My Adventure in Obamaland

Yesterday my wife and I participated as delegates to the Washington State legislative district caucus at in a local middle school gymnasium.

The place was packed with over 600 Democrats, swamping the local party officials and creating huge lines, long waits and plenty of confusion.

The meeting opened at 10 AM but the report from the credential committee necessary to open offical business had not still arrived by 1:30 and by 3:00 another group had rented the building.   Finally we broke into smaller groups of Hillary and Obama supporters and went about the frantic and chaotic business of electing delegates to the next level without much guidance or structure from the overwhelmed event organizers.  

What happened next in our small group meeting makes me smile with pride.

Our group  had close to sixty people, of which seventeen chose to run for delegate to the state convention.  They sat in a semicircle in front of us and each gave a brief speech about why we should vote for them to stand up for Obama at the next level.   A true cross section of America, wealthy, poor, young, old, male, female, black, white.... each rose to tell their story shouting over the other groups about why we should send them on to support Obama.

My favorite moment was when...
A white haired grannie in a prim and proper voice said.. "Why should you vote for me??  because nothing could make me waver from voting for Obama. They could even waterboard me and I wouldn't change my mind."

And they all spoke in turn..  with courage,  conviction and hope.  And what began as an assembly of strangers started to change.  It became a warm and caring family committed to action.

I wish I could have voted for them all.  
Each one became so beautiful when they spoke out for Obama.
The shy man who said, "I never speak in public, but I really want to take this to the next level."
As the minister said, "I used to think it was enough just to vote, but now I know I need to get involved in the process.  I don't have the money to go to the national convention, but I can sell my scooter."
The young long haired guy said, "Hearing Obama has changed  my life, I've never voted for a president before, now I'm totally committed. I've volunteered over 200 hours so far and I'm traveling to other states to work on his campaign."

The financial analyist said, "Obama is the only one who can bring us all together".

And on that day... Obama did.

We could only elect four delegates and two alternates from our group.
but by participating in such an honest and beautiful sharing... we all have won.