Political Revolution in My Town

About a week before our July 29 meeting for Bernie, I got a call from someone who needed a ride to the event, and she turned out to be our special guest.

Willa Kenoyer worked on Bernie's first Congressional campaign "back in the day" and is eager to be involved in his bid for the presidency. She will be doing a meet up for Bernie at the retirement home where she lives because she says, "Those people don't even know who Bernie is!".

It was standing room only with a 75% show rate which is good for this town. Out of the 185 Bernie supporters assembled half were men and half women. As a local activist, I am used to meeting with other greybeards such as myself, so the age spread was thrilling with 37% younger than 30 and 37% older than fifty. One woman commented that it was so wonderful to see the youth in the room with students from high school as well as college.

Will, as cohost, is my idea of what hope is. Animated by Bernie's message of "Enough is Enough!", he steps forward to work for that new vision of America. As a union organizer and deeply committed Bernie campaigner, he will be holding trainings on how to get this done.
My other cohost, Marcia, has taken on the very special project of facilitating those who live in rural areas to get Bernie's message out in these traditionally conservative pockets. Marcia knows as well as Bernie does that we are all Americans no matter where we live. A lifelong Republican, she is a newly minted Democrat and has forged contacts from the State capitol to Eugene.
The youth at this meeting intoxicated me. One incredibly smart High School Senior from a small conservative town stayed long after others had left to talk ideas and plans. Six seriously energetic and committed High School girls already had plans to register everyone at their school. They left with a big stack of registration forms and contacts in the community they could draw from.

Over two-thirds of the crowd not only signed up for Bernie's field campaign but signed up for local efforts. The campaign began as people walked out the door with their much prized Bernie buttons and bumper stickers. Just three days later, we were tabling for Bernie at our Farmer's Market where campaign swag flew off the table.

I am half way through inputting all the contact info into our new email from the spreadsheet that Will put together from all the scrawled  lists. It is an arduous job with about a dozen clicks for each Bernie supporter; however, each click reminds me of the multiplier effect of people and how this will spread Bernie's message to those who need to hear it.

Our next meeting will likely be outside around the gazebo in Central Park. One man has already offered sound equipment. There will be no Fire Marshall rules about the size of the crowd. We will be limited by no one.