This is the new slogan for the Obama for America campaign: I'm in.
And for me it is doubly true. I'm in as a volunteer on the campaign. I'm in, as in back in the game.
As anyone who has read this blog knows, the past four years have been strenuous for me and my family. But we are coming out of it. My wife Renee is doing well, her cancer's in remission (we believe it is gone forever), we are finally insured (through the Affordable Care Act -- thank you Mr. President! Thank you Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid!), and we are beginning to reenter the world again.
The kids are older (7,5 and 4), and they are perfect, beautiful. The demands on me as Dad are lightening every so slighly. So in addition to teaching a class on Shakespeare at their school, and while I'm still working on that memoir based on our road-trip to the childhood homes of Presidents, I have recently volunteered with the Obama campaign, building neighborhood teams.
My two-day training last weekend was truly inspiring. The stakes are so high, massive wealth and the control of nuclear warheads turn on the office in question, and yet the staff of the Oakland Obama for America office is down-to-earth, patient, smart, genuine. All through the training, they let us Fall Fellows ask questions, pursue tangents, to our hearts' content. They talked about respect, listening, including everybody -- in short, the values that the President himself demonstrates every day.
If this is how reentering the outside world feels, after 4 years away from it, let me just say: I'm in.
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