eagerness to maintain a connectedness between ObamaDallas supporters through shared community education and action.

Many of us who worked on the campaign believed there was a neglected area in the political action universe and began to assemble an organization similar to ObamaDallas that would address that neglected area.  The neglected area we saw was in the realm of activism towards local and state issues.

It's easy to see how electing a new President can change the status quo in the USA.  What is less understood is how local and state government works for Texans, and how local and state governments can be more powerful agencies in the average person's life on a daily basis than the federal government.  President Obama made remarks along the lines that he was going to do everything he could to help the American people from his office in Washington, D.C., but that we needed to use the energy and enthusiasm generated from the election to help him help ourselves by working on local solutions.  With The Progressive Center of Texas, we will do that.

For some of you, this endeavor may hold no interest.  President Obama was elected and Dallas did more than its fair share to lend support to his success.  You may already be heavily invested in other localized efforts and don't have time or head-space for more.  To those of you that fit that category, we thank you for whatever work you did during the campaign - it all helped!  We completely understand if an "unsubscribe" request to Constant Contact via the link at the bottom of our emails is necessary.  We appreciate your patience to date.

To the rest of you who are still interested in what's in store for The Progressive Center of Texas and your role in local activism, keep tuned in.  Our website should be up within a week.  We are wrapping up our first round of events and warming up the next round in a couple of weeks!

Event guests can park for free in the Sala Tex-Mex restaurant parking lot on the northeast corner of Belleview and Lamar. Paid parking is required along Lamar and behind Bill's Records and Poor David's Pub.