A personal journey. A Democrat's journey.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

This year and campaign season represented a number of firsts for me.

It is the first time I've gone to any kind of political meeting (meetups).

It is the first time I've ever contributed to any political campaign (Clark, then JK).

It is the first time I've ever done any kind of volunteer work for a campaign.

It is the first time I've ever called complete strangers on the phone to get them to volunteer, or to vote.


A little fire was lit in me, first by the manifest, alarming awfulness of the Bush Jr. administration and its Iraq War, but then by what I came to see as the entirely admirable qualities of John Kerry, the man and the candidate.

That fire spread from me to at least 2 other close friends of mine. Both cared about the race and about our country, but through our discussions, and, I think, ESPECIALLY over the concrete, visible fact that I was doing something to volunteer, stoked the fire in them to do so too. Both of these friends wound up contributing more money and substantially more volunteer effort than I ultimately did. Perhaps their fire spread to others that I don't know about.

I'm mostly shocked and numb over the outcome. Grief and tears, selfish tears for myself, and tears for Kerry and our country, have not come yet but they probably will.

But this little fire hasn't died out yet, and I don't want it to.

I'm not sure where we go, where I go from here. But I'm hoping this is just the beginning of something.

[Neecy]

1. it has been a journey, hasn't it?

I'm still in shock and disgusted beyond belief, and I've been trying to avoid memories of this campaign until the pain eases a little.

But last night, my sister and I walked out of the Uptown Theater in midtown KC - leaving a victory celebration that was anything but - and it reminded me of another cold evening leaving that same theater after seeing John Edwards when he was campaigning for the Missouri primary. I almost started to cry in the parking lot. So many hopes, gone completely. But at least I can hold my head up, knowing that I never gave in to ignorance, or fear, and I worked my hands off for a cause greater than myself.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. I want this year to be just the beginning of my personal, political

journey, not for it to have ended on the trail of tears that was election day 2004...