DKos Asheville held its 6th meet up yesterday and it was a wonderful day of fellowship, inspiration and food.
So delicious!
The DKos meet up yesterday (Saturday, October 4th) at The Cantina Restaurant in Biltmore Village Asheville was... simply lovely! Gordon20024 drove in from Roanke in plenty of time, looking good and glad not to have to man the grill for a change... Thanks, A. We love you. And thanks for providing this wonderful food.
This close to the election there were no pressing action issues pending, as we're all pretty much doing/having done what we could to make sure things turn around in this state come next month. Though some will be manning phones and canvassing in their locales even as we approach early voting. Some of us will be volunteering vehicles to transport voters to the polls come election day, since we will have already voted by then. So the gathering was primarily a meet-and-greet and gab-fest, and these are some gabby Kossacks, let me tell ya! Stories flying all over the room, each tantalizing and fascinating and in serious need of chronicling. Hmmm... there may be a DKos A-ville book in the works one of these days!
Otteray Scribe showed with daughter Mary Beth and ever so talented granddaughter Burns Lass, bringing with him two gorgeous quilts made by Sara R and holding the prayers and best wishes of more Kossacks than I've ever met in person! These obviously mean the world to OS and family, and it was touching to feel and read them up close, and see the photo book of the Reed, the boy with the gorgeous eyes, lost too soon. I think he might have been smiling on the gathering, it sure felt so. And big waves from all of us to OS's son, Aviator Doc.
Tom Sullivan enjoyed the meal and fellowship. He's been manning the fort at Asheville's Scrutiny Hooligans political blog, writing the morning screed at Digby's Hullabaloo, serving as the Vice-Chair of the Buncombe County Democratic Party, and with fingers in a bunch of political pies as well as on a couple of dozen political pulses. We were honored to have Tom there sporting his DKos Asheville tie dye T-shirt that SteelerGrrl made for him last year.
Land of Enchantment showed her pretty face and talked glowingly about not just her long-term "employment" at DKos' Election Diary Rescue project, but another project out of Berkeley called the Living New Deal. She'd spent the morning visiting New Deal projects in the local environs and taking pictures for the project, and mentioned a few more she might visit on her way back to... central Tennessee! LoE has now been to DKos meet ups in four states! jnhobbs accompanied LoE, and was a total delight. He's been to every NN gathering, I think, and is totally into the possibilities for real on-the-ground activism we Kossacks could be attaching ourselves to. Sort of like barnacles.
joieau spoke about her rich history at Election Diary Rescue and how it is important to collect and publish the vast works of Kossacks reporting on individual candidates, issues and races. It was so awesome having three EDR crew members in one spot. We are part of a crew that has been collecting these diaries since 2006.
Lamont Cranston was powered up on all kinds of projects, not the least of which is the one in Burnsville that involves llamas, sheep and alpacas. His reasoned analysis of the state of political affairs in North Carolina - having done a good deal of homework - was that far too many local/state races are going without any Democratic challengers whatsoever. That, we all agreed, is unacceptable. ALWAYS field a challenger! For that there needs to be an active 12-month a year Democratic Party apparatus that's really interested in doing things political, and that is something this state has been sadly lacking for far too many years. There was ample discussion of things we could do to turn that around. Not this cycle, but most certainly before 2016. That will be a focus in future get-togethers for sure.
Our own dear DawnN of the famous singing group (and bodyguard contingent for some notables of the Moral Monday movement) known as the "Green Grannies" - as well as famous local extension service Bee Lady - talked about the almost total lack of affordable housing in and around the city of Asheville, and we pondered the Big Question of "Why?" about that. Asheville's charm is largely its quirkiness, and that is completely attributable to the quirky people who live here. When quirky people - for whom money is not abundant or a goal in life - can't afford to live here anymore, what's the big draw for all those millions of tourists our local economy depends upon? Definitely an issue worth some energy going forward, and it'll be an item on future meeting agendas. When we will no doubt invite some local pols and give 'em the third degree.
DKos Asheville founding father davehouck came bearing gifts - copies of the voting rules and schedules - as they stand, not as appealed (since that stay will probably get stayed), so we're well armed to be founts of good information to all friends and neighbors and interested strangers going into early voting and election day. Our Zen-cool godfather is always a source of peaceful smiles, especially for those of us who tend to run in overdrive all the time. Ommmmm...
SteelerGrrl was there to talk about her tie-dye enterprise, and to get kudos from at least one household whose heirloom tomatoes - which she gave away at the last meet-up as seedlings - are still producing at this late date. It's supposed to be in the mid-30s tonight, but if they don't frost they'll still be going until it does. Gotta love 'em, they're tasty as heck! SteelerGuy talked as well of transitioning during this lousy economy opportunity into establishing themselves as artists in a way that will enable their chosen lifestyle in their chosen home. That's a regular big deal in this "chronically depressed" region of Appalachia, where so many of us live just because it's so beautiful and will try our best to make it work, for as long as we possibly can. Not just textile arts, but music as well. And Lord knows there's some singularly spectacular music that gets made around here.
people power granny chimed in about the many great life and mission stories she listened to from the attendees, talking about things she's learning about writing narrative memoirs, and what fascinating ones we represent. Her researches into the writings of local legend Thomas Wolfe demonstrate that his stories are a version of episodic memoirs, written in the bold style. We encouraged her to get some 'stuff' together for the next meet-up, so that any of us who do pen such things can give her due credit in the intros!
New attendee raincrow came east from Tennessee to gift us with her good humor and quick mind. A molecular biologist with much to offer, we look forward to future good works we can accomplish with her help. One of our guests Phil is an energy engineer with a strong sideline of social justice, who asked "who are the 'newly marginalized'?" in our society. Active in many local groups and causes, we got invited to a pot luck on Monday night for the 'Care for Creation Alliance' that looks to be highly enriching if we can make it. If not, we plan to keep in touch for sure, since there's some finger pies there that could definately prove very useful to the Quest. He'll be on our DKos Asheville invite list from now on, for sure.
I finished up the day with a little juggling and magic to send everyone on their way with good cheer.
Now all we have to do is get navajo and Meteor Blades to give up and come in for refreshments one of these days!
This meet up had attendees from Roanoke, Nashville, Knoxville, Southern Appalachia, Bunsville, Asheville and more. Makes one wonder if we could pull off a three day regional gathering next year...............hmmmmm.
Thanks for coming everyone!
SteelerGuy, SteelerGrrl, Otteray Scribe, burns Lass, Mary Beth
Land of Enchantment's nose, jnhobbs, LamontCranston, DawnN, davehouck
people power granny
raincrow
Otteray Scribe and Burns Lass with SteelerGrrl looking on