Here is what I posted on my personal blog (on my website, which is why it isn't specifically speaking to Obama supporters like it would be if I had written it here first!) on Election night:
Hallelujah!
I felt like I was holding my breath as I watched the election results come in tonight, hoping that our nation wouldn’t face another year of election fraud robbing us of the future we have worked so hard to see.
To my great joy and relief, it became clear fairly early on that Barack Obama was likely to be our next president. I cried tears of joy every time another state on the electoral map turned blue, and still more when John McCain conceded, and then more again when President-Elect Obama gave his stirring speech in Chicago, to a crowd include Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey, both with tears on their faces.
After eight years filled with tears of frustration and grief about what has been happening in this country (and in the name of this country), it is a wonderful feeling to be crying with joy instead.
I have no illusions that the road ahead will be easy, but I feel like we are finally on the right road.
I am going to answer President-Elect Obama’s call for us to do our part to look after not just ourselves but each other, and I hope you will each do the same, no matter who you voted for in this election. Find a way that you can make a positive difference, whether in your family, your local community, your state, our great country, or the world. What we have learned tonight is that nothing is impossible, and that the power of people who truly desire change is a force to be reckoned with.
Peace,
Diana
In an earlier blog post, I mentioned a bunch of "firsts" for me with this election year and specifically this campaign and this candidate.
I have a couple more to add.
On Saturday, I had my first experience as a precinct captain (for Obama, of course) at the caucus here in Spokane, Washington.
And also on Saturday, I was elected to be a delegate to the next step, the Legislative District caucus. This is another first for me--I've never been a delegate before.
The timing isn't ideal--the day of the LD caucus is April 5, when I was scheduled to be in Minneapolis at a professional conference, where I am presenting a workshop on the 4th. Well, I decided (before putting myself forward at the caucus as a possible delegate) that this campaign is more important than being at the second day of workshops at the conference. It's worth coming home very late at night on the 4th, missing some great workshops and a wonderful guest speaker, in order to represent Obama.
So I'll be there, proudly wearing my Obama gear and prepared to speak about our candidate and why the country needs him to be our next president. I'm hoping that from there I'll go on to the congressional district caucus, county convention, state convention, and eventually the national convention.
Never before have I been this interested in our political process. I've always cared about it, and believed in the possibilities of our democratic process, but I have to admit that after recent years' elections, I had lost some of my faith in the system. There has been too much of "business as usual". Now, this campaign has proven--Senator Obama has proven, with all of our help--that we absolutely CAN change how politics are conducted in this country. We can live up to what we CAN be rather than what we have been.
It is in this spirit of renewed faith and hope that I go proudly forward through this process as an Obama delegate.
I hope to see many of you at the National Convention in August!
I just found out that my immediate family is 100% for Obama!
Obviously I am, and my husband is, and I already knew that my parents (who are Michigan Democrats) are. My mom is one of those above-50 women who *doesn't* support Hillary. And my Dad voted for Bush in 2000 because he wanted nothing to do with anyone associated with Bill Clinton (not fair to Gore, I know, but the point here is that clearly my Dad wouldn't be a Hillary supporter).
Today, I found out that my brother, who is a captain (soon to be major) in the Marine Corps and has been to Afghanistan once, Iraq twice (soon to be three times) and who was a Bush supporter (until partway through this administration), voted for Obama!
Unfortunately, he didn't know better and wrote Obama in on his Michigan absentee ballot...darn it...but at least he's an Obama supporter! I suspected he might be when he gave my parents "The Audacity of Hope" for Christmas, but now I know for sure. And he's living in Arizona (votes in Michigan because that's his home of record as he moves around the world) so I thought between that, his military career, and his Republican history, he'd be for McCain. Nope!!
And even my five-year-old is in on it with us--he cheers for Obama whenever he sees him on television, and tells everyone how he wants Obama to be President because he has lots of good ideas.
So I can proudly say that in my family, we have three generations supporting Obama, including retired military, active duty military, and a peace activist (that would be me).
Today I caucused for Obama here in Spokane, WA. I am the Obama precinct captain for precinct #3126.
We had 49 people attend--there were 7 precincts in our caucus location and it was PACKED! There were more HRC signs up, but it seemed like there were more Obama supporters.
I got to be the person who spoke for the Obama group when it was time for the mini-speeches to persuade undecideds. That was fun!
Our precinct's final results:
32 people for Obama = 6 delegates (and I'm one!) We also got 5 people signed up as alternates.
16 people for Clinton = 3 delegates
1 undecided = 0 delegates
My whole family was there; my husband also caucused for Obama, and our five-year-old son wore his Obama pin proudly and told other kids he's "for Obama, too." He didn't pay a lot of attention, but he still said he was excited to be part of the Obama campaign.
Yesterday I took my five-year-old son to the rally here in Spokane to hear Michelle speak. It was incredible!
I kept him out of school, and we picked up one of my friends and spent the morning and early afternoon downtown, hanging out and eating lunch at a hotel near the event location so we could be near the beginning of the line without having to stand in the cold for longer than necessary. Every half hour or so, I'd step outside and see if a line was starting yet. At about 1:00, a line started to form, so we quickly got in line with only about 12 people ahead of us. We waited in line for almost two hours before the doors opened; during that time my son entertained himself by playing in the snowbank between the sidewalk and the parking spots on the street.
We were in the first row of non-reserved seating (the 8th row from the front, if I counted correctly), so we had a great view. Michelle was, as always, warm and eloquent and got a wonderful response from the crowd.
Here's the quote that was used on the front page of this morning's paper (above the fold) along with a picture of Michelle with the American flag as her backdrop:
"What Barack did with his years in politics was not become a part of that system. When you're free, when you are not owned or you don't owe...you can take risks." (I thought there were lots of other quotes that were even better, but since I don't work at the newspaper I didn't get to choose.)
Our local paper reported today that there were 1,700 in the theater where the rally was held, and another 200 who couldn't get in. (By contrast, the HRC event that happened here yesterday was in a location holding 675 people, and turned away twice that many, or about 1350 people.)
Trying pictures here (I can't get the insert link button to work):
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c138/DianaKay/DSC04949.jpg (The outside of the theater where the rally was held)
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c138/DianaKay/DSC04978.jpg (Michelle speaking)
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c138/DianaKay/DSC04959.jpg (Me and my son at the rally)
The Spokesman-Review, our local paper in the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area, has had a few good pro-Obama letters published in the letters to the editor, but I'd like to see a lot more. It would be great if we could have one each day from now until our primary, and then of course more as we move towards the general election.
The editorial policy is that once you have one letter published, you can't have another one published within 30 days, so this needs to be a team effort!
Here is the link to the page where you can submit a letter:
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/opinion/letters_cover.asp (Sorry, I can't get the link button to work in the blog editor; please copy and paste into your browser.)
Remember to keep it positive, focusing on why you support Obama, rather than why you don't support his opponents.
If you want to write a letter but aren't confident about your writing and/or editing skills, or just want a second set of eyes to look over your letter before you send it, let me know; I'm a professional writer and editor and will be glad to help. The message will be all yours, and you will submit it--I would just be proofreading and making suggestions if you want them. (I am also willing to do the same for people writing letters for other newspapers, as long as I don't get so many requests that I can't handle them all.)
I was thinking of creating a template that people could customize, but my concern is that it could lead to too many similar-sounding letters, which could (in a worst-case scenario) look fishy and make the editors decide not to publish our letters. I think it's best that each person writes their own letter from scratch, from their heart, and then I'll be happy to help polish them if you want.
Please consider writing one! The word limit is 200 words, so it's not like you have to write a long essay. Just explain what convinced you to support Obama, or list a few of your favorite things about his stands on issues.
Again, I can't stress enough that it is vitally important that we reflect Senator Obama's desire to stay positive. Of course we can use our letters to correct falsehoods, but let's not sink to the level of attacking any of his opponents.
Let's all get busy writing!
More and more, this election year is reminding me of something I experienced back in 2001. It was an election year for my church denomination to select our new President (President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, or UUA), and the final two candidates were a woman and an African American man. Either way, it would be a historic event--the winner would either be the first woman president of the UUA (even though our denomination has slightly more female ministers than male ones) or the first African American president.
I attended the General Assembly of the UUA that year (the annual business meeting/convention) as a delegate for the congregation I belonged to then (in Marietta, Georgia, when I still lived there). I agonized over the choice--and changed my mind many times as I read up on the candidates. (My mother, also a delegate from her congregation, felt the same.) Unlike a national campaign, of course, there was nothing for me to watch on television, so all I had was print and Internet information through denominational resources.
What finally helped me choose was that the candidates each spoke at General Assembly before the vote was held. Both had great credentials--but in the end, I felt that the man (William Sinkford) was a better speaker, more inspiring, and the better person for the job. As a woman, part of me really wanted to finally see the first woman president of the UUA...but she wasn't the candidate who I connected with. (Ultimately, Sinkford won, and he is still the current president of the UUA.)
The same thing is true for me this year. I badly want to see a woman become President of the United States--but Barack Obama is the candidate who inspires me, and I will not vote on gender lines when my heart says that would mean electing the wrong person.
In an ideal world, if equality were a reality, no one would even pay attention to things like race or gender in any election--those details would be irrelevant. But in this time, with our history, it's impossible to avoid the fact that this is a historic election, with two possible "firsts" among the field of candidates.
One of my concerns throughout this campaign was that a large number of women voters would vote for HRC out of gender loyalty. Then, two things happened. First, I remembered the 2001 UUA election and realized I wasn't giving my gender enough credit--women aren't all going to vote for another woman just because she's female. Second, Iowa proved that women are wholeheartedly supporting Obama, even when it means passing up the opportunity to vote the first woman into the Presidency.
It's important for us--especially for those of us who are women supporting Obama--to share our message with other women who may be undecided, who may be feeling the internal struggle that I felt over that 2001 UUA election, and help them see all the reasons why a vote for Obama is beneficial to women. We won't convince them all--nor should we expect to, any more than we would ever expect to convince every man to vote for Obama--but other smart women will see the same things we do, and know that this is not the year to elect a woman to the presidency, because the female candidate is not the best candidate for our future.
Peace, Diana
I have voted in every election I've been eligible to vote in, and have always "done my homework" so that I was sure my vote was an educated one. However, I've never taken it beyond that. Now, with this campaign, here are some of the firsts I've experienced:
1. My first financial donation to a campaign.
2. My first time ordering a yard sign, buttons, etc. to show my support for a campaign. (We did have a yard sign for Kerry, provided by my husband's union when they supported him in 2004. But this is the first time I've felt strongly enough to pay money to show my support. With our limited budget, that's a bigger deal than it may sound to some.)
3. My first time volunteering to work for a campaign.
4. My first time being addicted to news coverage of a campaign--watching not only debates and major speeches (which I did in limited amounts in years past), but hours and hours of CSPAN coverage.
5. My first time hosting a political event. (I'll be having a New Hampshire Watch Party on Tuesday--if you're anywhere near Spokane, come join us!)
6. The first time a candidate has moved me to tears--on a nearly daily basis--because I am so inspired.
And I'm sure the firsts will just keep coming.
These things are not happening because I have lots of free time on my hands. Here are a few of the reasons/excuses I could give if I wanted to stay uninvolved:
1. I'm a full-time graduate student.
2. I'm also self-employed.
3. I'm also the mother of a five-year-old.
4. Our schedule is already too full and our budget too tight for us to take on anything new.
Now, here are just a few the reasons why I am getting involved despite all of the other things going on in my life:
1. Because I believe that having Obama as our next President is the best thing I can do to ensure my son a good future, right up there with getting him a good education, keeping him healthy, and reading to him every day.
2. Because I want my son to grow up seeing that we "regular people" can make a difference in our world. I'm already teaching him that about the environment by teaching him to recycle, conserve energy and water, etc. But I also want him to know that we can make a difference in the way our country is managed, by being involved well beyond just voting.
3. Because at age 36, I have never been so inspired by someone, anyone, and especially not by any other political candidate. I have never felt so personally called to be a part of something.
4. Because I believe Obama has it right on the issues--he isn't just a good speaker who can put on a good performance. He's a genuinely intelligent, well-informed leader, one who knows what real Americans experience outside the beltway on a daily basis. He has worked for change in Chicago, in Illinois, and now nationally, and he can put us back on the right track.
5. Because, after seven years of feeling embarrassed by much of what the leaders of my country have done, I finally feel proud to be an American again, and that is a gift beyond measure.
There are many more reasons, but the bottom line is that I believe in Obama, I believe in hope, and I believe in what America can be under his leadership, with the involvement of Americans like you and me.
I want a DVD collection of all of Barack Obama's speeches. Well, okay, not all, that would be a DVD library--but all the biggies! And a book to accompany it.
His speeches are just so inspiring; I want to be able to watch them easily, anytime, and to share them with others as easily!
I know they are available online, but I want to watch them on my big-screen TV. :)
Anyway, that's my wish list...for now. Well, that and of course watching President Obama give speeches for 8 years in the White House!!
I was searching through my archived blog entries on my writing website, and came across the following from November 8, 2006 (the day after election day). It's interesting to read it now, over a year later, and especially after the wonderful results of yesterday's caucuses in Iowa. Something I dreamed about and hoped for back then is coming true now! (Sadly, my hopes for more immediate change have gone unfulfilled.)
The first two sentences, in fact, could be me writing today about yesterday's caucus...sort of an odd time-warp experience for me as I re-read them tonight!
(pasted from www.poetic-justice.org)
"Three cheers for democracy!
Yesterday, the American people sent a clear message to our government that the status quo wasn’t working. Even President Bush called it a “thumpin’”. The Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994, and the nation is watching the vote counting in Virginia to see if the Democrats will also control the Senate.
Exit polls showed clear dissatisfaction with both Bush and the war in Iraq, among other issues. In the wake of the election, Bush announced Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation as Defense Secretary today.
I hope this is an indicator that we, as a nation, are coming to our senses and realizing that our leadership has failed us on a grand scale over the last six years.
Now, I am looking ahead to the 2008 Presidential election, and hoping that we will give ourselves leadership we can believe in, leadership that can help us regain what we’ve lost during the Bush administration’s reign, starting with not only international respect but also self-respect. I’m hoping that Senator Barack Obama will run…although he and I differ in areas of theology, I’ve been impressed with just about every word of his that I’ve read or heard. He seems to me to be the kind of leader we need: one with integrity, openmindedness, and the courage to speak truth to power.
Meanwhile, we have two more years of the Bush-Cheney administration. I hope Rumsfeld’s resignation will put us on a new course with regard to the war in Iraq: a course that is in keeping with the American population’s clear desire to bring our troops home and end our involvement in a war that many Americans believe we should never have begun.
If I could send a message to every leader in our nation, it would be the following lyrics from the song “Circle Chant,” which appears in “Singing the Living Tradition,” the hymnal of the Unitarian Universalist Associaton. A women’s choir I belong to sang it at the close of our rehearsal last night, as we each hoped for election results that would bring what the hymn says to life.
Circle ’round for freedomCircle ’round for peaceFor all of us imprisonedCircle for release
Circle for the planetCircle for each soulFor the children of our childrenKeep the circle whole.
(I wish you could hear the beautiful harmonies of this hymn, which reinforce its message of peace and connectedness.)
May peace be with us all."
After years of watching the news and crying with frustration, grief, or outrage over what our leaders have been doing to our country, tonight I cried tears of joy when Barack Obama won the Iowa Democratic caucus with an 8% margin.
I feel like we have finally, as a nation, come to our senses and realized what some of us have known for a long time: that the way things are is not working, that the way things are is not the way we want things to be.
I have a five-year-old son, and tonight I have much more hope for his future than I have in a long time. I believe that he will get to grow up being proud to be an American, something I will never take for granted again after the last seven years of feeling like I ought to be apologizing for what my country has been doing.
When my son is older, I will talk to him about this night, and tell him that it was the bright dawn after a long, dark night.
I dropped off my son at school this morning, and have been glued to the television and Internet since I got home. Other than picking him up this afternoon, I expect to be sitting right here with TV and laptop until the results of the Iowa caucus are in tonight.
I am encouraged by the overnight poll quoted by Reuters this morning, showing Obama in the lead and Clinton fading to 3rd.
Everything I read, whether the Reuters article or blog entries on this site, has me choked up with the sheer emotion of knowing that tonight could well be a huge step towards the kind of change this country so very desperately needs.
I wish we had an Obama office here in Spokane so that I could be there watching the returns with other supporters. My husband is working tonight, but I'd bring my five-year-old son with me so that he could see what is happening and start to learn about the role he will someday be able to play in the political life of his country. I would bring him so that he could hear what hope sounds like, and see what a group of dedicated people can accomplish when they believe in something with all of their hearts.
As it is, we will watch from home, and hope that soon we will have a local Obama office as we gear up for the Washington caucus.
I'm a 36-year-old writer, graduate student, mom, and of course Obama supporter from Spokane, Washington.
I've believed Obama should be our next president since I watched the television coverage of his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention...and I'll do whatever I can to help make that a reality!!
It's time for some hope and a whole lot of change around here!
