Lately I've felt like a tiny little guy grabbing hold of a dragon's tail, whipped around while the dragon tries to fling me off...but somehow I've managed to hold on.
Lemme tell you why I ain't leavin' the Kos...
Oh sure. I've been disoriented. Disenfranchised. Disendisfransoriented. I've been frustrated as the next guy or gal. And of course watching the ebb and tide of "I love/hate obama/democrats because they are sellingUsOut/doingSomethingWeLike" diaries sometimes gets far more irritating than the actual events themselves.
Sure sure.
And yeah, sometimes it feels like we work so hard only to see our efforts overturned. Yeah. That's irritating.
But today, I'm going to brag about a live radio interview I had about a local wind farm on a regional evening radio show...and how the Kos got me there.
Back in December of 2008, I was just some guy. Some guy pissed off and angry and frustrated and horribly, terribly unaware of what I could do about the collapse of the world around me. I hadn't hardly blogged at all when I posted my first blog here on the DailyKos.
Back then, as now, things felt like there were just falling apart and I started posting here on the DailyKos...I don't know why. I barely even know what the Kos was. Some political blog.
And as I posted and read and got involved in the community I realized it wasn't just a room full of frustrated people writing to blow off steam...hell no...it was people actually getting shit done. Organizing. Rallying. Pushing. Mobilizing.
Seriously.
I'd never seen anything like it before.
Ordinary people pushing bits, even little bits, of the world where they wanted them to be. Ordinary people. People like me.
Before coming here...I had no idea that sort of thing was possible. In my mind there was me, There was Washington DC, and connecting them was my Vote that really seemed disconnected from what I wanted and what got done. I thought there was little else I could do from Vote to Vote.
I had the incredible honor of going to Netroots Nation on scholarship (thank you Land Of Enchantment for pointing me in that direction!), and I met even more people who were able to bend the world, even if only a little.
Through the Kos and this blogging thing, and watching how people used the online media to organize and mobilize, the world seemed less out of my hands. I might not be able to do a lot. But I could do a lot more than Vote.
As I mentioned before...today I gave a live interview on the radio.
I've never done that before. And so I'm going to brag myself up. I'd offer a link to the interview, but the recording my dad did is 34 MB and I haven't figured out yet how to upload it...but the point is, today a regional news personality interviewed me about a group I've formed in support of a 1000 MW wind farm. Before that, I was interviewed by the local newspaper, and a front page story was written up...
...it all came from a goofy Facebook page I made up, and my attempts to drum up support for this wind farm in the face of organized, well funded opposition. As I write this our Facebook group has 3007 members, quite a lot for our small community. And enough for local news outlets to start taking us seriously. Somehow, in the midst of all this, I've become something of a defacto spokesman for those who support this offshore, Lake Michigan wind farm.
Me of 2008 and early 2009 would never, never, never have done this...would never have even known that organizing 3000+ people was a possibility...and I never would have known that organizing that many people had the power to potentially override the existing power structures in the region. Through amassing 3000+ people I have gone over the heads of the usual powers that be, and have gotten a chance to speak for thousands of normal people about what we want for our region...
...and I owe all that to the Daily Kos. The things I've learned here. The people I've met here. The opportunities I've found here.
Yeah. It frustrates me here sometimes. But this is more than just a news source. More than just an online community. It's a boot camp and proving ground for people who feel powerless. And there's SO MANY people out there like that. I don't care how crazy of funky it gets here...this place is invaluable.