Politics at the Local Level

A week ago we had our fourth annual silent auction for TDWPac.  What´s TDWPac?  Tennessee Democratic Women´s Pac, a still small political action committee raising funds for Democratic pro-choice women running for state and local offices.  Women are woefully underrepresented in Tennessee, and there is a vocal contingent in the state trying to pass a law that would forbid abortion even to save the life of a woman in the event the Court strikes down ROE.
I was invited to join this group after working with the Davidson County Democratic Party on the Kerry Campaign.  This was quite an honor, because I´m playing WAY out of my financial league.  Most women who stay involved in politics are wealthy.  I contribute  labor, ideas, and art work and try to be a voice for those at the low end of the financial scale.  This way I get a chance to meet local political figures, female and male, and local labor leaders who are important to the party.  Talking to the local representatives has been an empowering mind opener.  My experiences with Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County have left me feeling the government was run by ¨mindless jerks who´ll be first against the wall when the revolution comes¨.  I´ve met a number of caring and involved female legislators and school board members, and two male legislators with firefighting background who understand my concerns about workplace and public safety. 
Last week an aspiring state representative attended with his wife.  As it happened, he is running in my own district, so I had the opportunity to talk about my own particular issues: enforcing workplace safety, medical and social services for people like my schizophrenic brother Ernie and my autistic grandson Josh, and the problem of large companies taking their needed jobs elsewhere.  I was delighted to find he had some real world knowledge of the problems and did not try to mouth platitudes at me.
Helping set up a silent auction is quite an experience.  When I arrived, I immediately started working with two ladies who were trying to figure out how to cover three large round tables with 8 ft rectangular tablecloths that weren´t wide enough - we ended up using 2 to 3 cloths to a table.  Then the set up materials and donations began arriving.  I hefted and found a place for 2 light easels for the art work we always get and then helped sort through the donations, wrappings, and stuff you need to set up a display.  It´s amazing how many things you need - scissors, paper cutters, box cutters, labels, and loads and loads of ballpoint pens.  A number of auction items were services of various kinds or things like dinner with legislators.  For those, a clever volunteer had made up little mini-posters on her computer, and I began helping her  get them into stand up plastic frames.  This was when we discovered that frame makers don´t talk to paper manufacturers; many frames wouldn´t take an standard 8.5 by 11 paper.  I spent some time figuring out which posters could have some fat cut off them and gathering up the paper scraps as we cut.  While we worked, other volunteers came to match the posters with their bid sheets.  A couple of ladies who possess talents I don´t made attractive food trays in the kitchen.  A hired bartender arrived to serve wine, and our fine liberal musician Thomas Duffy arrived in tails to play the piano.  One thing I enjoy about these events is the chance to hear him play - everything from Clair de Lune and O Mio Babbino Caro to Glen Miller and Scott Joplin.  The talented son of one of our patrons also played later in the evening.  Sometimes I almost forget the political talk listening to the music.
In this down economy, our event was smaller than last year´s, but we had less overhead as well.  Some of my own small contributions sold, and I bought a nice Shakespeare in the Park tee shirt.  I understand what we didn´t sell is going to another local liberal group for their fund raiser.  TDWPac is being listed as a patron of that event.  We are beginning to attract attention statewide; one lady candidate drove all the way from Carthage, Tennessee to speak to us and seek our support.
This is political power beginning small.  It´s the way the Republicans took over so much, and it´s the way we´ve got to take it back.