So, if you follow my Twitterfeed, you’re aware that my big BlogHer trip to Nashville got thrown into the mashup machine this week.  Um, yeah.  What was going to be a short overnighter to Music City to hang with Busymom, Newscoma, and Suburban Turmoil is no more.  Nope, due to sponsorship issues and other things, BlogHer made the painful decision to pull the plug on our Nashvegas meetup on Tuesday afternoon.  Yep, still more than a little bummed about that.  Really wanted to see a more local face on blogging in our area.  But, before you start crying for me or anything like that, remember that you are reading the Queen of Improvisation!  You know, with the motto of "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome!"  Okay, so I stole the motto from Bub, but that’s become my watchphrase this week, so I think it’s okay to borrow it.  Anyway, when the cancellation letters were sent, they were very nice and all that, but I was crushed.  Elisa was kind, but I was despondent.  Until my friend Erin sent her own letter.  Because, let me tell you people, that Erin is a magician!  I LOVE HER!  Yeah, I’ve already told her that, now I’m sharing with all of you.  Because she was the one who suggested that maybe us Knoxville attendees might want to consider going to the DC meetup.  "Hmmmmm" I said, with a gleam in my eye, and that’s when the improvisation machine kicked into gear.  So, instead of a trip to Nashville (which I still want to make some time, maybe when you guys have another Blogger thing like you’re having this weekend? Keep me in mind, mkay?), now we (me, Cathy M, & the lovely Sarah) are making a trip to DC!!!  Three weeks before the election!!!  And the meeting up there has a political lean to it!!!  And I think I’m all out of exclamation points now, so it’s safe to take your hands off your ears. Really.  But, regardless of my hyperbole, you all can be sure that I am all up in the political stuff. 

In reality, as my poor beleaguered family would attest, I’ve been into politics and social issues almost from birth.  I wonder whether it had something to do with Kennedy being assassinated when I was in utero?  The whole bleeding heart Liberal thing, yeah, it’s always been a part of the mix too.  Actually, I can remember being around 4 or so and hearing my elders talk about those "damned dirty Hippies down at UT" and how they were "stirring things up".  I didn’t have any idea what it was that they were stirring but I sure wanted to help!  Fast forward just two years and you will find me all of 6 years old and arguing for interracial dating and marriage with my Nana and my Mom while we ate lunch at McDonald’s on Magnolia in 1970.  And, for those of you who aren’t from around here, that was when you could still see the image of colored water fountains and bathrooms all over east Tennessee.  In 1973, when I was in third grade, I wrote President Nixon to complain about there being no pork in a can of Pork and Beans, right in the middle of Watergate.  Um, yeah.*  In the Summer of ‘76 I sat up late at night and watched Jimmy Carter accept the nomination for President at the Democratic Convention.  Yes, I wore an illegal John Anderson Button on my Flag Corps. Uniform in 1980 when my high school Marching Band performed for Reagan when he came through stumping through central Florida for votes.  And, yes, I did in fact register to vote exactly on the day of my 18th birthday.**  In fact, I was the first registered Democrat on my Father’s side of the family in, well, forever.  In 1992 I argued politics at dinner here in Knoxville with people twice my age.  In fact, I caused much amusement  when someone asked me whether I was better off in ‘92 than I was in ‘82.  You do the math – I was 18 in ‘82; I lived at home with my parents and all my housing, transportation, clothing and entertainment was paid by them, but by ‘92 none of that was the case so my answer was a resounding NO!  I also watched with sadness and anger during every minute of the coverage of that travesty also know as the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton.  And I enjoyed the whole "let he who is without sin" thing play out afterward among the Republican leadership of the house.  In 2000, after I helped my late hubs make bumper stickers for both of our cars that looked like this:

BU**SH**

and then I proudly voted for Gore.  And it had nothing to do with Gore’s internet creation, but it did have quite a bit to do with knowing that a Baseball Team owner from Texas who just happened to be the son of a former President was bringing nothing to the table that qualified him to be the President of my country.  You know, sort of like living next door to Russia doesn’t make you a Foreign Policy expert, it simply makes you an Alaskan.  Of course, after I voted that afternoon, I had to sit up that long dark night and watch as my state made the term "hanging chad" a part of the political lexicon forever.  In 2004, I even got a grip on my grief over EB’s death (he had passed away almost one month prior to the election, after he had prudently applied for and received our Absentee Ballots because we were moving too close to the election to be able to vote in TN) and I cast my ballot for Kerry.  I didn’t send EB’s in (even though I could have) mainly because we’re not from Chicago where the dead vote early and often.  And I can tell you that after that travesty of an election night my hysteria was no longer single-focused, I cried for all of us.  Finally, to ice the cake, the Bob said he knew I was the girl for him when he asked me about Bush and I retorted that "there’s a village in Texas desperately in need of their idiot and I think it’s criminal that we are depriving them of him".  So, yeah, my credentials go back from age 8 to the present 44, and obviously politics is my thing.  So add it up:  a blogging event + in my nation’s capitol + three weeks before Election Day = Nirvana!  And no, I’m not talking teen spirit here campers, this is major excitement.  I CAN’T WAIT!!!

That’s why, in closing, I must say a big thank you to BlogHer for the changes you threw at us this week.  You have handed me the opportunity of my lifetime and I am beside myself with glee.  Because, I know this might be shocking, but I’ve also never been to DC.  Central Florida schools didn’t take trips there, too far away I guess.  But I’m finally going, at a historic time in our history, and that just about gives me goosebumps.  And because of the times we are living in, I am making time to see some of our Nation’s Capitol.  Making time to remember the history of our country and our democracy and the people who fought and died for it.  The Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam War Memorial, and the new WWII Monument, all of those are on the "must see" list.  Those are the most important things to me.  Because seeing Lincoln and knowing Dr. King’s words and his dream this year seems very important to me.  I somehow feel the need to tell them both that they didn’t die in vain.  That everything they spoke about is finally coming true.  Because, I, for one, am very proud to say that in my country, all men (and women) are indeed created equal, and even the most outlandish and/or improbable dreams can come true.

Obama ‘08

*True family story. In the midst of Watergate, I was helping my Mom fix dinner.  I was 8.  I opened a can of Pork and Beans for her and when I poured them into the pan there was no pork to be seen.  I got very indignant about this and my Mom told me that if it upset me that badly I should do something about it.  Stop complaining and stop bitching was my Mom’s watchphrase I think.  I told my Mom that I was going to do something, I was going to write to the President and have him do something to fix those pork-less beans.  So, I wrote my letter, and my Mom took me to the Library to get the address to mail it to.  It was there at the Library that she learned that I had written to President Nixon, and not to the President of Stokely-Van Camp.  I’m guessing that I’ve been on a top-secret enemies list ever since then. Which probably explains why my luggage always gets hand-searched when I fly.  Don’t ever travel by air with me… I’m an unlucky charm!

**To put this into perspective, I didn’t get my Driver’s License until over a month past my 16th birthday, but I was hell-bent on voter registration as soon as I was eligible.  So, on the day of my 18th I went to lunch with my Mom, and we then went straight to the county offices and I registered to vote.  The next weekend my Mom and Step-Dad took me to the Dog Tracks and gave me betting money.  Woot for Mom & Herb! Only thing better would have been Vegas, but since I lost the gambling money in record time and spent the remainder of dinner playing with my Lobster Tail that probably wouldn’t have been a very good investment.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 1:00 am and is filed under BlogHer, Blogging, In the news today, Politics.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.