Grass roots...

With it being an election year, and specifically a presidential election year, Abby and I have decided that we need to be more politically involved. We have always voted (except this last November when we registered late at our new address), but we haven't always been the most informed. So that has also become a goal. I mean come on, we can't just go vote for the next ruler of the free world just because we've heard they could do a good job, right? Well I guess we can, but I'm not really a huge fan of just doing something because everyone else is.

Anyway, I never have been a huge fan of politics but my political awareness and interest have peaked as of late. When we heard that the caucuses were going to happen this past week, we decided it was something that we should go to. We didn't really understand what exactly a caucus was so we figured the next logical step would be to get involved in the "grass roots politics" as they kept calling it. After spending half an hour on the phone with three different offices (our addresses here in the "Village" are weird and the county clerk website didn't want to work with me) I finally figured out what precinct we were in and where our caucus was. Given it was right around Asher's bedtime we decided I would go and fill Abby in, so as 7:00 rolled around off I went to the caucus meeting.

It was held in a home just down the street from our house and as I walked in, there were a handful of people in the living room. An old man greeted me and asked my precinct; as I told him he said, "well great, that makes two!" and motioned to another kid my age sitting in a chair. I'll save some time for all of us and just say that in the end four, yes, four of us ended up going down to the basement of this nice man's house with the task of electing a caucus chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, and treasurer as well as two state delegates and three county delegates...have you done the math yet? Apparently our precinct is pretty much the village and needless to say we didn't have much of a showing. Luckily the kid who was there before me had plenty of experience being involved in caucuses so he ran the show. So the four of us participated in this grass roots process and then went on our way.

The moral of the story: be careful when you decide to become more involved, you might get more than you bargained for. I showed up to the caucus simply with the intent of seeing what it was all about and needless to say I found out; we are now home to the caucus treasurer, a state delegate, and a county delegate. No, I didn't take all three. Abby wasn't even there and was elected as a county delegate, after a phone call of course. I guess there's no doubt about it - we have become more involved...wish us luck.