A few words more, honest neighbor

I will always remember the day after Obama won. It was like waking up in love. A deliciousness of conscious. Hope. A belief that anything is possible. It was in the eyes and on the smiles of people I passed on the street. Something unspoken… but all the more powerful because there was this unifying satisfaction that our leap into the stratosphere landed us on solid ground.

I cried again this morning. I know I have some theatrical demonstrations of emotion. But crying, if you don’t know me, is something I don’t like to do in public. Much less admit to doing. And that’s why I cried in my car and sat in the driver’s seat an extra few minutes to gain composure before coming into the office.

It’s just an election. And, honestly, it is a necessary lesson to our Democrat hubris. We have to realize we aren’t the only people who live here. We have to realize the might of the beast against whom we struggle to govern this state and country.

There is a lot of talk about how Martha failed in her campaign. How she screwed up and took it all for granted. Um… it wasn’t just her. It was me. I volunteered to help, but didn’t want to make phone calls. So I just wrote a couple blogs to be read by a dozen people – half of whom can’t vote in this state… and half of whom don’t need me to convince them. I talked to the choir about Coakley. But I didn’t go out and shout. I took it for granted that Massachusetts would do the right thing.

My Conservative friends, I love you. I do. And I struggle this morning to accept the joy you must be feeling. Maybe you have that high that floated me a year and some months ago. Maybe you believe that this is the turning point of our miserable situation. Maybe you are right… in that it will make your world a better place.

My world is not a better place. I don’t think it is a good thing for this country to trash health care reform. I don’t think we should give insurance companies that power to deter us from progress. I don’t think we should determine a failure of a political ideology just because it takes time to clean up a mess, to fix things so they don’t break again. I am scared that whatever progress (minor though it may be) we made since last January is going to reverse. I am scared. I am scared that intolerant attitudes and ignorance have such a mighty voice.

Fear is illogical. It requires information to weaken fear. From all sides. I am going to set forth and educate myself. And fight against the power of ignorance and greed. Maybe that’s my intolerance declaring those adjectives… but my heart feels this morning that is what won. Not a determination to make the world better for everyone.

But… as I keep saying, words are cheap. And last night I felt… I felt my vote was cheap. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to type up a blog. It wasn’t enough to fill in a little dot in a school gym. I need to do more. I need to represent myself and my beliefs better… so the men… and women who represent me make me want to fly.

This isn’t going to happen in November. I’m going to pony up and campaign for Patrick. Because I believe in him. And I believe that a pendulum that swings so swiftly in one direction is going to swing back before it stops.