It's decision time. I am going to be 35 and so this is my last year I can claim membership in MYDFL or to be "young", so it's time to start passing on some of my insight from my experience in the DFL to the young people who I have met in the last year or so, and to introduce them to the elders in our part of the DFL/Progressive/Radical universe. (Although one has told me he can't make an appearance - it is too late and past his bedtime).
And I have spent too much of my social capital and good credit working to secure a victory for Democratic candidates that fall short of what we seem to want here in Minnesota. I need to replenish my coffers of cash and goodwill. Its my birthday, theirs a party, in Minneapolis, 210 miles south from where I sit and type this now.
I am in limbo. I have moved out of the sober house I holed up in since the DFL State Convention in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis. I started drinking again to be more social and relieve stress when I got back into politics in a meaningful way, volunteering for my DFL Senate District unit, for the Obama campaign, and State Representative Karen Clark - who totally deserved my support for her work on preserving wild rice, in supporting other important legislation on healthcare and poverty.
I do need to decide what I should be doing for the next year or so. I am perfectly willing to volunteer for a few weeks on the U.S. Senate recount, or to go back home to Bemidji and take up darkhouse spearfishing for the winter, or even jump ship to Bali, where I imagine I'd and found some colony of anti-war refuseniks from the West.
If you are in Minneapolis you can help shape my decision.
Initially I proposed $1 = 1 vote, running a tally all night long, allowing voting as often as you'd wish, or cast fistfuls of big bills into the ballot boxes. Since then I have talked to IRV proponents from FairVote Minnesota and decided to set it up a different way, where you cast one IRV balot, and we have a seperate collection for funds representing the influence of money in our elections, with your dollar bills going into clear containers representing your intent to support one choice or another, or proprtionaly towards ranked choice.
We'll start around 8:45, stay for as long as it is comfortable, maybe catch up to other B-day celebrants in other parts of town, or start some mayhem downtown after Bali throws us out and closes the polls... I used to dance religiously at a venue called The Front, very proletariat, no cover, lots of Prince, funk, and popular dance tunes, gets interesting around midnight, dance till 3 AM.
The venue is the new Indonesian restaurant next to India House on Eat Street: Bali 1410 Nicollet Ave S.
I don't want to be part of your revolution if I can't dance, travel to Indonesia or eat good Indonesian food, and carouse around Minneapolis, Las Vegas and Los Angeles with my pornstar friends. Enjoy freedom, constantly test its boundaries, or lose it.