This weekend two of my best friends were married. I'm incredibly proud of them, not just because they're great people who have a strong commitment to one another, but because of their political evolution this year. I saw them go from not-particularly-involved to traveling to Iowa to work for Dean to hosting Kerry house parties. They're both young, college educated, motivated, and strongly commited to a better future for all of us.
A potential disaster arose in the days before the wedding. We found out that the DFL was holding a fundraising rally for Rep. Betty McCollum at the same time as the wedding, just 20 feet away from the ceremony site in a park. Frantic calls to the DFL were made and staffers promised to keep it down until after the wedding. It turned out that all the worry was for nothing, as the good people at the rally were incredibly nice and came out to congratulate the couple before the ceremony, then made themselves scarce until it was over.
The next day they found out that the kindness of the DFL extended beyond keeping quiet when asked. Someone had slipped a gift from Rep. McCollum herself into their pile of presents: a flag flown over the Capitol with a certificate of authenticity addressed to them by their full names. Now that's attention to detail - a staffer would have had to call the city to find out the names of the couple who had rented that part of the park that day and get Rep. McCollum to write a personal note.
As we left the ceremony site we made sure to grab a Kerry/Edwards sign from the rally for important purposes later:
My friends are on their honeymoon now, but before they left they asked me to post this story here. They wanted you all to know that they start their marriage committed to each other and to making our country a better place. They're great people and we're very lucky to have the likes of them on our side. Congratulations, Matt and Stephanie!