June 9, 2008
Guest post ~ here to serve…a growing sense of order
This post is from Michael Mendenall, who is one of those people you’ve heard about who decided to get involved in politics this year for the first time. This post shows how his involvement made an immediate difference.
So I decided that this was the year that I would set aside my cynicism and get involved with the barely contained chaos of my chosen political parties caucuses…showed my hand there, but that’s all right…got elected as a delegate to the county convention for my candidate, and attended, excited for the experience.
The day started early, 7:00 am, and throughout showed no promise of ending in the same way. The procedure is to wait to do the actual voting for state convention delegates at the very end…and it is now twelve and a half hours into it, I’m tired, and the prospective delegates are bickering hotly as to how to proceed with the vote. So many folks are interested in becoming a state delegate that to actually vote on them would have taken untold hours, so it was eventually decided to simply pull names out of a hat, which brought more heated debate and derision.
I am beginning to question my commitment to the process…I have a diabetic cat to take care of, and am getting pretty low on the blood sugar myself, and I need to get out of there! Well, as it went, my name was the second one drawn from said magic hat, and amidst the shouted arguments, I stood up and called for attention…only to be shouted down.
But I am contrary, to say the least, and I was going to have my say.
- Excuse me, but I am obviously not as emotionally invested in this as it appears that many of you are.
(Here the clamor began to die down a bit, so I continued)
- I am here simply to be of service to my community, my party, my candidate, and my country…so I ask that my name be placed into the mix as an alternate to give another one of you a better chance of attending the (state) convention.”
And I sat down…to quiet and a growing sense of order.
One woman who was one of the most vocal of the dissenters, turned to me…”Hey, you’re a nice guy!” And was quiet from there on out…and I got home in time to give my cat his insulin shot and got to attend the State Convention as a delegate, anyway…all for speaking strong. Thanks, Meryl.
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