One Good Thing Came Out of This Election.

[leanin_green]

When I first married into my current family my wife had a grown 20 year-old daughter with nary a thought about current events or matters of a political nature. Like most her age, her husband and she mostly cared about the next party, concert, outdoor entertainment and the like. We rarely discussed any of the above subjects and I never preached or pushed them one way or another. I believe you shouldn't try to go through closed doors, especially after knocking and finding no one home.

Then came 2004. As the adventure in Iraq was showing it's inevitable decline and a new child in the picture, little questions from the daughter began to find their way into conversation. At first, they were the typical musings of what passes for conventional wisdom here in southern Utah. You've heard them, the canned, media-fed talking points of the clueless and uninformed. I waited, patiently listening, and asking questions that I knew were personally relevant to her generation.

As the campaign drew more fevered and the Republican smear machine more incendiary, I found this otherwise bright and curious young woman growing more interested in the issues that faced all of us. We began to enter into lively discussions about just how things worked(?) in politics and Washington in general. I asked her and her husband if they were registered to vote. The common response came back about it doesn't make a difference, or why bother?

This is when I brought out a printed copy of the Pentagon's study on what it would take to institute the draft if it became necessary. About the ages and the possibility of the "urgent needs conscription of medical personnel and heavy equipment operators." This directly affected my step-daughter's husband, as he was in the excavation business of his father's and had a wide range of experience with operating heavy machinery. I told them how they had better take a closer look at how this election could effect them and their age group. I even told about how this draft exploration plan even included the ages up to 49 and could include me because of my service as a Field Corpsman with the US Marines in 76-80. I'm 46 now, but I pointed out as things got more desperate, and they would, it wasn't inconceivable that they would come after others like me.

Needless to say, this peaked their attention and got her active in studying the issues, that even carries over to this day. They voted for Kerry, and since then, she has watched the Rice confirmation hearings, the electoral challenge, and has sought me out on numerous issues that are occurring in the world today.

So congratulate me fellow DUer's, we have a convert and a new young mind that has entered the fray.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Well good job!

Make sure she doesn't switch back in a few years.:-)

[Jim Sagle]

2. Ya dun good, lg!

:toast:

[susanna]

3. Excellent approach.

Well done, leanin_green!