I trust that you watched at least a little bit of the DNC this week.  What did you think?  I thought they knocked it out of the park! 

As the week went along I began to wonder if they weren’t overdoing the “inclusion” part to the point that I am now somehow “excluded,” but when all was said and done I thought the constant reminder that everyone is included was fine with me.  It seemed that most of the presentations were by “blacks” (or however they should be called), minorities, women and LGBTQ people – with a smattering of regular white guys thrown in when time allowed.  I started to worry for a bit, but finally relaxed with it and got to the point of saying to myself, “of course they are wanting to flood the time with their story – this may be their opportunity to shine.”  Good for them, all of them – it doesn’t diminish me in the least.  So I just listened to what they all had to say and was pleased with the message.

I found that I got up this morning feeling excited and optimistic – and somehow refreshed about the political future (of the world) for the first time in years. It feels like perhaps there is a sliver of a chance that some of my big concerns might actually get addressed. (A few of my big concerns are related to education, balancing the economy, protecting the environment, becoming energy sustaining, etc. I guess they are all related to my belief in my profession of System Safety – find the problems and solve them.)

Kamala’s policy statements were of necessity brief and quite general in nature, but not so general as to lack substance.  I think my favorite agenda items fit nicely into what they talked about all week, and that she outlined during her rather amazing speech.

I was pleased that they talked about many of my “favorite” topics such as improving schools, creating opportunities for those on the bottom, reigning in the acceleration of the transfer of wealth to the very rich, fixing the border/immigration problems, actually making inroads on the climate and environmental problems, solving the woman reproductive rights debacle, international affairs – and on and on and on. They talked about it all, and did so in ways that made my head nod in agreement. The week was filled with policy positions, goals, and philosophical positions that I believe can actually work. It was mostly just “common sense” actions to achieve the goals that 99% of American’s want (and need). We don’t disagree with each other, we just think we do.

I would have liked to hear more specific details about how to accomplish, and afford, all of the things they were proposing. However, there is time enough for that – and it feels like there is room in all of that for MY ideas about how to move forward. Not that anyone is ever going to hear my ideas, or act upon any of them, but I feel that if I were to be heard my thoughts would be accepted as valid and important. Hopefully everyone will end up feeling that way – that is how important dialogues come about, everyone’s ideas are important and a part of the discussion. I felt that my ideas would be listened to, as well as the ideas from my conservative rural friends. I think Kamala laid out an invitation to us all to get together with “the other side” (from all sides) and talk to find out what we agree upon and how to get those things done. Let’s take her up on the challenge and find the agreements – I am pretty sure we actually have almost universal agreement on all of the important goals and desires, we just don’t have agreement on how to get to them. If we talk we just might find that the combination of our views actually contains the seeds of the solutions that we seek.

Here’s hoping for a better future.