It's far too easy these days to lose one's hope. See your core values regarded with such disdain and disinterest by the party in power long enough and it's easy. Watch as the party in power treats its the people as an annoyance long enough and it's easy. Look around and realize that people are taking as second nature what the party in power does and it's easy. The last two presidential elections took quite a toll on Ohio, as they surely have elsewhere. The anger
we all felt in the days following the last election has far too often been replaced with a much more dangerous emotion:
Apathy. But apathy, I've found, is an emotion foreign to my home state's Democratic push this fall. Hope has replaced hopelessness. Fearlessness has replaced fear. This fall, in Ohio, things will be different. There's something in the air.
For those of you
not in Ohio, I hope that my recent dispatches have given you hope for a better Buckeye State outcome this fall. Over the last three weekends, I've had the opportunity to see this coming change from the inside, meeting Ohio's Democratic candidates and, more importantly, meeting Ohio's motivated citizens. It all started when more people than should have safely been allowed stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a northeast Ohio Democratic Party office opening. There, people of all races, all economic backgrounds, all ages and all constituencies joined to meet each other, meet Ohio's next U.S. Senator,
Sherrod Brown, and meet the coming days with an enthusiasm and a determination unseen in this state for years. The next weekend, I saw more than 1,000 people fill a ballroom to the rafters to see Bill Clinton speak in support of Ohio's Democratic candidates, including the state's next governor,
Ted Strickland. There, an equally diverse group came together to recognize the important role women play in politics and society and, to be sure, forge new alliances to see that Ohio turns blue this November. But if it's true that what is past is prologue, yesterday's inspiring event no doubt helped set the stage for a main act worth working for.
Billed as yet another chance to meet Brown (and, to the journalist in me, Brown's Pulitzer Prize-winning wife,
Connie Schultz), Friday night's gathering at a family farm in rural Ashtabula County was so much more. It provided Casey and I the opportunity to leave the city and meet some real Ohioans, folks reminiscent of those we both grew up around during our small-town upbringings. It allowed us to to not only see firsthand the hardship the Republican Party's policies have caused in the area, but also the determination for change they have provoked. It again refreshed our spirits and recharged our batteries, giving us the
hope and
optimism we need to keep us going through election day. And, on a day when we learned that the party in power had forged a "compromise" on
torture, excusing the inexcusable, Friday's gathering showed us that not all was lost and that good people were working night and day to return government to the people.
What struck me the most wasn't necessarily the truly wonderful speech Brown made. Or the the massive crowd that has become an all-too-familiar, yet welcome, sight. Not even the great food. No, what struck me the most was the heartfelt speech an area farmer made prior to introducing the candidate. He represented a dying breed - the family farmer - a proud, important trade abandoned by the Republican Party's policies. The same Republican Party, mind you, with which both he and his wife were registered. That's right, the man who spoke with such a purpose about the importance of electing a progressive, anti-war, pro-stem cell research, pro-environment, pro-equal rights Democrat was, in fact, a recovering Republican. A Republican stung by his party's
abandonment of its core principles in favor of a corporatist, pro-Big Business philosophy that relies on scaring Americans and whipping hateful religious extremists into a frenzy every election. A Republican comfortably at home in a room of Democrats, something I don't think can be said about the opposite scenario. A Republican realizing that hope transcends affiliation and desire for change can no longer be repressed - even by one's own party.
So thank you for again granting me the opportunity to share the spirit I've found surrounding the coming election - and beyond - in my home state. Thank you for doing all that you have done and will do as November approaches. Above all else, thank you for indulging in yet another of my you-
had-to-be-there moments. Here's the thing, though. To feel what I've felt, you
didn't have to be there. Sure, what's happening right now in Ohio is nothing short of amazing. But what I saw last night and what I've been seeing of late isn't isolated to Ohio.
It can't be. I'm positive that you could find equally inspiring moments in Pennsylvania. In Montana. In Tennessee. In Connecticut. And beyond. Wherever you go, you'll find people not only fed up with the status quo, but also motivated to do something about it. To, as I've said before, use
our power to
take power. To ensure a blue November. There's something in the air. Can you feel it, too?
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