Many hands make light work. It also fosters new friendships and cements blossoming friendships. This morning's heavy lifting was done at the TID offices (Turlock Irrigation District) on behalf of Mike Berryhill, candidate for Congress for the 18th Congressional District.
As usual, political distortion, while based on a truth, doesn't tell a whole truth. So this morning found me wading through 26 years worth of weekly TID meetings minutes all in a quest of verifying Mike's actually attendance record at these meetings.
The distorted political truth in the current campaign for the seat in the 18th Congressional District is that Mike Berryhill, has been absent or late to TID Supervisors meetings 30% of the time over the last 26 years. That leads the ad listener to believe that Berryhill is not responsible or reliable. I used to think that a statistic put out there had to be true because an untruth can be proven. Naive, I known, but I'm losing my naivete fast.
My exploration into 26 years of meeting minutes taught me a few things about "truth".
1. The late arrivals were, in reality, arrivals that were no more that 5 - 15 minutes late on meetings that last in excess over four hours and often lasted longer. This means that instead of missing 30% of the voting ; in reality he was present for 85% of them.
2. The absences were in large part clustered in the Fall season. Mike is a working farmer who manages a 200 acre grape operation. He is up early, working the vineyards, running in to clean up and then driving to Turlock for a meeting that starts at 9 a.m. It doesn't take much to slow things up - broken machinery can't wait; urgent harvesting may be dictated because unseasonal weather can ruin a crop at the last minute.
3. I found it appalling that as a resident of Turlock, a vast farm community, we are not part of the 18th District. Stockton and Modesto, cities that don't rely on farming, are. Merced, surrounded by farms also does not rely on farming. Many small farming communities do make up the 18th District, but not one of the biggest - not Turlock. I started to understand the meaning and real implications of gerrymandering. Somewhere along the line, politics excluded Turlock from its natural voting so that democrats would have a more stacked for winning district.
So, you must wonder, if I can't vote for this man, why am I working for this man? It's an easy answer. He is a neighbor. He lives less than ten miles from me and yet I can't vote for him. If I CAN'T vote for him, I WILL work for him.
I don't believe it is one individual that influences good change through better government. I believe that good individuals of similar minds are going to do what it takes to effect change and save our state not to mention our country. It is this philosophy that thrust me into political activism at this stage of my life. I wouldn't have imagined it even two or three years ago but too much has happened in the last three years politically for me to sit still anymore.
I have become part of a large body of Americans who object to being controlled by regulatory rules that have nothing to do with the rule of law, let along the Constitution.
I object to being subjected to the rule of NAFTA with all of its unbalance slanted south.
I object to businesses in California being taxed out of existence - literally - only to see those jobs resurface as outsourced jobs.
I object to unions having so much influence in this state that political extremes can be handled by the same handler and never know they are being managed.
I object to farmers losing farms (due to lack of water) because they are being sacrificed upon the altar of eco-terrorism in the form of a 4 inch fish.
I object to logging operations shutting down resulting in lumber having to be imported from Oregon.
So, I did some heavy lifting this morning and it felt good. I built up a bit of a political resume and committed myself to caring about the future and not giving up. We all know and remember Thomas Jefferson, or the Wright Brothers, or Albert Einstein. But do you know who "Jerry Cresip" is? No, I thought not. You see - he gave up.
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