Saturday, October 21, 2006

Women Organizing to Revive Democracy!

The main reason I haven't added anything new to this blog in a week is that I'VE BEEN BUSY! What a week, I had a meeting at church on Tuesday, I hosted the PTA's teachers' lunch on Wednesday, my scout troop met Thursday and our first ever W.O.R.D. (see the title above) met last night. And what a meeting it was!

After Ann Richard's memorial service, I really felt charged up, but since it was a funeral, no one really seized the power of thousands of pretty politically interested mourners and told us to do anything.

I have wanted Rick Perry gone since redistricting. Ever since Austin was split into four parts, and my representative lived west of Houston, I've been pretty pissed off. I mean, you expect some dirty politics, but when my district was so badly drawn that no Democrat even entered the race, my voice in national politics was basically taken away. That is serious and wrong. So all these years, I've hoped Tom DeLay and Rick Perry would get what they were due.

One down, one to go.

Anyway, cut to last month's memorial for Ann. A couple of days afterwards, I saw a mom-friend at the grocery store. We were both feeling antsy. She told me she had decided to "drink the Kool Aid" and work on getting Chris Bell elected. I made the decision right there, that instead of only trying to get Rick Perry out, I wanted to get my guy in. Chris Bell does not want to build a useless wall along the Mexican border, he does want us to stop coming in 50 among the states with regard to getting kids health insurance coverage. He wants to stop putting so much emphasis on testing in public schools (Hallelulia!) And I want it all.

So within a two week span, we started a little email revolution, planned a party, and held it last night. And it was a success. We had a couple hundred people show up. They had fun. We cheered, we laughed, and we inadvertantly raised over $2000. We didn't even appeal for money, but at the last minute thought we'd better bring something to put donations in. So one girl slapped a Bell sticker on a coffee can and brought it along.

We might do more in the future, but for now we are basking in our success.

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