Tim.B.log - original

posted 3/29/2004 01:37:00 PM

It is somewhat sad to notice that my last blog entry is 3 days before the Democratic nominee was chosen (essentially) by the Iowa caucuses. The "momentum" of whichever candidate was deemed "winner" was never anything anyone could overcome. Oh well, Howard Dean, the one candidate this year who I truly believe is worthy of being our president placed 3rd in Iowa and was pretty much counted as being out of the running after that. I did canvass in Aiken, South Carolina, as planned, but I'm not sure I had much impact. Dean dropped out in February and last week endorsed the soon-to-be-nominee John Kerry.

Many people assume that "Deaniacs" like me who are so eager to get Bush out of office will simply transfer all the energy and enthusiasm we had for Howard Dean to Kerry. I'm ok with Kerry, but there's really nothing about him that excites me; he appears to be just another politician and, to me anyway, a pretty big letdown after knowing that an exciting, honest, real politician like Dean does exist. Kerry is, however, our only hope of getting Bush and Company out of the White House (as Dean points out pretty often), so I do support his candidacy. Until I can get enthused by Kerry, my plan is to support Democratic and anti-Bush efforts in general.

I'm hoping that Dean's new group, Democracy For America, will provide me with an outlet for my political energies, such as they are. Locally, we are hampered by less-than-useful Meetups here in Augusta thanks to no one providing leadership with direction; they tend to fall apart into long, drawn out conversations about nothing in particular and, when anyone suggests actually doing something, the suggestions are either dismissed or ignored. I plan to keep attending the Dean Meetup in hopes of being able to get something going, but my pessimistic views of the Democratic and Kerry meetups were either confirmed in person or through reports of others. For those of you thinking, "Why the fudge doesn't Tim just take on a leadership role and stop whining?" I agree. I'd rather not say more in public, so let's just say there would need to be an unpleasant coup and, frankly, I'm not in the mood for that so I'll keep whining. Actually, more than just whining, I am working to get involved with the local Democratic Party. I'll be first to admit, though, that my motivation is waning.

This past weekend, Toby and I finally got to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival street party, complete with fireworks. He invited me to the one in March 2003, but work prevented me from attending. Better late than never, though, and we had a great time. We also took in the arts/crafts show and saw a live tiger show down in Brown and Williamson's Central City Park [no one I know in Macon seems to know when the park got that name or, why, for that matter, the city would name the park after the tobacco company that is about to close the local plant leaving many Maconites unemployed]. I wouldn't classify Macon's festival as a "don't miss," but I would recommend it if you are in the neighborhood and looking for something to do.

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