Passing along thanks from Harry Reid to the Daily Kos community

The Reid quilt by the Reeds!

The Daily Kos staff just had our annual retreat in Austin, a jam-packed three days of working, strategizing, socializing and reconnecting. That was fantastic, but made even better by what was waiting for me in the mail when I got home at midnight Thursday.

It was this lovely note from former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, yet another recipient of this community’s goodwill. Back in January, we posted the call for a token of the community’s thanks to Reid, and our support for him and his family as he deals with treatment for pancreatic cancer. The resulting quilt, “Steward of the State,” (pictured above) is one of the most striking I think Sara and Ann have accomplished yet.

I’m not the only one who thinks so, judging by his note, in which he thanks us for the “iconic quilt.” It “will be in my family forever,” he writes. “The two Reeds who did this are to be complimented.” 

Hear, hear!!!

When I forwarded the quilt, I reminded him that he had been at the first Yearly Kos and while there, had signed a quilt block for one of the very first quilts produced in the Community Quilts project. I also referenced the remarkable exchange between him and Lt. Dan Choi I had the immense privilege to participate in at the second Las Vegas Netroots Nation convention. Here’s what he said about that: “Because of the setting that day, ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ got a vote.”

We can do incredible things together in this community. Thank you so much, everyone in Community Quilts, for reminding us of that, for emulating the best of what and who we are.