Ode to my heroes

This one entry has gone through more face lifts than Michael Jackson (sorry, easy burn, too easy). At first it was titled "Home Sweet Arvada" and purely about my father's return to local politics. Then as time went on and February rolled around (quite unexpectedly fast I might add), it grew to incorporate the story of my first caucus experience and was then titled "Doing My Democratic Part". Finally June came and the focus then returned back to my father just in time for Father's Day... now that's also past and here we are back to more national level celebrations for the 4th of July. [At this moment of course its now the eve of August and I still have not published this one simple post. So I'm going to sit here in my curtained room (trying to hide from the sun and its 90 degree heat!) and not leaving my chair until this entry is finished and posted.]

.....Four hours later.....

Ok, so the "sitting at my desk until its done" idea didn't work so well. Now I'm at Folsom Street Coffee in Boulder trying to finish what I've started. I'll include what I originally began this blog with (on the third or fourth revision)...

As the Democratic presidential primaries are now over (Go Obama!), [long... long over now] I'm at last writing about some newsworthy local politics. After being out of the game for 8 years, my dad decided to throw his hat back in the ring. Mixed metaphors aside, he ran for Arvada City Council for District 4. On November 6, 2007 the people of Arvada voted him in, knocking out the incumbent, John Malito. As quoted in the November 8th edition of the Arvada Press, my father had this to say of the results: "I think the people wanted change. The two incumbents both lost so people clearly want change." His win was not only a result of people wanting change but also of good friends willing to stand on street corners for hours on end.. braving rain, sun and the occasional run-in with the cops. (You know you who are out there - give 'em hell!)

And now to finish the story... the last time my dad ran for office I was 8 or 9 years old. I don't remember much but hours on end of envelope stuffing and sealing (we did it the good ol' fashioned way - child labor. Boy, how my little hands were tired!) But seriously, it was rather exciting, all in all. My favorite part was waiting up late on the election day for the results to come in. One of the few occassions when I got to hang out with the adults until past midnight! This time around it was not quite as exciting to wait for the results, since the lure of hanging out with adults has lost a bit of its luster (being one myself takes much of the awe out of it, of course now I was also allowed to drink with them and that was fun). That doesn't mean we weren't all pumped and ready to celebrate (or console each other, as the case may be)! There were other big changes in our gathering that night, such as our eyes weren't clued to the tv for the count but rather my dad would go back to his laptop every few minutes, reload a web page (oh, what wonders we have these days!) and then announced the count to the folks gathered in his house. It was fairly clear from early on that he was in the lead and that trend continued until about 90% of the vote was counted and the "Final Unofficial" information was loaded onto the city's website.

And so it is that my dad is now recieving the weekly agendas in big yellow envelopes on the front porch again (another fond memory from childhood, fonder still because I didn't have to read the thick folders inside!) and going to the Monday night council meetings - as seen on local cable Channel 8, if you're in Arvada. I believe it is my father's strong sense of community service (he is in at least a dozen different committees at any given time, a character trait I would emulate at DU with my dozen or so campus organization memberships) and his inescapable pull towards politics that sparked in me the fascination with political issues, though my slant is more internationally focused.

Thus we finally come to the day of the Colorado Caucus. It was not only my first time attending a causus, but it was the first time I've really actively followed a single candidate (then nominee) through the primary process. This I'm sure is true for many out there as this year seems to be the year of regeneration in the political processes of our country. Anyways, I went to support the one person I thought would be the best choice and that is... can you guess? John McCain. JUST KIDDING!! Before you start throwing stones at me, look at the top of my blog, on the right, do you see it? Its Obama that I am behind all the way.

Back to the caucus, as anyone else in Colorado can attest to, it was chaos! About five times the number of people who came to previous caucus' showed up this year and we were crammed into schools, churches, community centers for hours on end until two things were clear - 1) most of us didn't know what was going on but more importantly 2) Obama is Colorado's choice! It was exciting to really feel a part of the political process, if a little exhausting at the same time. I was so excited I even signed on to be an alternate delegate for Obama at the county convention in the weeks following the caucus. That was a little less chaotic but much bigger than the district meeting. Now, I'm just glad that's all said and done and I'm very glad that not only is Obama the candidate, but also that the Democratic National Convention is being held in Denver this year and happening before I leave for Ireland! I'm definitely going to volunteer for that and I hope to meet Barack in the process but I'm afraid I'll freeze-up and act like a loony if I get within 100 yards of him. We'll just have to find ou t in August!

Father and daughter then...
(couldn't find the original council swearing-in ceremony picture, but that's for the best, I distinctly remember an early 90's bad hairdo and wardrobe mishap on my part. Not sure about the theme here, but I do think the pink cowboy hat works! Wonder if I still have that somewhere.)

And now...
as you can see I no longer need a chair to stand next to him, although that's probably not a bad idea still.