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Thursday, March 27, 2003
I just made the first monetary political campaign contribution of my life, and this man is the reason why...
 Here's what I received via email after I made my online donation ... Thank you for your contribution to Dean for America.I'm fairly jaded when it comes to most democratic presidential candidates. By the time they get in the game, or even into that oval office, it seems any pre-existing idealism or enthusiasm they might have had has been washed away in a sea of compromise and concession. I don't see a sign of that in former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. My bullshit meter is pretty sensitive, but it rests squarely on zero when I hear this man speak. Many of the things that come out of his mouth might sound cliche out of anyone else's, but they just don't. He's a freakin' breath of fresh air in a world of gasbags. S'funny... I had to come to this conclusion in spite of an existing connection to him. Y'see, my dad spent a number of years in his administration, and I spent the first 28 of my life growing up in Vermont. It would have been all too easy for me to fall in blindly behind the man, getting all rah-rah-rah-gung-ho about my so-called 'homestate underdog', and because of that, I was even more curious, more skeptical. If I was going to put my considerably small but enthusiastic weight into the campaign, I was going to be damn sure it was for the right reasons. And so I read a ton of speeches, followed a bunch of links, watched a bunch of interviews. Dug deep and discovered that my previous connections to him were a stroke of luck; they allowed me to find my near-perfect candidate at an early stage in the game... to dive in and line up with like-minded folks at a grass-roots level where I might be able to actually do some good. It's pretty inspiring...  ... just like his speech last night at the JFK Library in South Boston. Granted, it's not like he was speaking in a Republican hotbed (it's Massachusetts, after all), but he really got the 600+ standing-room crowd going. He's come a long way as a public speaker, and it showed through both at the podium and as noted commentator / anonymous author / Time reporter Joe Klein lobbed questions at him during a post-speech interview. He also handled himself well during an all-too-brief audience Q&A near the end of the evening, before he was whisked away to another area fundraiser.  I'll skip the details of his speech, the interview, and the questions, since a transcription of the event will eventually be available here, and a video might even be available here at some point. Suffice it to say, his words gave me hope at a time when there's not a whole lot of it to go around. If you've got some surf time, check out the official Dean For America website, the Dean Call to Action weblog, or take a look at Dean Action Net. Even better, how about coughing up some cash or even volunteering? If you're as frustrated and saddened by our country's current administration as I am, there may not be a better way to spend your extra time or money. Check out a few other photos I took here, and some shots from another supporter right here. My favorite campaign slogan of the night? "Beantown is Deantown!" Go Dean!  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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