Got a Happy Story is a community gathering every Monday night where we share stories large and small that have put a smile on our face. The Happy Story diary exists as a way to anchor the community in hope and comfort while we do the hard work of maintaining a permanent Democratic majority. Everyone and all sorts of stories and pictures are welcome. Consider this an open thread.
It was the year 2000.
I was watching the evening election coverage and was relieved that Al Gore had won. I knew he would win, and it was being confirmed. He was on stage with Robert DeNiro, Ben Affleck and others, celebrating his win. I went to sleep content knowing that the majority of voters in this country knew that Al Gore was a better leader than Mr. Bush. I was horrified the next morning to find that George W. Bush had in fact won the election and would take office in January, 2001.
More below with massive linkage and PHOTO city:
That changed everything for me. Previously I’d been only slightly interested in politics and mostly apathetic about anything other than the main elections every four years. I was interested enough to know I wanted Al Gore as president over George Bush. I can’t explain why the events that happened while I slept on November 7 affected me so much, but they did.
They lit a fire. I became interested in politics over night, literally. Suddenly I wanted to know everything, how did this happen? What could I do to prevent these elections from going wrong again? No more apathy. The days of ignoring what the government was doing was over. My lack of trust in government hadn’t changed any. I’m Native American and we have been so screwed by the U.S. Government since forever and I didn’t care to be active before. Now I wanted to be informed, and I wanted to make a difference.
I went to a rural Utah high school in the 1970’s and wanted to know more about what was happening in government, but couldn’t get information. I would ask my Political Science teacher (the football coach...now I can roll my eyes...) what Watergate was all about and why is it so important? He never answered. I didn’t understand that everyone in town was right wing and pretended like Watergate and the Nixon resignation never happened. Instead I gained the nickname of Wounded Knee. "Oh, Wounded Knee has a question...what is it Wounded Knee?" My questions were never answered and I tuned out.
Before Gore "lost" I expected that "others" would keep the Republicans and right wing out of power and prevent them from doing damage to the country, its people and the environment. "Others" didn’t. So that day I realized * I * needed to get involved. I needed to register to vote and most importantly I needed to be more knowledgeable.
I began to read online: the NYTimes, WaPo and LATimes political sections. Every article, every word. When I didn’t understand a certain word I looked up the definition on the spot. It was total immersion. In 2003 I ran across an article that said, "...and the blog DailyKos..." and I wondered, "What’s a blog...?" I looked up blog and then clicked on the DailyKos link. And so it began, this Odyssey ...my happy story.
At DailyKos I found exactly what I needed: a knowledgeable, welcoming, articulate, and reality based community, that is now my community. The diarists asked and answered compelling questions that the trad med never touched. This was a new, exciting experience and education for me. I LOVED the comment threads. The comments were what I needed--to see the diarist pose an opinion and then read those in agreement and disagreement, and why. I left the trad med behind and fed on the site that gave me various, contrasting and colorful opinions on the topic du jour.
Unfortunately I could no longer interact comfortably with my old friends because now I realized that they were right-wing, ill-informed, and selfish. I recounted the story above to Markos at a party once and he said in unison with me that I needed to get some new friends, stat. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.
I told Markos that was the reason I organized SFKossacks in 2005. I posted a few diaries aimed at the San Francisco Bay Area readers of DailyKos and in no time we had a group of more than 200 members. Now I had a bunch of friends to relax and hang with.
My happy story is all about you, the DKos community, and what you’ve given to me: friendship, education, growth, understanding, fun, and the prospect of more of the same. Thank you.
(WARNING: All my links below are extremely photo heavy)
Below is a chronology of links to the Dkos events that make up my happy story. I’ll highlight the first SFKossacks gathering. We had about 30 folks attend and it was fun to watch people finally meet their long time online friends in person. These are the happiest moments of my story, that is, seeing and experiencing the hearty handshakes, the jumping up and down hugs, the smiles that light up when they realize who they are finally meeting face to face. I see this over and over at our local SFKossacks events, but the real FIREWORKS are our yearly conventions. I’ll never forget Las Vegas, Chicago or Austin and how FANTASTIC it was to meet so many people that I only knew online.
There are only a few names featured below in the titles and descriptions of these diaries but if you click on the links below you will see many, many faces that belong to famous user names at DKos.
Major San Francisco Bay Area Events:
Bay Area New Media Summit PHOTO Recap 2009 Netroots Nation Organizers, Markos and Front Pagers tour de force
San Francisco Fund Raiser for Netroots Nation 2008 featuring MANY famous bloggers!
I love this pic of Gina Cooper and Markos
Photos From Jon Tester Event in San Francisco 2006 Markos was at this fundraiser
Markos’ Crashing the Gate Book Signing at the Matrix in San Francisco 2006
Markos had a terrific turnout to sign his book, celebs showed up like Sarah Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grand daughter and Craig Newmark of Craig’s List.
(seated) highacidity, Mona Brooks, GlacierMom and DavidW in SF (standing) peeder, Sarah Carter, AnthonySF, Raven Brooks, Markos, Gina Cooper, Elisa and the awful truth.
Past SFKossack Events:
28 SFBayArea Kossacks Party in Park! (photos) 2005 Our first event.
SF Bay Area Tilden Park Picnic (photos) 2005 featuring our famous tin foil hat contest.
This is one of our first group shots.
It was later picked up by Gina Cooper to use in YearlyKos launch advertising, good times.
One of my favorite memories was the tin foil hat contest:
SFKossack Kostoberfest - A Timely Indictment 2005 An event in the Wine Country
San Francisco Kossacks Toast Marchers (photos) 2005
San Francisco Kossacks' Fiesta (PHOTOS!) 2005
Another group shot: (backrow) Mark in San Fran, Ukiyo, Anna Luc, RedMeatDem, AnthonySF. (middle row) Maudhaus, LeftCoast, highacidity, shanikka. (bottom) toastman, navajo and norm
SFKossacks' Event with Blksista PHOTOS! 2006
(seated) Shanikka, MsKandice01, blksista, quarternuts and norm (standing) navajo, deaniac83, the awful truth, SanJoseLady, mber, Miss Devore, burks, Mrs. Awful Truth, Ikia and her guest
Pimp My Picnic: SFKossacks at it again! PHOTOS! 2006 This was a going away party for Nolan which he couldn’t attend so highacidity made a cardboard cutout of him in his honor. Big LOL. Held at Sebastiani Winery in the Wine Country. (standing) LennySFO, Mark in San Fran, navajo, RedMeatDem, Nolan (cardboard cutout, ha!) leftcoast, ukiyo, sallycat, the awful truth, malacandra, Mr. sallycat and Gina Cooper (squatters) Lennysfo's guest and highacidity
photo credit LennySFO
San Francisco Kossacks Holiday Party Photos! 2006 Kos and his family made personal appearances!
Three photos from our Holiday Party in 2006
Markos signing his book with Ari close by
Hunter and family in the background with Gina Cooper's happy face in the foreground
The MotherTalker's contingent
SFKossack Kocktail Party with PHOTOS! 2006
OrangeClouds Comes to Town (PHOTOS!) 2007
A dinner welcoming OrangeClouds115 to town. (clockwise starting at 7 0clock) withthelidoff, orangeclouds, on the bus, patrice, terminal3, (Raven Brooks) mona, sallycat and mr. cat, navajo, Paul in Berkeley, TOYS, John07801
FRAMESHOP: Literally, SFKossacks at it AGAIN, (PHOTOS, as usual) 2007 featuring Paul in Berkeley’s Frame Store
Sat, April 21st SFKossacks Meetup @ Moody's (WITH NO PICTURES UNLESS NAVAJO POSTS SOME!) 2007 ...navajo did, in the comments.
SFKossacks Big BBQ Theory (PHOTO heavy!) 2007 featuring Eddie C and our trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. This was a superfun BBQ. My god...here goes...(bottom row) Gloryous, Kimoconnor, Mr. Vigcat, SanJoseLady, Mrs. Moody and little Loner, (2nd row) homogenius, vigilant meerkat. leftcoast, highacidity, MoodyLoner (standing) norm, FFDAR, Sarahnity, RedMeatDem, SallyCat, Mr. Cat, ? mber, John07801, the awful truth, navajo, RninNC, Mrs. Awful Truth, Eddie C and archangel
Holiday Party at SallyCat’s 2007, Helping PBWH
Dinners Welcoming OrangeClouds and Shockwave 2008
Dinner honoring Shockwave's visit to town 2008. (L to R) Paul in Berkeley, shockwave and AnthonySF)
Another dinner honoring OrangeCloud's 2nd visit (L to R) The Awful Truth (yeah, I know...I’ve heard it already, he’s awful cute) AnthonySF; our homegrown campaign trooper who makes us proud, the FAMOUS OrangeClouds; needs no details, Gloryous, RNinNC, Homogenius, and norm.
SFKossacks RR at Sidepocket’s Farm in the Wine Country 2008
sidepocket: I know there are a lot of links but this is one you should click on.
SallyCat’s Third Annual Holiday Party 2008 featuring Jotter's Grandmother's Boiled Custard recipe with "flavoring." The best eggnog I have ever tasted.
Dinner Welcoming Land of Enchantment 2009
(clockwise, starting from the L) leftcoast, Mrs. Sidepocket, sidepocket, norm, SallyCat, navajo, dadanation, Land of Enchantment, (jotter, RNinNC and Mr. Cat hidden) RNinNC's squeeze, Lineatus and archangel
Land of Enchantment and jotter!
Dinner Welcoming DemMarineVet 2009
(L to R) navajo, Kimoconnor, Mr. Cat, Sallycat, the awful truth and DemMarineVet (could DMV be any cuter?)
Dinner Honoring Angry Mouse's Visit
Going Away Party for highacidity and ukiyo
YearlyKos and Netroot Nation Conventions:
YearlyKos 2006 & Netroot Nations 2007/2008 Photo Recap
In Chicago 2007 at our Presidential debate
brillig and mik
cedwyn
ClammyC
OMG! It's Frank and Plutonium Page!
Markos and the Teamsters...the GOP's worst nightmare; as observed by Malacandra
Digby and Christy Hardin Smith
Bill in Portland Maine and the C&J's kiddie pool on the C&J Patio
Bill in Portland Maine and his famous rum and coke
From the first 2006 YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas and the famous Mark Warner extravagant soiree at the top of some casino.
And perhaps my all time favorite photo which I cropped just for TeacherKen who is standing next to Joseph Wilson and me
My Netroots Nation 2008 Recap EXTREMELY PHOTO HEAVY!
Cheers & Jeers, Party of 40 arriving at the restaurant with
Common Sense Mainer and Bill in Portland Maine in the lead:
Howard Dean mobbed by fans:
Markos, ct, Miss Laura and Nate Silver aka poblano
nyceve blogging
OMG! Surprise appearance by Al Gore!
Jeff Lieber sees my posted photos of him in his diary, I am sitting right next to him.
I am pleased to have met so many kossacks and now I am looking forward to meeting more at Netroots Nation 2009 in Pittsburgh. There is one in particular that I want to meet, our hero and community overlord...Meteor Blades. He will be in Pittsburgh at Netroots Nation and I cannot wait.
Well, to honor my rule about googling things I have never heard of I am off to research this "Department of Law" at the White House thingey.
What’s YOUR happy story?