(Thank you for sharing this, part moved below the fold - promoted by William Tucker)
Back in January, I wrote an article on the philosophical divisions inherent in the NH Republican Party, as evidenced by an unpublished Presidential Preference straw poll I had obtained of GOP State Convention delegates (Sadly, they largely favored some of the more extreme candidates, such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum). I didn't think much about that post after I published it, and went on with other issues as the spring and summer rolled on, responding to occasional comments as warranted...and, once again, moving on.
That is, until I was contacted via email by someone who had read that blogpost on the New Hampshire GOP. She was intrigued by it, and wanted to discuss its implications a bit further. She included her telephone and asked me to call her.
She signed her name, "Arnie Arnesen."
To be honest, I had never met Arnie, and only knew the most cursory political facts about her, having only moved to New Hampshire in 1998. I called her house and enjoyed a lengthy conversation with her husband, but was never able to connect with Arnie... until last night.
|
Arnie was the featured speaker at the Massachusetts Community College Council convention, the teachers union to which I belong and serve as a delegate. I waited for her arrival, and after she was introduced to the head table, I approached her simply to introduce myself.
She looked at my name badge, made an immediate connection, and shouted, "Ohmygod, what are you doing here?!" She threw her arms around me like we had been long-separated best friends. She offerred her agreement with a number of blog articles I had written, we raced through a conversation like excited little kids, and a few minutes later she was up at the podium in command of the room, ready to deliver her message.
She told us stories of single moms on assistance caught in bureaucratic catch-22s. She decried the corporate fundraising obsession of both parties. She advocated for the global Occupy Movement, and condemned the lack of regulation on the financial industry. She boldly termed the President's approach on major issues to be "tepid," criticizing his 'pre-compromise' approach on progressive issues, and calling on us to hold his feet to the fire. She decried the Republican's rejection of science (though curiously, she opened her address by praising Huntsman, Johnson, and Roemer for some of their more enlightened positions), and offered a heartfelt defense of her desire to see change in the NH tax system.
I have often felt my "blood stirred" by political speeches. But I have never been moved to cry - not once, not twice, but three times in one night, moved by the incredible sincerity, passion, and plain-spoken outrage at what has happened, and is happening, in America.
Arnie was, in a word, heroic.
She concluded by reading a small portion of a 1991 article written by James Michener. Michener was reacting to his first exposure to "talk radio" in the south; and like the compelling morbid curiosity of one staring at a horrific accident, he found himself drawn every evening to tune in to a particularly hate-filled radio host. Arnie read:
"...[the program] became a must for me because in it, he abused, vilified, and scorned every noble cause to which I devoted my entire life. It seemed to me that he was against any law that sought to improve the lot of the poor, any tax that endeavored to improve the quality of our national life, any act in Congress that hoped to better the condition of our nation as a whole, any movement that tried to lessen police brutality, any bill that struggled to maintain a fair balance between contending forces in our society, and any move to improve education, protect public health or strengthen the supervision of agencies running wild...
...These diatribes caused me to stop, [and] take a long hard look at myself. I learned one valuable trick: Listen carefully to this fellow. Identify exactly what he's saying. Then adopt a position 180 degrees in the opposite direction, as far from him as you can get, and you'll be on the right track...
...I am a knee-jerk liberal.
When I find that a widow has been left penniless and alone with three children, my knee jerks. When men of ill intent cut back on teacher's salaries and lunches for children, my knee jerks. When the free flow of ideas is restricted, when universities double their fees, my knee jerks. And I hope never to grow so old or indifferent that I can listen to wrong and immoral choices being made without my knee flashing a warning."
With that, Arnie sat down while the rest of us offered her a standing ovation.
And I couldn't help but think of what an opportunity New Hampshire missed.
|