Pacific Views

Faith, Hope, and Love in Iowa

This experience is burning my cynicism away. Before I got to Iowa, I was worried about the outcome of the caucus, but it just seems silly now. There's every reason to be proud of the labor of love taking place in this campaign. (I've started sounding like a complete sap, and to my astonishment, there isn't a trace of sarcasm in that.) What we've done here, what we're doing here, is transformative.

Headquarters looks like it's on the edge of collapsing into anarchy during high traffic times, but the atmosphere is respectful and committed, and it's steadily sending out eager volunteers. The Tokyo wonder team and I were out canvassing all day yesterday, and the charge from finding people who were planning to caucus, getting people information about where their caucus location was, and in a couple cases convincing people to go, was amazing.

The experience of watching myself have an effect on political participation, and of interacting with other dedicated people to work towards a common goal, is changing my perception of what I'm capable of. It's changing my perception of what it's possible to do. And it's increased my appreciation of the capacity that mostly lies dormant in everyone around me.

Last night we were talking with a camera team in the middle of filming a documentary about the voting process. They were saying that they hear people say they're drawn to Dean because of the momentum, but momentum is just a symptom. It's an expression of a deeper sentiment, an atmosphere of higher purpose. And I'm having to dig way back to even describe my impression of it.

Faith

Governor Dean expects more of us than any other politician, and has the faith that we'll live up to those expectations. It's catching.

Hope

We have the hope, the expectation, that America will come to be everything it says on the label.

Love

And the capper is the love of democracy that's being lived here. It's a sense of trust in the people participating in the process, pushing a desire to get them involved in a decision that's become tremendously important to us.

Iowa

I don't know what any of us were waiting for. Why we didn't know how much influence and strength we had. How we could have not understood that our interaction with other voters could make so much of a difference. But we know now.

It would be wonderful to win the caucus tomorrow, and I know it's possible. But something wonderful is taking place right now. And I'm already satisfied with the outcome.

Posted by natasha at January 18, 2004 02:04 PM | TrackBack