It is Inauguration Night here in my Massachusetts city. It’s an historic one, not only because it’s the first I’m attending in person. No, the actual history is we have our first elected female mayor taking office (our prior female Mayor was appointed when the prior Mayor left mid-term). In addition, we have our entire City Council and the portion of our School Committee whose terms begin this year being sworn in. Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark were in attendance; Driscoll did the swearing-in for City Council and School Committee while Clark did the honor for our Mayor. As of this moment the presiding members of both Council and School Committee and our Mayor are all female. That stage was a beautiful sight!
I’ve lived in my city for over 30 years, and since my gradual involvement in local politics through my Democratic City Committee (oh hi, annual Treasurer’s Report due to the State in 12 days that I have to finish because I’m personally liable for fines if I don’t!) I’ve gotten to know many of our elected officials. Once everyone is sworn in, besides our Mayor (this posts at 7pm Pacific, she’s not -elect now!) I count five of our eleven City Councilors and five of our six School Committee members as friends on my social media (in addition to our previous two Mayors and four former City Councilors/School Committee members).
It gives me a great deal of confidence that much of my elected leadership are people known personally to me. I know they’re good people. I know they care deeply about our city, make great dinners, are involved with their families, know where to get the best [insert type of food] locally, etc. It makes me understand just a little bit why first-in-the-nation primary/caucus states are so viscerally committed to keeping that status… KNOWING the candidates because you saw them at a local diner that only fills that back parking lot in election years is a great feeling. It doesn’t make it right, because so many other voters nationwide don’t get the chance even to vote for any of the candidates because their primary date is after Super Tuesday. But local is different than national.
Do you know some of your local government officials? All of them? No idea who they are? I encourage you to seek out your local Democratic committee and get involved at the local level. Talk to me in the comments about it, after perusing tonight’s Tops!!
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From thesphynx:
Recommending Clio2's pricelessly hilarious yet also serious comment on TheCriticalMind’s diary about the bizarre "God Made Trump" video for Top Comments.
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