Democracy For Texas

Democracy For Texas

I went to my first political rally this weekend. The rally was organized by democracyfortexas.org, and held at Huston-Tillotson College out in East Austin, in conjunction with a two-day grass roots organizational seminar. The idea was to get Texas Democrats fired up about some important local races, particularly Richard Morrison's bid to oust Tom Delay in District 22. The headliner for the event was none other than Dr. Howard Dean.

It was neat to hear Tom Morrison and Howard Dean speak- they both put on pretty rousing performances. But it was even more thrilling to see a thousand active people, of all ages, ethnicities and shoe-sizes, get up out of their boxed up lives and come together. I was particularly pleased to see that quite a few families showed up. I mean, it seems that if anything would get your ass off the couch and active in politics it would be the realization that the leaders we elect today and the decisions those leaders make will profoundly affect the world that our children will inherit...

So I left the event pretty inspired, and a little fired up. It was not so much the oratory or the message or the personalities that did it. Rather, it was seeing a community in action. A community! What a rare sight these days!