Vote For Me

I’m running for the school board in my small Connecticut town. One of my tasks was to get as many of my friends and family as I could to write letters of endorsement for me. I emailed and posted my request and several days later, I got this from my Uncle Art in Florida:

Hi Cindy –

I am just now getting around to doing what I planned to do a couple of weeks ago. What is that?

Why congratulating you on running for the Board of Education!! This makes me think of a good future for all of us because I am sure you will win and after a couple of terms to get things straightened out in the schools and such you will run for the House or Senate from Conn. and start to get things straightened out in Washington!

I may not be around by that time but I want you to know I can dream now about how wonderful it will be then!!!

Other than that BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR RACE IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS!!!

Is your Dad your manager?

Love from Art

This isn’t exactly the kind of endorsement letter I was looking for, but it sure is one I welcomed. Besides the blatant familial compliments, I share this letter for the following reasons:

1. It was my first letter of endorsement.

2. I want to assure my family that being a career politician is not what I have in mind.

3. I’m almost 60.

4. Uncle Art is 96.

Those last two points are important; getting involved in local politics is for people of any age.

Even after last year’s election catalyzed hundreds of thousands of people into becoming more interested in their local government, I believe it continues to be a challenge for some to convert the jolt of last November’s outcome to the energy available to make a difference locally.

I get it. More than a few of my friends walked around last year as if in a nuclear winter. (Maybe that’s where the term “snowflake” was derived.) The shock and disbelief that a man so egregious and distrustful could become the President of the United States was a terrible blow. After the collective dumbfounded jaw-dropping, some people turned off their TVs and their social media and went in search of solace and clarity. Others planned marches, wrote essays and woke up to individual obligations. I did those 2nd and 3rd things…I wrote essays and joined the local Democratic Town Committee.

The first night I went, I walked in to big room with a small group. But as the months went by, some more folks showed up. Soon it was time to talk about who was interested in being a candidate for the elections in November. I was asked to run for the school board. I said yes. I’m not flattering myself here; I know how tantalizing it is to have new blood walk unsuspectingly into a committee. But I did make a commitment to myself to be more involved than just voting. One of my co-candidates is young man in his twenties and his energy and enthusiasm helped convince me that this was a good idea.

In our town, we are not highly politicized; it used to be that the years they won, we were okay and the years we won, they were ok. But now it seems that many of us and them are not okay. We’re not satisfied to sit back and wait for the tide to turn away from the kind of daily blame and swamp-building of our current president. The most tragic loss for our country last November was not the results of the election, but the demise of the possibility of having a genuine, balanced conversation about government…of any kind. We need people using their time, energy and experience to bring reason back into our two (sometimes three) party democracy and not having to constantly be on the lookout for the next attack.

From where I stood…and admittedly that’s a little to the left…it was time for me to do something more than write essays and complain. At my age, I’m not contemplating a career in politics. Really. But age isn’t a limiting factor in becoming involved in some way or another. Running for office isn’t for everyone. Everybody can’t run.

But everybody can vote.

Don’t forget to vote in your local elections on Tuesday, November 7th.

Your vote is your voice. Be heard.