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Lately I have been really enjoying my life. Not that I usually don’t, but I’ve actually been doing things that I don’t normally get a chance to. Much of which involves my love for democracy. In the last month I’ve had the opportunity to meet Senator Barack Obama, work the first Democratic Party caucus that Kansas has had in my life time, and go to a Young Democratic Socialist conference in New York. So as you can see I have been a little busy.

Meeting Senator Obama was awesome, because I wasn’t even expecting to see him speak in person. I showed up late to event and therefore I had to go with hundreds of other people to an overflow room and watch him speak from a neighboring building on closed circuit television. The senator decided to come into the overflow room to greet and thank us before he gave his speech. So I not only got to see him, but I also got to shake his hand and thank him.

The Kansas caucus was only a few days later. The Wichita State Young Democratic Socialists along with the College Democrats basically allowed the caucus at the Metroplex to move as smooth as it was possible at the time. The expected number of people to show up was between 400-600. Yet, in the about triple that number showed up. There were about 15 college students volenteering including my sister who is still in high school. It was quite hectic, but I loved to see that so many people were pumped up to see democracy in action. We registered many new Democrats and served the people on that district.

New York was amazing. I love that city. The people aren’t as mean as they are said to be. In fact, I was quite fond of the people I met even in the streets. I was especially impressed with my fellow YDSers. There were people at the conference from all over the country. Some places like Arkansas and the Carolinas it was hard to believe that Democratic Socialism would even be an idea that people subscribed to there. Then again I’m sure people were surprised that so many of us made the trip from Kansas. I learned so much in this conference and got to hear from the likes of Bill Fletcher Jr., Frances Fox Piven, Joe Schwartz, Jose LaLuz and so on. I was able to make many new friends and partners in our struggle for peace and justice.

“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
-Paulo Freire

OBAMA ‘08 - By the way, wow! What and exciting election year.