In New Hampshire
THE REAL DEAL: The excitement of political campaigning
— The night before my son and I left for New Hampshire, we watched the movie Jumanji. The town we were going to, Keene, was featured in the movie. Those familiar with the movie, which starred Robin Williams and a young Kirsten Dunst, will remember a scene where animals that had escaped from a board game were running rampant through the town. The scene when we arrived was similar, just substitute people with political signs and you will get a sense of what it was like downtown.
It is not difficult to become cynical about politics. Sometimes it seems like people just do not care. I remember speaking to legislator Lynne Johnson a few weeks back at a meet the candidate event that was held at the Apollo restaurant in Albion. The event featured Johnson and Gary Kent. Two local legislators from different political parties that were willing to field questions and yet Johnson noted that there were no local reporters there and only a few residents attended. I guess stories about the status of Latin classes at a local high school — an issue that is a no-brainer, the benefits of a Latin class far outweigh the costs — are more newsworthy than reporting on candidates fielding questions from citizens.
I understood where Johnson was coming from. I have attended numerous board meetings, candidate forums, and political events. It can be very discouraging at times, at least until a hot issue comes up, like wind energy, and people seem to come out of the woodwork; those are the moments when you know that the system, despite its flaws, really works.
It can be even more discouraging when you try to discuss politics with a group of high school students who seem more worried about the color of their hair than the state of the nation. The low point occurs when the only thing they know about Obama is that it rhymes with “yo mama” and that McCain is the brand name of frozen French fries.
While my son and I were door-to-door canvassing, he noted that his trip to Washington D.C changed his life, a trip that would not have been possible without the encouragement and support of Albion social studies teacher Rich Gannon and the Albion School Board. My son came home with stories about political activists from all over the country working for change, the current buzzword on the campaign trail. I shared some of his excitement but until this weekend, I never really understood what it was like to be around so many people who still believed in and participated in our system of government.
In just a day my son and I realized what it meant when they said that New Hampshire voters are “fiercely independent.” Almost everyone knew all of the candidates, what they stood for and they had good reasons for which candidate they were going to vote for; they also had good reasons for waiting until Primary Day to decide. Instead of cynical comments about voting for the lesser of two evils, they commented on how pleased they were with the quality of all of the candidates.
I left my cynicism behind in New Hampshire after I met three members of congress, the mayor of Los Angeles and a Brighton Town Supervisor. All of them went out in the cold to campaign and all of them availed themselves to the volunteers.
On Monday, my students all asked me how my trip to New Hampshire was. They were more concerned with the campaign than the fact that I saw the street where Jumanji was filmed. Maybe I had taught them something after all.
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