When I was a little girl, my parents took me to a 3-ring circus. They built the excitement up daily until the moment we entered the big tent and took our seats. I watched the elephants march trunk-to-tail, the trapeze artists swing and catch one another, and the clowns drive their funny cars, I turned to my parents and asked: “When are we going to DO something?”
This is one of those family stories my parents like to tell over and over. It’s my nature to rebel against simply being a spectator. It’s the way I’ve approached everything in my life. My drive to achieve and accomplish centers around DOING and not WATCHING.
That drive is what compelled me to train for and complete an Ironman competition.
That drive is what compelled me to begin law school at age 50.
And that drive pushes me to act on behalf of the residents of the 14th State Senate district in Tennessee by running for office.
Tennessee is crimson red. We have our little pockets of blue in our cities: Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis, Chattanooga. But outside of the cities, in rural Tennessee, Trump is king.
Tennessee rural voters bought into the illusion that Donald Trump was their candidate, that he would make their lives better, and take America to a place where they could revert to old language habits, old gender roles, and old hierarchy in which they felt more comfortable and in control.
I ran for this seat in the 2016 cycle. As I campaigned in the rural parts of the district, I met voter after voter who could benefit from every program for which the the Democrats fiercely fight: healthcare, education funded with a vision, and improved infrastructure. Voter after voter listened politely (we are southerners, after all), and told me they are, were, and always will be, Republican.
These are lovely little communities — beautiful stately old courthouses, rolling hillsides, lush horse farms with miles of white fencing. It’s hard to resolve the paradox: these farmers and families who have a long heritage of helping one another through hard times, who come together to grieve and grow, who put in a long hard honest days’ work. How can they be endorsing and supporting a man with the faults, failings, and selfishness our president has displayed?
These are people who would not dream of mocking a disabled person, a war hero, or a Gold Star family, yet they are giving their most precious of civic rights, their vote, to a bullying, insensitive, incompetent carnival barker.
But with the true spirit of an optimist, the passion of a tender-hearted liberal, and the drive of an over-achiever, I believe we can do so much better. I believe the voices of reason and compassion can be heard over the cacophony of divisiveness, hatefulness, and discord.
In the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears A Who, every single member of the community was necessary for the forces of evil to hear that we are indeed, here. On a grander scale, we each have the responsibility for our own singular Yop, that tipping of the balance that moves us from invisible to visible, where justice drowns out inequality, diversity triumphs over orthodoxy, and community overcomes separatism.
So, simply, that’s my strategy. I want to raise every single voice of reason in my Republican-dominated, Fox News watching, gerrymandered, church-going district. We’re here. We’re beat down, beat up, and outnumbered, but we’re finished tending our wounds. We’re finished waiting. We’re registering voters, scheduling poll taxis, emailing, calling, texting, messaging, and door-knocking.
Please follow along. Our special election is March 13, 2018. Click if you want the newsletter. Or visit here for updates.