Drum Major Institute: 2004 Annual Report

8/6/2019 Drum Major Institute: 2004 Annual Report

1/15


2/15

Andrea Batista SchlesingerExecutive Director

Malik LewisDirector of Communications

Tess KnoebelOffice Manager

110 EAST 59TH STREET, 28TH FL

NEW YORK NY 10022T: 212.909.9663F: 212.909.9493E: [email protected]: DRUMMAJORINSTITUTE.ORG


3/15

ANNUAL REPORDRUM MAJOR INSTITUT

2004

contents

why dmi?

dmi at large

dmi at home

leadership

contributors

board of directors


4/15 D M I A N N U A L

R E

P O R T 2 0 0 4

It was a time of turmoil abroad and dissent at home. The President called nearly150,000 guardsmen and reservists to activeduty to confront a gathering military threat 4,000 miles away. Protestors had taken tothe streets. The Attorney General wasacting to enforce the controversial decisions

of the Supreme Court.2004? No, it was 1961.

It was in this time of turmoil that the late HarryWachtel founded the Drum Major Foundation.Wachtel, a lawyer and an advisor to Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr., set the Foundation towork, providing the civil rights movement withfundraising, strategic development and legalsupport. The efforts paid off with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting RightsAct the following year.

In 1999, when Wachtels son Bill and Kings sonMartin revived the Drum Major Foundation as theDrum Major Institute, they could not have knownthat the group would be operating in similarlyturbulent times ve years later. Yet here we are.And here is todays Drum Major Institute.

The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI)is a non-prot, non-partisan organization with twoprincipal goals: to serve as a renowned think tankdening the progressive agenda on the national

level and to provide a major voice in the policy

debates that affect our hometown, New York City.We take our name, and our calling, from thewords of Dr. King who asked his parishioners to:...say that I was a drum major for justice, say

that I was a drum major for peace, say that I wasa drum major for righteousness We honorthose words by advancing an agenda of socialand economic fairness.

Like Wachtels original Foundation, DMI isfocused not on polemics, but on problemsolving; not on politics, but on policy. We dont issue reports to see our name in print or holdforums for the sake of mere talk. Who has thetime for that?

The extreme right wing of this nation cametogether over thirty years ago to shape a long-range plan for framing the public discourse. Their

labor has born copious fruit: After spending $1 billion over the last decade, they have made it acceptable to privatize Social Security, to disinvest in the very vehicles that helped create theAmerican Dream, to make policy by tax cut.

DMI is taking them on. We ask questions of vitalimportance to Americans whose lives are hopelessly

buffeted by the tidal cycle of electoral politics.Through our relationships with policymakers andopinion leaders, we gain an audience for ourwork. We offer platforms to amplify the ideas of those who are working for social and economicfairness. We cultivate messengers who can most powerfully deliver the progressive message.

Our unique strategy is the reason that President Clinton said, The work of the Drum MajorInstitute needs to become a more urgent priority forour nation. Its the reason we have engaged

leaders, including Senator John Edwards, formerSenators Bill Bradley and Bob Kerrey, New YorkState Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, CongressmanCharles Rangel, New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman, Senator Hillary Rodham Clintonand others. Its the reason several thousand people

have attended our events and visit our Web siteeach day. We were once called the mouse that roared. And in 2004, roar we did.

As the national political discourse threatened to be swamped by the personal, negative campaigntactics of the right and the left, DMI led thenational conversation about the real needs of Americas embattled middle class. We did so eventhough the left too often neglects the middleclass, assuming they can fend for themselves,while the conservative right wins them over onvalues. We did so because the squeeze onmiddle-class families is the best lens throughwhich to view the failure of this administrationssocial and economic policy. We did so because astrong middle class is key to the promise of theAmerican Dream.

whydmi?Our unique strategy is the reason that PresidentClinton said, The work of the Drum MajorInstitute needs to become a more urgent priorityfor our nation.


5/15

We released Middle Class 2003: How CongressVoted, a scorecard displaying how nationalrepresentatives voted on legislation important topreserving the American Dream. Rep. NancyPelosi, House Minority Leader, distributed it tomembers of Congress while international unionsmade sure it got into the hands of their localorganizers. Using the scorecard, the news media,including The Nation, Mother Jones, Alternet.org, New York Newsday, CNNs Lou Dobbs and PBSs Now with Bill Moyers, were able to discuss thetrue concerns of the middle class. It was used inCongressional races in Michigan, California,North Carolina and Florida. According toTomPaine.com, someone had the good senseto investigate where legislators stand on helpingthe middle class. The Nation said, MiddleClass 2003: How Congress Voted makes it possible to hold elected ofcials accountablefor the legislation that determines the quality of

life for middle-class families Its a valuable toolfor the press, policy makers, and voters alike.Our work connects to those who make,influence, and report on policy. Just as when atree falls in the forest, if a report is never read,was it really written?

Located in New York City, DMI is intent uponadvancing a progressive agenda for urbanAmericaa subject long ignored in the nationalpolitical debate. We released a study of thechanging demographic landscapes of our nations

big cities that led to conferences in New York andLos Angeles. We focused attention on the need torestore relationships between schools andcommunities. We looked at how the New YorkCity press covered our recent budget crisis with

the goal of enabling even more New Yorkers tounderstand the implications of the decisions beingdiscussed by their representatives. We have takenour ideas to the op-ed pages of our citysnewspapers with pieces about the minimum wage,worker safety, federal extension of unemployment

benets and state budget fairness.

DMI believes that the best discussions about public policy are grounded in a combination of rigorous research and awareness of the realityof peoples lives. Thats why we launched afellows program in 2004 that gives a platform to

leaders working in the communities of New YorkCity. The DMI Fellows is not a cushy ivory towerfor wonks to speak down from, but a programthat provides resources and support for inventivethinkers who are already working to improvetheir communities.

Andrew Friedman, DMIs Senior Fellow onimmigrant rights, is such a leader. Friedman isco-founder of Make the Road by Walking, aBushwick-based non-for-prot that organizescommunity residents to act collectively toimprove neighborhood life. It has been anexciting honor to work with DMI as a SeniorFellow, Friedman said. The program hasprovided invaluable research support, helped mesharpen my skills and been effective at elevatingthe prole of important public policy issuesemerging from the grassroots.

DMIs clarity of mission and audience, its abilityto bring stakeholders to the table, to hold electedofcials accountable regardless of their partyafliation, to focus on cultivating new ideas and

The Drum Major Instituteis going to be,over the nextdecade the foundation forthe ideas that hopefullywill drive New York andnational politics.

Eliot Spitzer Attorney General, New York State

the messengers for those ideasall are why wewere a model for progressive momentum in2004. As Eliot Spitzer, New York State AttorneyGeneral, said, DMI is really what we need moreof in this countrya think tank dedicated tocreativity when it comes to progressive politics.The intellectual ferment has been from the otherside of the aisle. That is not a healthy thing. Inthe long term, ideas do matter. The Drum MajorInstitute is going to be, over the next decade thefoundation for the ideas that hopefully will driveNew York and national politics.

So why DMI? Today, talk of policy in Americathreatens to become a one-sided conversationas the conservative wing consolidates its powerand the left too often settles for being right-light.In this environment, it is crucial that we speakopenly about the challenges to social and economic

justice in our nation. In these turbulent times of trouble abroad and dissent at home, DMIs missionis more important than ever and our resolve iseven more steadfast. We must outthink the right.


6/15 D M I A N N U A L

R E P O R T 2 0 0 4

What does it mean to be middleclass in America today?Owning your own home and a station wagon,knowing you can send your kids to college,feeling secure about a retirement that rewardedyour years of hard workthats what it usedto mean.

Today its a different story. To be middle classmeans worrying about how you can retire whenyou can barely save, how to avoid the bankruptcythat is becoming epidemic, how you can pay for

health insurance for yourself and your family inthe face of skyrocketing costs.

So why is an organization founded during the civilrights movement talking about the middle class?Because when the American Dream fails the middleclass, it denies poor and low-income Americansaccess to the ladder of economic mobility.

Progressives have long been allergic to talkingabout the middle class. The middle class can fendfor itself, they say. Our duty is to those who aretruly struggling. The right, meanwhile, uses themiddle class when talking about shared values

but ignores their economic concerns. If progressiveswant to stop playing defense, they will have to talkto, and about, the middle class in ways they never

have before.

DMIs work in 2004 claried the issues at stake for middle-class families and gave them away to hold policymakers accountable. AsKatrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation ,put it: Fortunately, groups like DMI are

around to inform Americans of policies whichcounter the GOPs ruthless war against themiddle class.

In 2004, we maximized the attention paid everyfour years to the middle class by forcing theconversation to shift from rhetoric to reality.We surveyed the candidates for the Democratic

presidential nomination to get them on the recordabout how they would address the middle-classsqueeze. Knowing that there is no greater forcethan incumbency in politics, we looked at the plight of working families in the states in which 26Senators were running for re-election and

highlighted what they had done to make it betteror worse.

You see, the middle-class squeeze didnt happen by accident. It was the result of public policy.Thats whyinMay, DMIreleased MiddleClass2003: How Congress Voted, a scorecard rankingmembers of Congress based on their votes on

legislation of importance to Americas middle class.As Dr. Elizabeth Warren, author of The TwoIncome Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers andFathers Are Going Broke, so rightly said, Decent,

hard-working parents who play by the rules cannot get ahead. A good week is a week they dont fallfarther behind. Middle class families represent the one special interest that doesnt get the helpthey need or deserve. The Drum Major Institutesmiddle class scorecard will help focus attention onthe families who represent not only the economic

future of this country, but its heart.Focus attention it did. Major news outletsreporting on Middle Class 2003 included

CNNs Lou Dobbs, Mother Jones, National Public Radio, and The Nation. Equally as gratifying, however, was that local papers like The Savannah Now used Middle Class 2003 to talk about howtheir local representative had fared. JenniferCunningham, executive director of the 1199 SEIUNew York State Council, called it a clear picturefor working men and women to look at as theyassess how hard their congressperson or Senatorfought for the middle classand whether to cast their vote in favor of sending them back toWashington! Well be putting it to good use in ourcampaigns. In fact, the report was used inCongressional campaigns around the country anddistributed by unions to their organizers. Rep.Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick shared her score withthe people of Michigan, saying she was proud toreceive this rating from the Drum Major Institute,an organization dedicated to educating policymakers on issues of economic fairness.Finally, Tompaine.com said, someone had thegood sense to investigate where legislators standon helping the middle class.

But election years always feature the concerns of the middle class prominently. What happens forthe millions of struggling middle-class familieswhen the campaign is over? Thats what DMIsought to answer through The Middle-ClassSqueeze: Moving Beyond Rhetoric, a Decembergathering of prominent American economists andstrategists who talked about dening the middle-

class agenda for the next presidential term.There are some bright spots in this troubled time,and they come in the form of those patriots

dmi at large


7/15

ghting to preserve the American Dream. TheDrum Major Institute recognized two of themin June: Senator John Edwards and LindaChavez-Thompson. Senator Edwards, who got the nod for Vice President three weeks after our

benet, used his primary campaign to speakopenly about the stain of poverty on our nationwhile offering a visionary plan to empowerAmericas middle class. Ms.Chavez-Thompson,the highest-ranking woman in the labor movement,is the daughter of sharecroppers who uses herposition at the AFL-CIO to ght for the kind of good jobs that enable families to put food ontheir kitchen tables and retire in comfort after a

lifetime of hard work.

Making the left feel comfortable talking to and about the middle class, and enabling the middle classto see that its interests would be best representedin coalition with the other Americans who have

been left out of our nations prosperity, is a long-term ght. Dr. King would speak of doing morethan throwing coins to beggars on the JerichoRoadhe would speak of transforming that road.DMI is committed to transforming the landscapeof public policy until sound economic policy

becomes the norm and not the exception.

Finally, someone had thegood sense to investigatewhere legislators stand onhelping the middle class.

TomPaine.com

THE 2003 DMI YEAR IN REVIEWWhat a difference a year makes. TheDMI Year in Reviewprovides context inwhich to evaluate the direction of policyin America each year. From Medicarereform to the Bush tax cuts to thesqueezing of state budgets, the DMI Year in Review offers a scathing indictment ofthe national administration while

highlighting the positive developments of 2003, from therecognition of the ongoing need for affirmative action in ouruniversities to the preservation of the Child Tax Credit forworking families with school-aged children. The DMI Year inReview features The Best and Worst of Public Policy, TheState of the States, and Best of the ProgBlog, as well asimportant statistics in the Injustice Index and commentaryfrom prominent Americans on the 2004 progressive agenda.

ELIZABETH WARREN ON THE TWO-INCOME TRAPDr. Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Lawprofessor and author of the TheTwo-Income Trap: Why Middle-ClassMothers and Fathers Are Going Broke,spoke to DMI at an event co-sponsoredwith Demos in December 2003. Dr.Elizabeth Warren discussed her book,

called the scariest book of the summer by Moneymagazine, and the un-serendipitous confluence of changesin American demographics, work habits and the relaxation ofgovernment regulation of the credit industry that will forcemore American children to see their families file forbankruptcy this year than for divorce.

MIDDLE CLASS 2003:HOW CONGRESS VOTEDDid your representative make thegrade? With Middle Class 2003 , DMI sentevery member of Congress home witha report card. Representatives weregraded on their 2003 votes onlegislation that helps the middle class(such as the American Dream

Downpayment Act and the Pharmaceutical Market AccessAct) and hurts it (such as the Bankruptcy Abuse Preventionand Consumer Protection Act and the Death Tax Repeal Act).While the Senate received a B overall, and the House of

Representatives a C, these average grades mask deepdivisions in each partys approach to addressing the middle-class squeeze.

CAMPAIGN 2004 FOR THE U.S. SENATIn 2004, 16 U.S. Senators with a historyof supporting polices to strengthen andexpand the middle class, and ten U.S.Senators with a history of voting againstthe interests of the middle class, wereseeking re-election. Campaign 2004looked at the plight of working familiesin the 26 states in which these incumbents

were running and highlighted what these Senators had doneto perpetuate or alleviate the middle-class squeeze.

THEMIDDLECLASS.ORGTheMiddleClass.org is an onlineheadquarters for information abouttodays squeezed middle class. Its atoolkit for those who make, influenceand monitor public policy on the stateof the middle class and the policies thatimpact their lives. There you will find:the latest news, talking points to

examine issues through the lens of their impact on middle-class families, an interactive map highlighting how membersof Congress voted on pieces of legislation of importance tothe middle class, and more.

INTRODUCING THE LATESTEFFORT FROM THEDRUM MAJOR INSTITUTE

FOR PUBLIC POLICY

THE MYTH OF THE MIDDLE? CAMPAIGN2004 ON AMERICAS MIDDLE CLASSThis survey of the candidates for the2004 Democratic nomination forPresident looks at their positions onissues important to preserving theAmerican Dream, including raising theminimum wage, expanding access tohealth care, making college education

more affordable and restructuring the tax code to benefitmiddle-class families. Candidates also identified the majorchallenges facing the middle class and what they would doas President to restore economic mobility to poor andworking-class Americans.

the dmi libraryprojects & publications


8/15

D M I A N N U A L

R E P O R T 2 0 0 4

The Manhattan Institute is the largest and most powerful think tank in NewYork City. It prides itself on providing the

basis for President Bushs compassionateconservatism. Its fellows ask Why cant our immigration authorities deport the

hordes of illegal felons in our cities? It asserts that Gay activist groups, withteachers union applause, are importing a

disturbing agenda into the nations publicschools. It publishes reports falselyclaiming that the national administrationspolicy of trickle-down economics benetsthe people of our city.

We think New York can do better. And thatswhy the Drum Major Institute is committed tooffering a fresh, compelling and rigorous voicethat tells the truth about the challenges our cityis facing and helps shape the policies to meet them.

Though New York City is the center of the worldto those who live here, the future of Americancities is almost never discussedas witnessed inthe 2004 presidential election. As demographicschange because of suburbanization andimmigration, our cities face unique challenges.How do we maintain urban democracies whenthe population of our cities looks nothing like thepopulation of those elected to represent them?DMI explored this question in our People andPolitics in Americas Big Cities report by leadingdemographers John Mollenkopf and John Logan.Along with the Century Foundation, weorganized subsequent conversations in NewYork City and Los Angeles, featuring prominent policymakers, political strategists and opinion

leaders. We will continue to ask this question because if we fail to confront the nature of this

representation gap nor take steps to close it,our cities will pay a heavy price.

True to our legacy, DMI asks the questionsthat matter to all the people and not just to theelite few. For example: If New Yorkers dont understand the implications of the decisions

being debated by their representatives, how canthey hold them accountable? In May, we releasedClass Acts: How New York City NewspapersCovered the Budget Crisis after 9/11, ananalysis by nationally recognized media scholarRobert Entman that found melodrama on thepages of our citys daily papers, not substantivediscussions of how policies impact people.

Taxing and spending is the core function of government. For citizens to judge whether thesefunctions are being carried out well requires asustained and comprehensive commitment fromthe news media. Without it, were flying blind.Hopefully this study will increase the visibility that these issues deserve and lead over time to a moreinformed discourse by the broad voting public,said Dan Cantor, executive director of New YorksWorking Families Party about Class Acts.

We believe that the reform of the New York Citypublic schools cannot happen from the top-downand should not happen behind closed doors, but it must include those who are integral to schooltransformation: students, parents and communities.Thats why we released From Governance to

Accountability: Building the Relationships That Make Schools Work with the New York UniversityInstitute for Education and Social Policy and

used it to successfully elicit a commitment fromthe Department of Education to hold all schoolstaff accountable for the extent to which theyengage parents as partners.

To inspire current and future policymakersin New York City, DMI provides a platformfor progressives to talk about how they havesuccessfully put their values into practice.Weve featured Howard Dean (before he became Howard Dean ), Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugmanand architect Steven Bingler on collaboratingwith community members to nd nontraditionalspaces for schools in overcrowded districts.Through our Speakers Series, we challenge thenotion that fair social and economic policy is just the hope of the idealistic.

Most importantly, DMI thinks outside the box about what it means to be a think tank. When it comes toour Fellows, we dont need to match the institutesof the right wonk for wonk, detached academic fordetached academic, or show off with formergovernment apparatchiks. Our Fellows program is

built from the ranks of grassroots leadership.

We identify talented, up-and-coming activists andorganizersthe kinds of grassroots entrepreneurswho go to sleep with an op-ed in their head every

dmiathomeWith the future of New York City at a criticalmomentwe need a strong voice articulatinga progressive agenda.


9/15

night but lack the resources to get their views heard by a larger audienceand provide them withrigorous research and communications support.With DMIs backing, this crop of dynamic leadersis able to translate its experiences of working withNew Yorkers into the public policy conversationsthat determine our future.

In 2004, DMI published important pieces byour Fellows on the minimum wage, the needfor translators in hospitals, extendingunemployment insurance and protecting thesafety of immigrant workers on the pages of papers such as Newsday , the New York Daily News , amNew York News , El Diario La Prensa ,and Gotham Gazette . And this is just the

beginning. As we grow our program, we aim toreclaim the discussion about policy in this cityfrom the conservative ideologues whose workemanates from the protected halls of privilege.

DMI offers all of us who care about fairness

the kind of analysis and language we need tomove beyond our narrow issues to create a broader,values-based agenda the majority of Americans canembrace, says Helena Huang, a New York-basednational criminal justice funder.

With the future of New York City at a criticalmoment, when decisions are being made on issuesfrom public education to housing to economicdevelopment, that will impact whether we

become a city of the elite or remain the city of those who make it work, we need a strong voicearticulating a progressive agenda. DMI, through

the fusion of our cutting-edge research and ourcommitment to shaping the public dialogue, willprovide the foundation for a fairer and more just New York City.

IF YOU DONT VOTE, YOU DON'TCOUNT PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGNIn a non-partisan effort to boost voterturnout, DMI launched a Public ServiceAnnouncement campaign featuringnever before seen images of Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. The print versionof DMIs PSA, If you dont vote, youdont count, features an image of Dr.

King and reads: He paid the ultimate price to win our rightto vote. Are you going to give that right away? The televisedversion reached thousands of households across the country.The campaign has been approved by The Ad Council.

DMI SPEAKERS SERIESDMI launched its Speakers Series toprovide a platform to progressives whohave been able to put their values intopractice with success. Instead ofarguing theory, DMI connects a diverseaudience of thinkers, advocates, mediaand public officials with people whohave successfully worked for social

and economic fairness in our public institutions. Since itsinception, weve heard from Paul Krugman, economist andNew York Timesop-ed columnist; Howard Dean, formerVermont Governor; Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of New

York State; and Steven Bingler, architect and former advisorto the United States Secretary of Education.

FROM GOVERNANCE TO ACCOUNTABBUILDING RELATIONSHIPS THAT MAKSCHOOLS WORKFor the third time in the last 50 yearsandthe second time in a decadethe New YorkState legislature has passed a law thatsignificantly altered the structure of thepublic school system. This report, by KavithaMediratta and Norman Fruchter of the New

York University Institute for Education and Social Policy, offers a newperspective on the debate between governance and accountability,ultimately concluding that developing a new communityaccountability system that anchors the essential relationshipsbetween schools and communities in ongoing efforts to improveschools is one of the most critical tasks before us.

CLASS ACTS: HOW NEW YORK CITYNEWSPAPERS COVERED THE BUDGETCRISIS AFTER 9/11As New York City was enmeshed in thedebate about how to resolve its significantbudget crisis, DMI faced two questions itfelt compelled to explore: Were New YorkCitys daily newspapers doing a good job ofhelping the general public to understand

the budget debate and the proposals being discussed by theirelected representatives? And would they help New Yorkers of allincome levels to understand how these policy proposals wouldspecifically affect them? In this report, leading media scholarRobert M. Entman of North Carolina State University provideshis response in an analysis of New York City daily newspapercoverage of the budget debate following 9/11.

Class Acts: How New York City NewspapersCovered the Budget Crisis after 9/11

ByRobert M. Entman

North Carolina State University

For the DrumMajor Institute for Public Policy April 2004

PEOPLE AND POLITICSIN AMERICAS BIG CITIESThe changing face of America is creatingnew challenges and opportunities forAmericas urban centers. Immigration hastransformed the competition for politicalpower in large cities from one that pitsnative minorities against whites to onethat pits new immigrants not only against

whites, but also against native minority groups. This report,commissioned by DMI, The Century Foundation andMetropolitan College of New York, and written by leadingdemographers John Mollenkopf and John Logan, analyzes theimpact of these demographic changes on urban democracy.

Acritical conversationabouttheimplicationsof the profound demographic transformationnowunderwayinourcity

JohnLoganMumfordCenterforComparativeUrbanandRegionalResearch

JohnMollenkopf CenterforUrbanResearchofCityUniversitysGraduateCenter

&People Pol i icsin AmericasBigC i ies

the dmi libraryprojects & publications

THE MYTH OF THE MIDDLE: THEINCREASING FRAGILITY OF NEWYORK CITYS MIDDLE CLASSThe Myth of the Middle,a survey of 300New York City likely voters about theireconomic security and concerns,

reveals that: 1) Being middle class in New York City isn'twhat it used to be; 2) Many New York City voters will identifyas middle class and say they feel secure but are rarely able

to save for the future and find it increasingly difficult tomake ends meet; and 3) New Yorkers are worried abouteducation, health care and affordable housing, and theywant critical services protected.

The Myth of the Middle:The IncreasingFragilityofNew York Citys Middle Class

Findingsfroma citywide surveyof300 New YorkCityvoters.Thesurveywasconductedforthe DrumMajorInstitutebyGlobalStrategyGroupbetweenMarch26andMarch28, 2003.


10/15

D M I A N N U A L

R E P O R T 2 0 0 4

For much of 2004, theUnited States was divided intothe red states & the blue states .Although this happens every four years,observers far and wide agreed that this was the most extreme example inrecent history.

Beyond partisan victories, it seems clearthat a union of the red states and the bluestates is necessary to advance a progressiveagenda for social and economic fairnessin America.So we asked two prominent Americans,one from a blue state and the other froma red state, to give us their thoughtsabout the election and the issues that unite our country.

The following are conversations withAndrewYoung , chairman of the DrumMajor Institute and former mayor of

Atlanta, and Fernando Ferrer , president of the Drum Major Institute and former

borough president of the Bronx.

Do you think that the most importantissues facing Americans were raised inthis presidential election?

Andrew Young: Not at all. Both candidates dancedaround the serious issues. There is no question that war is a serious issue. It was addressed, but not

discussed in detail. Poverty was never discussed. Thequestion of health insurance was raised, but not necessarily the question of health. Education wasraised in such a manner that there was no discussionof funding, curriculum or teaching methodology. Theenvironment wasnt discussed at all. We had four

hurricanes in Florida, and neither candidatediscussed global warming. The candidates acted as if

there were no cities at all. They discussed noquestions of urban life; urban redevelopment;generation of jobs; or agricultural policy issues that focus on how to relate to our farming communities in

rural America. So it was a very supercial campaignin which the candidates tended to attack each otherrather than share the details of their vision.

Fernando Ferrer: This race for the presidency ranon three tracksthe rst, Americans legitimateconcern with another terrorist attack on our soiland the steps our government should take to keepus safe. The war against terrorism that began inAfghanistan ended up being played out in Iraq. Theparallels to Vietnam, with the loss of life andnational treasure, loomed large over the campaign.

Second was the politicization of morality in certain battleground states, by means of referenda that wereaimed at boosting conservative voter turnout.

Third was the state of the economy and its negativeeffects on the American middle-class, jeopardizingsocial and economic mobility of the working-classand the poor due to a massive loss of American jobs.

You have represented a red state, Georgia, invarious capacities throughout your career. Do

you think that there are issues that unite thepeople of both the red states and the blue states?

Andrew Young: Georgia is a state that has always been vulnerable to exploitation. For yearsconservatives found ways to raise the race questionto deliberately divide the majority from the

minority. Surprisingly enough, thats changing. Ithink its changing slowly, but Georgia is a red state largely because in previous elections progressivesabandoned the get-out-the-vote strategy.

leadershipa conversation withAndrewYoung & Fernando FerrerAndrew Young

Fernando Ferrer

The most shocking aspectof the 2004 presidentialcampaign was the almostcomplete absence of debate

and discussion about thefuture of Americas cities.Fernando Ferrer


11/15

You have represented a blue state, New York, invarious capacities throughout your career. Do

you think that there are issues that unite thepeople of both the red states and the blue states?

Fernando Ferrer: The effective ght against terrorism and economic expansion with job growth

had all the potential to create the common groundon which a majority of the American people could

have stood. As it turns out, however, the Iraq debateand the eleven so-called gay marriage referenda onthe ballots of battleground states effectively dividedthe electorate along mostly symbolic and not substantive lines. The obvious result was anothermissed opportunity to unite rather than to divide.

Most would agree that the future of Americas cities was paid little attentionthroughout this campaign, even though 75%of the nations population lives in urbanareas. What do you think is the urban agendafor the next presidential term?

Andrew Young: The urban agenda for the next presidential term should focus on uniting the citiesand the suburbs, as well as the rich, the poor andthe middle class. Poor people want jobs and richpeople want prots. Jobs and prots are different terms but the same language. If jobs are created,

businesses grow and prots are created. Theeconomy is in a crisis now because people havetried to get prots without creating jobs; they haveoutsourced and tried to grow their business bycutting it and downsizing it. The urban agenda hasto be set by creative and visionary mayors whoimplement new things in different cities and in

different neighborhoods within the cities. Hubert Humphrey used to say we dont want trickle downeconomics. We want percolator economics. It startsat the bottom and percolates up.

Fernando Ferrer: The most shocking aspect of the2004 presidential campaign was the almost complete absence of debate and discussion about thefuture of Americas cities. I think voters in largecities could have been motivated to vote in far largernumbers if the debate had happened.

One of the issues that the Drum MajorInstitute focuses on is the plight of Americas

increasingly fragile middle class. How doesthe middle-class squeeze play out in Georgiaand places like it?

Andrew Young: The middle class in Georgiais quite healthy, largely because the middle class

has rather successfully integrated. For example,most of our suburban high schools are fairly wellintegrated in the South. The South is also morestable now. You have people who have known eachother over three or four generations. So in Georgia,the middle class is not a sudden middle class. Its

been developing for generations. You see thisexample with Martin Luther King, III and Ivan

Allen, III. Thats three generations of people who have worked together.

Fernando Ferrer: The newest twist on trickle-down economics works like this: The wealthiest get a tax cut; states, cities and counties losefunding and have to resort to higher taxes to payfor things like cops, reghters, teachers and

health care, and the middle class has to pay for it with increased personal and property taxes. This is

bad enough for the middle class, but a disaster forthose Americans who want to work their way intothe middle class. And anyone who points out theunfairness of this scheme is immediately labeled a

class warrior, as though protesting a divisivepolicy were, itself, divisive.

What do you think progressives should worktowards in 2005?

Andrew Young: Can free enterprise work for poorpeople? This is the key issue for the century. Accessto capital at every level in our society has to be seenas a basic human right.

Fernando Ferrer: Its clear to me that weprogressives must do three things in order to regainthe trust of the American voter: Firs t, tell them in

the most unequivocal way who we are; second, tellthem what we believe in; and third, tell them wherewe want to take them.

The urban agenda for thenext presidential termshould focus on unitingthe cities and the suburbs,as well as the rich, thepoor and the middle class.

Andrew Young

Fourty-four years ago, a 29-year old Andy Young, a32-year old Martin King and a 41-year old Harry Wachtel(my dear father) had the audacity to believe that oursociety could learn to care. They shared the core convictionthat our nation could not move forward if it was leaving

so many of its own behind. With this moral mandate, theDrum Major Foundation was established.

As the 2000 election neared and my own children werereaching voting age, I realized that an entire generationof Americans could not appreciate the power of the civilrights movement and enormity of non-violent social change.

It was that sentiment that led me back into the embraceof my then only living hero, Ambassador Andrew Young.And through providence of sheer coincidence, Andy wasequally concerned about the renewed silence of goodpeople throughout America, especially young adults. Sowe resolved to set a beat for the new millennium

hence the creation of the Drum Major Institute.

My parents were deeply committed to helping Dr. Kingmake our nation one in which the rising tide lifts all

boats. As such, I had the indescribable opportunity to learn first hand the magical ways of a unique Americanwho had what he described as the audacity to believethat people everywhere can have three meals a day fortheir bodies, education and culture for their minds, anddignity, quality, and freedom for their spirits.

I hope you will join us so that the steady beat of arenewed drum major can once again resound as all of usdare to be audacious for the sake of our democracy.

William B. WachtelFounder


12/15

D M I A N N U A L

R E P O R T 2 0 0 4

$100,000+HIP Health Plans of Greater New York

William B. Wachtel

$50,000$99,999Apollo Management, LP

Stuart Feldman

$25,000$49,999Service Employees International Union

Wachtel & Masyr, LLP

$10,000$24,999Atlantic Development Group, LLC

Lynn Forester de RothschildChris McNickle

Charles Phillips

Red Apple Group, Inc.

Melvyn I. Weiss

$5,000$9,999Bernard and Anne Spitzer

Charitable Trust

CB Richard Ellis

Commercial Envelope Mfg. Co., Inc.

Con Edison

Cullman Ventures, Inc.

Mark Gallogly

Dennis Mehiel

Morris Pearl

Gary SumersTransport Workers Union - Local 100

Vytra Heath Plans

Edward & Bernice Wenger

$1,000$4,999Gwen Adolph Blount

W. Kenneth Albrecht

Amalgamated BankAnthony Anagnostakis

Astoria Graphics, Inc.

Axelrod & Associates

Suzette Banzo

Russel Bernard

Bruce Charash

Alexander A. Chernoff

Cecilia Clarke

Anthony Collerton

Rosanna Durruthy

Fernando Ferrer

Hamilton Fish

Francis Greenburger

Stanley M. Grossman

Jeffrey Gural

HealthCare Partners, IPAHecht and Company

Jonathan Joseph

Benny Lorenzo

Lewis S. Meltzer

Research Foundation of theCity University of New York

Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc.

SSEU Local 371AFSCME

Isaac Torres

UNITE HERE

Alex Von Furstenberg

Carl Weisbrod

$500$999Evan Behrens

Albert C. Bellas

Brown Raysman MillsteinFelder & Steiner LLP

contributors

thank you to all of our 2004


13/15

George V. Delson

Jack S. Hoffinger

IBT Local 202

H. Carl McCall

Ramerica

John H. Reichman

RWDSU Local 338Arthur J. Steinberg

Jeanne Tong

Stephen B. Wells

Tom Watson

$250$499Feisal Afzal

Clifford E. AndersonChaim Barash

Bruce Bernstein

Christi Cannon

Arthur Cheliotes

Francis S. Chimenti

Todd Davison

Renee Edelman

Ricardo FernandezStephen Greenwald

International Union of Operating Engineers

Susan Joseph

Steven Levy

David Musto

Karen Newirth

Vincent F. Pitta

Professional Staff Congress

Stan Rapp

Mark Santow

Robert Schlesinger

Michael Schaedle

Robert Seavey

Ralph D. Sinsheimer

Bruce Thomashauer Jennefer Witter

Grace Yang

Up to $249Amalia Betanzos

Anonymous

Steven Bingler

Catalytic Group, Inc.Michael DInnocenzo

Peg Fiore

The Fortune Society

Walter Goldstein

Victor Greene

Felton Buddy Johnson

James A. Krauskopf

Brad LanderMichael Lockhart

Thomas A. Martin

Katherine F. Mukherji

Parodneck Foundation

Retirees Association of D.C. 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

Ellen F. Salpeter

D. Maria Watson

Joe Weisbord

Sarah Whitman

Conservative think tanks spent $1 billion from 1990 to 2000 toinfluence public opinion and thought.

And they arent letting up. According to a National Committeefor Responsive Philanthropy report, The Axis of Ideology, 79conservative foundations made more than $254 million in grantsto their think tanks from 1999 to 2001!

Is there any doubtjudging by policy being handed down onfederal and state levels, from the reduction of government to arebirth of trickle-down economics to a crackdown on civil

libertiesthat this investment is paying off?

The presidential election showed that those of us concerned withcreating social change can put their money where their mouths are.

But we need to do more than give to political campaigns everyfour years.

We need to enter the so-called values debate. We need to showthat economic justice is a moral value. We need to do so byconnecting the failure of policy to the reality of struggling

Americans lives.We need to outthink the right.

I hope that the pages of this annual report demonstrate the DrumMajor Institutes leadership on these issues and the strength of our approach. But we need your help.

It may not be glamorous to write a check to a think tank.But the work of changing public policy isnt supposed to be.The conservative right understands that, and thats why theyveplugged along, slowly but surely shaping the future of our nation.

Its time to give them some competition.

Please give to DMI today.

Andrea Batista SchlesingerDMI Executive Director

the importance of giving to dmi

This list includes contributors from December, 2003 through November, 2004.


14/15


15/15

Every American city will face major hurdlesin the coming years as we are all being challenged to do more with less-but fairly. Weneed imaginative approaches and new thinking.The Drum Major Institute is a much neededvoice in the debate, Charles Phillips . Charlesis the President of Oracle Corporation and

has been recognized as one of the 50 most important African Americans on WallStreet by Black Enterprise.

The project of the Drum Major Institute isof paramount importance, Melvyn I. Weiss .Mel is a founding partner of MilbergWeiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, one of the most respected and effective plaintiff

law firms in the United States. He is a leading authority on shareholder andconsumer rights and a trustee of theN.Y.U. School of Law.

The Drum Major Institute is a source of smart, unbiased research on public issuesthat affect peoples lives. Anyone who believes that democracies require knowledgeto work effectively should support them, Chris McNickle . Chris is ManagingDirector of Greenwich Associates, amarket research and strategy consultingfirm for the financial industry. He is alsoauthor of To Be Mayor of New York:Ethnic Politics in the City (ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1993).

DMI provides a voice for those who areoften overlooked in our society. It strives tocreate and lead an agenda that works tosubstantially better the lives of Americanswho deserve to be heard, Jennefer Witter .

Jennefer is the president and founder of The Boreland Group Inc., a boutique publicrelations agency that specializes in corporateand executive visibility. Previous to forming

The Boreland Group, Ms. Witter was avice president at Ketchum, the award-winning global public relations agency.

As someone who runs a community basedorganization, I am grateful to DMI as it provides sound thinking, solid research andclear voice to the ideas we are making manifest on the grassroots level, Cecilia Clarke .Cecilia is Founding Director of the SadieNash Leadership Project, a uniqueeducational program that promotes

leadership, service and activism amongyoung women in high school.

I am proud to be a founding sponsor and Board member of the Drum Major Institute. I know that the Institute can bring progressives together around an agenda for economic justice, Dennis Rivera .Dennis is the president of 1199/SEIU,New Yorks Health and Human ServicesUnion, which represents more than200,000 health care workers in the

greater New York City metropolitan area.

DMI gives me a chance to put myprinciples into practice, to get off thesidelines and into the fray, and to work for a better, stronger, more inclusive republic, Tom Watson . A New York Internet pioneer, Tom is co-founder of ChangingOur World Inc., and publisher of itsmedia arm, onPhilanthropy.com. He

has been a columnist for The New YorkTimes and a contributing writer to The Industry Standard .

DMI leads a dialogue designed to inf luencepolicies and their policy makers so theycan serve the people effectively, and so thepeople can hold them accountable for it, Rosanna Durruthy . Rosanna is thefounder and President of Aequus Group,a human capital development consultancy.In 2002, Rosanna was recognized by

both Hispanic and Hispanic Business

magazines on their annual lists of leadingHispanic Women.

DMI honors Progressive PatriotsSenatorJohn Edwards &Linda Chavez-Thompson

This institute does extraordinarywork.We need the Drum MajorInstitute out there being a voicefor people who need someone tospeak for them.

Senator John Edwards

On June 16, the Drum Major Institute was proud to honor two Progressive Patriots who are fighting topreserve the American Dream. Senator JohnEdwards inspired the nation with his presidentialcampaign, speaking openly about the stain of poverty on our nation. Senator Edwards proved that progressives can talk about the inequality cripplingour nationin fact, it is their patriotic duty.

Linda Chavez-Thompson is the embodiment of thespirit in which the Drum Major Institute wasfounded in 1961. The highest ranking woman in the

labor movement, she rose through the ranks to become executive vice president of the AFL-CIO. Thedaughter of sharecroppers, Ms. Chavez-Thompson

has fought for good jobs for Americans throughout her careerjobs that enable families to put food ontheir kitchen table, to put away money to send theirkids to college and to retire in comfort.

Drum Major Institute: 2004 Annual Report

Documents

Transcript of Drum Major Institute: 2004 Annual Report