Answer the call

I’ve been busy with conventions and fundraisers, and rallies, and town committees, and lobbying.
I never intended to get this involved.

It was a call from a Mary Ann at work that got me involved in our organizing drive at my hospital.
It was a call from Jan that got me involved with AFT Connecticut.
It was a call from Susan that got me involved with my town’s DTC.
(Maybe I need to stop taking calls? LOL)

I’m definitely not alone.
Jan got involved when the state threatened to close the school she was teaching at.
She stepped up to president of her local when their president stepped down.
She became AFT Connecticut president and a national VP only when asked repeatedly.

Answering the call is what our parents and grandparents did when the world was threatened by Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan.
Answering the call is what fills the roles of little league coaches and scout leaders and church leaders and town political leaders.

Thank God, people answer the call!

It’s easy to criticize those who answer the call to the many forms of  public service.
We would be well served to remember why it is called “public service.”
No, people are not perfect.
Yes, some people abuse their positions or make decisions that leave our heads shaking.

But when ordinary people fail to answer the call, a vacuum is created.
And when a vacuum is created it is filled, often by someone or something that does not serve us well.

My grandfather was a longtime state senator in RI.
In fact, for years he was president of the state senate.
I didn’t understand the significance or the many gavels on the piano in the living room of this house.
Now I know, each gavel represented a session of the senate.
Each gavel represented his answering the call to public service.

My parents did not enter politics, but they voted in every election and taught us that this was our civic right and responsibility.
Each of us needs to find the level of public service engagement that is right for us.
For some it will be as a volunteer in a youth program, a church program, at local schools.
For some it will be as a union building rep, or serving on a town committee, or as president of the PTO, or a volunteer firefighter.
For some it will mean leadership in a union or in governmental politics.

But all of us should answer the call to vote.

People immigrated to this country, people died in wars, because they answered the call so that we could have this basic civic right and responsibility.

In Connecticut, we will hold a primary on August 14 and a general election on November 6.
Please register, please vote.
Please answer the call.