Today is travel day - 7 hours on a train from Washington DC to Providence, Rhode Island. I am giddy like a little kid! I'm used to traveling, but it is normally by car or by airplane. I am used to traveling long distances, usually in between military assignments, but I have never in my life been so far north on the East Coast. This is new territory for me in so many ways - a new region, a new state, a new method of travel, and, hopefully, a whole batch of new friends!
I am going to Netroots for a multitude of reasons but the most important, the overarching reason is the same one that brought me to DailyKos in the first place. I want civilians to meet a military wife; I consider myself some kind of ambassador. I would really like you to meet my husband as well, but, let's face it, a political conference of any kind is the wrong place for a man in uniform. And he would never be comfortable pushing those limits - I, on the other hand, learned a long time ago that talking about the issues is one way to take control of my uncontrollable life. Acting on the issues is a step better!
And I don't necessarily want people to meet ME. I want people to meet a military community member who is real - not some fake, patriotic image that we see plastered across a television screen in a commercial. Sure, I can be the wife clinging to her husband as he is getting ready to leave for deployment; I can be the wife waiting at the airport with the welcome home sign; I can be the wife who cries both coming and going. Ironically, those images are a part of me. But military wives, military husbands, military families are so much more and I don't know if civilians realize that. We're diverse - we're every race and color, every religion and non-religion, every political persuasion. We are each and every one of us original. I wish I could bring more of us to Netroots - organized and ready to hold panels and take part in national conversations about health care and education. Military families have a lot to offer. But until I convince more military families that traveling to Netroots Nation is worthwhile, you will have to be content with me!
Look out NN12, here I come!
Look for me on Twitter at progress4usa! And make sure to check out my liveblog (crossing fingers I can make this happen) of NFTT's panel on Military Sexual Trauma, Friday at 3pm.