About fifteen years ago I was very politically active. In college I helped to create a student watchdog club where we monitored the environmental crimes going on in the Bay Area, and took part in the issues that the local unions were concerned with. At one point we rallied for more safety measures in the refinery in Richmond, California, a cause which I had worked hard for, but which, in the end, had lost, due to the mechanisms of the refinery owners, who were (with their great monetary resources) able to send back to the stone age workers' safety, and which caused me great disillusionment in my ability to foment real change in our political and social infrastructure.
After that, I just sort of drifted. I mean I went on with my life, and went to school, and earned all my degrees and such. But for a long time I was embittered in the idea that people such as me could really make a difference.
Till I came here.
I found out about Daily Kos from some traditional media site (I can't remember which one now) which referred to this "influential, aggressive, left-wing" blog in almost fearsome words, and which naturally led me to check out this Daily Kos thing, b/c OMG, left-wing, aggressive, and influential? For real? A blog which, according to the article I was reading, was a helpmeet for the sorts of causes that I had always believed in, and were actually making progress in getting such things going?
Goddam. No shit.
So I came here, at last. And I read. And I read. And I read. And I even made an account. And even started diaring about it (as pathetic as my diaries may have been). And I read. And I learned. But what I learned most of all is that within the new technology of the blogosphere people like me can make things happen! Yes! That this is what we've been needing all this time, but a free, and uncensored, place where folks like me could come together to make things happen! No effin' shit!
Well. For several weeks DKos became everything to me--it symbolized everything I'd believed in previously, but unlike my own paltry efforts, DKos actually got things done. I donated to causes here (especially against Prop 8), I engaged in the discussions, I felt that at long last I found a community who Got It, and who had an enormous power, simply because it was made up of smart people willing to get the job done, and dedicate themselves to causes in a way which was well beyond my own timid efforts back in college.
For the first time in a long while, I believed once more in the power of people to foment change.
I've had my issues with DKos (like with the pootie thing, which I've come to reconcile at long last). I have even had my issues with Markos, who I don't really like all the time--but you know, it is 'cause of him (and the fact the he lets shit ride even if he doesn't always agree with it), and it's 'cause of you guys, that I feel that there's some hope in the world after all, even when there seems to be nothing left but pooties and woozles and recipes.
You guys let me know that there are good people out there, still. People who are brave, and honest, and who will fight to ensure that We the People is a real and true thing, for us all. And so I just want to thank you for that, and thank you so much for the insights, the renewed hope, and the kindness that you have shown to me in this place.
And now, for some woozles:
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