Saturday, August 29, 2015

Berning Up

Much of my time these days is spent in organizing the unorganized. The Bernie Sanders campaign is a full-blown social media campaign, and I've jumped right in, admin-ing 2 Fecebook pages as well as networking and contributing with others and networking thru Fecebook into the real world.

For one thing, I'm entirely blown away by the people wanting Bernie. They are not only good, decent people who want a good, decent country. They're from every political view there is. And the common denominator is in wanting better. "We All Do Better When We All Do Better" may be the axiom that applies universally to everyone I know in this.

Another thing is that so many of the Bernie supporters have never ever been actively involved in any campaign and have no organizing clues at all. This is at the same time, exhilarating and problematic. To keep a campaign up and pumped, people need to be enthused about their contribution. The best way to be enthused is to do what you love and are good at doing. Bad- or no- skill assessment and task assignment can kill a campaign, and I worry, seeing this done willy-nilly. But I have faith it will all straighten out.

The morale among the Bernie people is something I haven't seen in my lifetime. And every time I interact with a new Bernie person, I'm amazed at the variety of characters, and that the thing everyone wants is to straighten things out. Nobody wants this oligarchic-theocratic-gossipy-mean society we've stooped to being. That's the only commonality. They've all had enough. They want the high road. They want issues, not hairdos. They want straight talk and no bullshit answers. I can't draw a picture of a Bernie supporter, and I could, in every other election. There is no stereotype.

This is the first time in years that I've put so much time into a candidacy. I'm a Bernie or Bust gal. And I'm in very good company.

My other attention goes to the Life and Adventures of Hilde Beest. I think I'm finally writing something the way you're supposed to write. Doing research, building the framework, making a time and place schedule, all while dreaming out the story. And I'm loving this process. It's the life of Beest, whose 150th birthday starts the book, in Naulakha, Kipling's home here in VT.  

In amongst this are the other things in life, which at the moment are all pretty cool. Not perfect, but not awful. I'm back to the "Is Anyone Dead?" scale of calamities. Everything's do-able as long as nobody's dead. Right now, everyone abides.

So forgive my sporadic posting and reading, I'm busy.
x

5 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

Forgiveness NOT necessary.
You have a life. And a busy one.
Take care.

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Yeah, what Sue said. No apologies necessary. We're always glad to hear from you whenever you have the time and inclination.

This could turn out to be an interesting presidential run after all. Hilary still seems to think she's a shoo-in to get the nomination, but I don't think many other people think she's the inevitable anymore. And good for you getting involved! You sound as excited as I was when JFK was running. (And that's a good thing.)

Happy weekend, kiddo.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

Nice to hear that you are excited and happy. Bernie is a very good man and he is garnering a lot of interest. The press, though, is just reporting on Trump and everybody else is getting lost in the shuffle. It is going to be a long 14 months. Take care of yourself and drop in whenever you can

Geo. said...

It's early days yet and Trump is running a great sideshow agitating the excitable both toward and away from the GOP --no long-range plans there. Sanders is hopefully more typical of the real candidates who will appear by and by, people who will try to reestablish government by discussion over obstruction. The country is full of strange enthusiasms just now and not quite in its right mind. Whoever does get elected will have to be a stubborn square-toed centrist if we expect these States to be united again.

klahanie said...

Hey human Laura,

Busy can be good, evidently! Your conviction to the Bernie Saunders cause is admirable and here's to that big change we desperately need, worldwide.

Bernie Saunders meet Jeremy Corbyn!

Pawsitive wishes and doggy kisses,

Penny xx