It Does Us No Good

Dear Hillary,
I understand and respect your desire to be President of the United States…. and particularly to be the first woman President of the United States. I know you sincerely want change in this country. The Democrats must win in November. About this we both agree. But please don’t let your personal ambition cloud the opportunity that we as Democrats have to make this a better, a much better America. We need a united Democratic party in order to win. Please don’t divide us.

First of all, you are not being very nice. This is not becoming of anyone, especially a candidate for President of the United States. To me, character is the most important quality in a Presidential candidate. Your negative campaigning and sniveling swipes shows weakness and bad sportsmanship, and quite frankly it makes me question the respect for you that I do have. This is exactly the old politics that we are all fed up with. Please give it a rest. If this is the only way you know how to fight when you are down, then perhaps you should rethink your run for the Presidency. It does us no good.

Why do you have to pretend that you are doing fine when we all know that are disappointed about the direction your campaign is heading. We know that you are human and not immune from feelings of disappointment. You may think that such an admission shows weakness, but I view it as a strength of soul, a genuineness that I would want, no I would need my President to have.

Instead you seem to brush off your losses as if they mean nothing. Why can’t you be gracious and congratulate your opponent, and why for heaven’s sake can’t you, at the very least acknowledge the efforts of your volunteers who work so hard for you, despite your losses? And how about your voters? They believe in you. If I were giving a speech after a primary, it would be the first words out of my mouth. It is common decency to thank people who have helped you whether it got you closer to your goal or not. A mother teaches her children this basic value, a teacher to her students and friends expect it of friends. A mention of thanks anywhere else but at the very beginning of your speech degrades their efforts. If ignoring those who proved useless to you and not finding it within your heart to acknowledge other’s successes even when you are down is the best you can muster, then perhaps you should rethink your run for the Presidency. It does us no good.

And, if I may, can to ask you to take a serious look at the momentum of the voters? It’s been a slow drumbeat since Iowa, but if you are a good listener then you can’t deny the steady march toward your opponent’s camp. A successful president listens to the people. I guess it’s an awful lot to ask you to hand him the baton but for the sake of our country might you at least consider it? You can’t deny the numbers: Barack Obama is slowly and very successfully chipping away at your voter base. You can’t deny it and you haven’t been able to stop it.

You are struggling up a hill that is morphing into a mountain. Catching up is becoming a greater challenge. Rather than putting all of your relentless energy into the battle for the nomination, for the sake or our country, please consider putting your ego aside and jumping on the bandwagon. And bring your voters with you. Just think of the power we can have together. So, you would not be remembered in history as being the first woman President, but you would surely be remembered as a hero. You would be my hero. Perhaps you should rethink your run for the Presidency.

We Are Women for Obama

I hesitate putting too many You Tube videos on my blog, but this one is very dear to my heart. This is my project.

As I have said in other posts, women are not abandoning their feminist beliefs when opting to not to support a woman's run for the presidency. We must vote for the PERSON who best will lead this country.

A Grassroots Worker's Work is Never Done

I apologize for my absence - has it really been 10 days since my last post? It is not for lack of subject matter - I am constantly parking ideas in the back of my head - I have a laundry list of comments I want to make about topics in the news or ideas that require some research. And I apologize to my regular visitors whose blogs I have not been visiting either.

Everyday I wish I could sit at my desk and synthesize my thoughts. But over the past weeks, I playcatch-up with myself every day. I think my family is beginning to get frustrated with my less than enthusiastic attitude toward the household chores - I admit the light bulbs need to be changed in more than a few darkened rooms, I only wonder, why has nobody else bothered to changed them?

I continue to be swept up in the excitement of this election. When Connecticut won the primary on February 4, I thought I would return to the regularity and the rhythm of life before Obama. However, I have never been involved in a political grassroots effort, so I don’t know if this campaign is unique in its magnetism that beckons volunteers to feel compelled to continue working even after victory. Maybe not, maybe the reason why grassroots efforts are so successful is the very reason why they exist in the first place. It’s the passion and commitment that volunteers share that keep their adrenalin pumping and their purpose so focused. I have become a grassroots Obama junkie.

My intention was never for this blog to be so focused on one topic. And perhaps I owe an apology to my regular readers, however, there is nothing that seems more important to me than the future of our country. And so, I will continue to write about politics for a while longer… and as I park those other ideas in the back of my brain, hopefully they will wait patiently for a time when I can tap them out on my key board.

As I get more entrenched in this effort, I understand better the risk that making a commitment to something and working hard for its success can bring. Perhaps this is what drives me the most -- I want to feel satisfied with a victory at the end. The fear of losing and the feelings that engender it would be way too much to bare. Our country has an opportunity to fix itself, to fix ourselves, which we may not have again in our lifetime.

Heading off to a State-Wide Obama Day of Action II this morning. Yes, there are still other states to win….

We are who we have been waiting for....

Indulge me in another posting about the Democratic race for President and let me revel for a few moments in Connecticut’s successful turnout for Barack Obama. I was one of those on the ground Connecticut volunteers. Never having participated in political grassroots organizing I was overwhelmed by my district group’s sense of purpose and quick camaraderie. I also learned that this campaign thrives on neophytes like myself. We were handed a mighty task and I was dumbfounded by the amount of trust staffers had in our own meager skills to see that a job was done. Knowing that every small contribution we made was a crucial part of a much greater whole gave us a sense of belonging and inspired us to want to do more.

It isn’t until now, after the fact, with our primary over, as each of us returns to neglected work responsibilities, overflowing laundry baskets, orphaned kids and lonely spouses that we can begin to really reflect on our success.

Barack Obama said something last night that struck deeply. He said:

“We are who we have been waiting for. We are the change we seek.”

Although I have been chanting his mantra, “Yes We Can” and “I’ve been Fired Up and Ready to Go” for quite a while now, it wasn’t until I heard those words last night that my soul was touched. His speeches inspire me, his oracle is incredible. But those words encapsulate this experience for me. Living in my homogeneous upper middle class suburb, my life secludes me, on a personal level from people of different races and socio-economic backgrounds. But for the past month we have stood together - working side by side for a common goal. Never have I felt so compelled to do so. My life is richer thanks to this experience and now I understand the power that we have if we join together and believe that we can change our country’s course.

We are being asked to act at a time in history that may never come again. Barack Obama is teaching us that first and foremost we must believe in ourselves. From that faith we must take responsibility for our neighbors, acknowledge the inequities in this country, trust in dialogue, even with adversaries, and work side by side to fix all that is broken - no matter how many obstacles we encounter or roadblocks that get in the way. As Americans we can do this - I saw it happen in our tiny district in our very small state against the greatest of odds...... “We are the change we seek".

Yes We Can Song

Thanks to a friend for this latest Obama video... this symbolizes yet another morsel of hope that we all have as we get closer to the Democratic Primary on Tuesday. VOTE!!!

Passing of the Flame

Thanks to Karoli at Bang the Drum for this heartening video. On this very rainy GOTV day in Connecticut - this is in honor of all the volunteers knocking on doors in the rain.