This is Keelin. She is the center of the universe.
I'm writing this because the center of the universe turns two years old today. That fact is causing a lot of emotions, thoughts, and wishes to well up inside me.
My wife and I often joke about how fast she seems to be growing up. Tomorrow, or perhaps the day after, she'll be starting elementary school. The week after that, she'll be getting her learner's permit to drive a car. Sometime in October, she'll be starting college. Or so it will seem, when she hits all of those milestones.
In 2004, I was just another progressive outraged at the hubris and policies of the Bush Administration. It was just me and my wife at the time, and I knew that we had to get rid of George W. Bush for the good of the country. I worked for Howard Dean, to the point of driving from coastal California to Las Vegas to pick up my oldest friend, then driving six hours to Flagstaff to canvass for Dean...after it was clear that John Kerry would be the nominee. After that, I worked hard for my local candidate for Congress, because California was a safe Kerry state. I spent I-don't-know-how-many hours working to elect Democrats in 2004. When both John Kerry and my local candidate were defeated, I took it hard. I kept it together until a good friend of mine called to see how I was reacting to the news, and then everything I had, I poured out to him. I spent a half-hour on the phone crying.
I didn't know then, of course, that Bush's victory was going to put Democrats in the position of strength going into 2006 and 2008, and indeed for the foreseeable future. What looked in 2003 like a burgeoning permanent Republican majority is in 2008 looking a lot like a playing field shifted dramatically in favor of the Democrats for some time to come.
My own outlook has changed. I see a lot of the world now through the eyes of a dad. Being a father is in one sense to be a goaltender. It's my job to protect Keelin from falling down the stairs, from oncoming cars, from the corner of the coffee table. To teach her right from wrong, to teach her the problem-solving skills that I believe little girls are shortchanged on because of gender roles in our society. To encourage her sense of wonder, to foster her appreciation of art, music, cinema, and all things wondrous and fun that life has to offer.
And it's sad that I have to say this about any major candidate for President, but it's become pretty clear to me over the past six months that I need to do what I can to protect her from living in an America where John McCain is president.
I don't want her to grow up in an America where a cranky old man who owns eight houses and thirteen cars is protecting a system where she'll earn 77 cents for every dollar one of her male counterparts makes.
I don't want to have to explain to her why the government can throw her father in jail for protesting the actions of the government, or that the government has claimed the right to make certain medical decisions for her without her input, or that no, we can't go to the park today because gas costs $12 a gallon and I need it to get to work.
I don't want her to grow up in a world where I have to work ten times harder as a parent because I'm shielding her from the R-rated horrors of an America that has continued to be run by Republicans - an America where selfishness, greed, aggression, lies, and an every-man-for-himself attitude are the predominant traits of the body politic.
This diary is not about me, or even this election. Not directly, anyway. You see, on the occasion of my beautiful little daughter's second birthday, I'm asking every member of this community to give her a gift that may seem small, but which very well have a profound effect on the world in which she lives. Do we want our children's first memories of the President to be of Barack Obama...or of John McCain?
Keelin's wishlist:
Donate money
Talk to your neighbors
Sign up for election day GOTV
I'm going to tell Keelin that a lot of people she doesn't know are working to make the world a better place for her. And although she'd probably still prefer the foam blocks we got her or the Mrs. Potato Head she received from relatives in California, I know that she's getting the greatest gift of all from strangers right here at Daily Kos - the gift of a better world.