[This was originally submitted on Election Night, but I guess the blogosphere was too busy for me.]
In 1992 I was a sophomore in college and I was studying psychology. I thought I might like to someday work as a therapist. That semester I took abnormal psychology and it horrified me. I was convinced that I had every condition that we studied -- paranoia, split personalities, depression -- and apparently everyone else in the class felt the same way. I decided that a life listening to other people's problems might not be the best road for me. But what else was there? It just so happened that semester I was fulfilling my political science requirement, taking a class with 300 other people at CSUF. The professor's name was Michael Brown. I had taken a required class in high school, but that teacher was a man counting days until retirement, who spent class time out walking the halls collecting soda cans for recycling, while we researched that day's three questions in our textbooks. Not the best introduction! Anyway, Professor Brown took this subject that I was not at all interested in and made it about me. It was about the city council and the school board and health care and a broken street light. It was about AIDS policies and free speech and the right to vote and (inside joke) the freedom of assembly. It was the fall of 1992 and the Democrats took the White House, helped by my first ever vote.
I'm not sure what career path I thought I was putting myself on. (It certainly wasn't a clear path to becoming the IT Manager.) At times I thought I'd go to law school or be a congressional staffer or run a non-profit or work in opinion polling. None of those things worked out for me, but I learned some amazing things along the way. Dr Madison taught me about the three kinds of leaders there are in the world and that even though Burundi is just a dot on the map, it's sovereignty isn't any less valuable than that of the United States. Dr McNamara showed me how important the "third world" was and how much impact it could someday have on the world. He also nurtured my senior thesis on a topic that seemed so clear cut to me and yet is on the ballot in several states today, ten years later. Dr Nelson let me take my love for the words of Dr King and somehow incorporate them into papers for a women's politics class. Dr Merrifield taught me everything else. I think I had him for six or seven classes by the time I was done and he was my favorite.
Once upon a time in this country, it was safe to trust the government. That was the world my grandfather grew up in and he still has that faith, no matter how different the world is today. I was born the year after the Watergate break-in; my government has never been trustworthy. I hope, if anything, my education has given me a broader view of the political system and how it works. I know that there are people of great faith who think their way is the only way; their way does not include everyone and I can't believe that is what any God would want. There are people who are consumed with protection -- their wealth, oil, borders and others who have different goals -- health care, freedom from war. I understand the party that thinks people should be self starters and that people should pull themselves up by their boot straps. I identify stronger with the party who worries about those with no shoes.
I'm not saying any side is right or wrong -- it's all a measure of priorities and degrees. It is what makes this a great nation and today a great day. My personal hope is that significant change is in the air. We won't really know tonight. The kind of change I want to see -- for this government to be worth of my grandfather's trust, would take decades. I hope I'm around to see it.
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