First thing is, you need to understand I'm a big Irish American sap!
I love my husband, I love, love, love my kids, and I love this messy country of mine. Even now that I'm 52 and counting, after all this water under many of my bridges, I'm still just a child at heart, craving community and companionship, wanting to do good and find help when I need it.
And (yes, this old saying) it's the small things that count the most: The kind word, the helping hand, the door opened now and then, the nod or slight praise at a job well done.
Being who I am, Joe Biden and the DNC made my day today.
I got the kids off to school, talked to the husband about plans for tonight, did a little housework, then got into the car to pick up some food for dinner. When I came back home, arms laden with grocery bags, I grabbed the mail that my husband had left on the railing outside our back door. Then it was into the house, dropping bundles, closing windows (it had just started to sprinkle again here in Connecticut), picking up phone calls off the voice mail, my ear to the phone while I slit open envelopes off the stack of mail. Most of it was the usual stuff - magazines, bills, bills, bills, junk mail, school mail, then a big yellow envelope.
Return address? Joe Biden!
Now, I don't know Joe Biden. I like the guy. I'm glad Obama picked him as his running mate. I think he's smart, kind, honest, and I think her really loves his wife and kids. I like what he has to say and I like the fact that he doesn't meet with lobbyists. As the wife of a man who used to travel a LOT, I really like that he goes home to his family every night when he's working in Washington.
But there's no reason for him to be sending me mail.
Well, I turn the thing over. Ahh, it's from the DNC. It's just another request for contributions. I open the thing up and it's a PHOTOGRAPH. It's a color digital copy, 6X9 on an 8X10 white frame. It's Obama and Biden waving at the convention, arm in arm. And it's inscribed to me (Who cares that it's computer generated?!) -
"Patricia, Thank you for your remarkable commitment to our Party.
Warmest regards,
And signed it he did, in computer blue, Joe Biden!
Gosh, I have to say I felt like a teen fan. I think I even blushed. I felt like Obama and Biden were in the room with me, thanking ME personally for helping them out. I'm actually astonished at my own innocent thrill at being noted so personally for such a small contribution to the most important election, I believe, of my lifetime.
Of course it was only that I donated $50 bucks to the DNC. Two $25 donations over two months, just the way I donated to Howard Dean back in 2004.
Two small donations to say thanks to the DNC for saying NO to corporate lobbyists.
Small donations just like I'm giving Barack Obama each month because he's said NO to lobbyists. Because he's told us hope is audacious and that we need to work hard to fix the real problems facing us and our children. Because he's not a liar or a cynic.
I only did this thing, made these donations, because I love my country and because I believe that we, the people, can help our politicians stay clean if they get a lot of small money from regular people.
I wasn't expecting ANYTHING back in the way of thanks.
Of course, the picture came with another fund raising plea. I'd be disappointed if they'd spent what they had on me and my picture of Biden and Obama if they weren't keeping up the hard work of funding the fifty state strategy.
But most of all, it warmed me up and made me smile hard today to get that photograph of our country's next president and vice president. It made me feel like I'd done what I could, given what I had, supported the best in all of us. I felt like I was part of a larger effort, a community, that is calling out to the best in each of us.
Thanks Joe! Your photograph is up on my kitchen cork board, along with my kids' schedules and all the other post its, reminders, and loving detritus of my housewife's life.
You made my day!
If you want a shot at getting your own photo, give a small donation to the DNC. Keep them clean and support Howard Dean's fifty state strategy and help Obama/Biden win in November. Our small donations, our small voices, joining in a tremendous chorus, crying
Enough!
$25 is enough to change things if enough of us give it.
By the way, no one put me up to this diary. I did it because, yes, yes, yes, I love ya, Joe! Now I can look at you every morning, Joe, as I stand surrounded by dirty breakfast dishes, an overflowing garbage pail, stacks of forms to fill out, bills to pay, beds to make, laundry to wash, and I can see your smiling faces and smile right back at ya!