Civic Responsibility

I attended a 'meet and greet' with the standing governor at a friend's home yesterday.  He has recently begun campaigning for a second term. I have been kicking around the idea of getting involved in the campaign this time around for a while. I committed to do so yesterday.

Like his friend, President Obama, Governor Patrick won his 2006 election by a grass roots effort focused on change.  His slogan ( once borrowed by President Obama) was "Together We Can." Like President Obama, he was successsful in engaging sectors of the voting pool who traditionally haven't been very active ( the young  and poor, parts of the state outside of metropolitan Boston for example) ...and like President Obama, he has had a difficult time implementing the change that he campaigned for, in large part due to staunch resistance of the legislature ( for Obama, Congress) to changing the the status quo.

Historically, I have not really very been interested in politics.  I HAVE had an acute awareness of the fact that in another generation, I as a woman and African American, would not have been allowed to vote,and it has caused me to exercise that privilege regularly but frankly, the choices between candidates and parties didn't seem to matter so much until recently.

The things that are important t me ( the planet, education of our youth, the economy, health care among them) are at grave risk. I have to do my part.