2 years ago today, July 28, 2006, a 26 year old girl who I had just started seeing died in a tragic accident. When she had first introduced herself to me at a bar a month before, she said her name was, "Kerry, spelled just like the presidential candidate." I told her I had spent some time in Florida during 2004 to try and help Kerry beat Bush but I had obviously spent too much time at the beach while down there based on the outcome. She laughed and I was smitten right away.
I've been kind of beating myself up about her passing ever since, because I spoke to her on the phone about 5 hours before she died. I keep thinking that if I had said or done something differently during that call, or in the week prior, I could have kept her from going where she went that night. Instead we made plans to go out that Sunday, we hung up, and of course I never heard from her again.
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If you are wondering what any of this has with Barack Obama and John McCain, the fact is that Kerry is a big part of the reason why I decided to start paying attention to politics again. After the 2004 election I had kind of given up on America, I was so disappointed with my countrymen for re-electing a President who was so obviously deficient in every way imaginable. Did people not care about the war? How could they believe the Swift Boat ads? I gave up and joined the ranks of regular Americans, allowing myself to be sedated by TV, music and movies, ignoring the depressing news from the political arena and any mention of Iraq.
But after I found out about Kerry's death I decided to wake up and pay attention again, for 2 reasons. One is, I know that Kerry would have gotten involved. She was studying to get her Masters in Social Work at Columbia. That summer she had been working at a camp with kids, and when she graduated she was going to work with immigrants, to help people with an appreciation of the freedom promised by America to get acclimated to their new home. I have no doubt that Kerry would be pouring every ounce of her passion and energy into helping Barack Obama retake the White House for those who care more about people than profits this fall.
The second reason is the guilt. The feeling that if I had done something more I could have saved her gnaws at me every day. And while that feeling will probably never go away, I have resolved that on November 5th I am not going to wake up with the feeling that there will be more people dying over the next 4 years that I could have saved but failed through lack of effort...
I don't want to have to second guess myself if some kid dies because President McCain vetoed a bill that would have given her health care.
I don't want to have to beat myself up if a 19 year old kid gets blown up by an IED in Iraq in 2011, a year after President Obama would have returned that kid home to his family.
Everybody in this community has their own reasons why they care, and why they get involved, but I believe we all have compassion and empathy for our fellow human beings in common. Keep your reasons in mind over the next 100 days while you continue the fight. Believe me when I say that if we lose, the only way we are going to be able to live with ourselves, is if we know that we did our best.