Banging our hearts and minds against the same wall
How do we get all the leaders, activists and concerned people of every stripe and persuasion in Oconee County, Georgia to come together for one night? That was one the main question I distilled from the latest gathering of frustration known as the Oconee County Democratic Committee this evening at the Courthouse Annex. There are a lot of creative, intelligent, amazing individuals who attend church, go to soccer games, and build things in their backyards who do not judge you based on whether you attach a D or an R on the back of their name. Civitans, Rotary, Woodmen of the World, Clarke - Oconee Cattlemen's Association, Moore's Ford Memorial Committee, the Junior League, every school's PTA, every sports league, every church group, all have one thing in common: they care about our present and future. How they go about it, how they share their viewpoints, those are the different paths, dreams and fulfillment from whence we derive our differing viewpoints.
I had just come from the dedication of the new Gymnasium of the Veterans park. They have a nice three point line on the short courts on the wooden basketball flooring. There are tons of weight machines and cardio workout machines upstairs as well.
Nothing was accomplished at this evening's meeting, except that our meeting was not announced in the calendar section of any of the papers, and that was as much our fault for not having a tag for this meeting such as "Chairman Veit teaches Oconee Democrats LaCrosse techniques while riding bikes." Liz Goodroe and Erica Ferrari talked about their meeting with the Food Bank, with the wrap up of the Transferable Development Rights Educational Summit provided by Jonathan Veit (with a dozen people and the Mayor of Watkinsville Jim Luken and no other public leaders despite being invited). Becky Vaughn will be leading an Advocacy Workshop for members of the committee at their house in Lane Creek next week after Violet Dawe does her best with the local Legislative Delegation at the charter meeting in North High Shoals at 6 pm, in which she urges all interested parties to turn out to the lovely new North High Shoals Elementary School at 6:00 pm to the State Representative Bob Smith, Senator Bill Cowsert and Ralph Hudgins know of the support for the city at the confluence of Morgan, Walton and Oconee Counties.
The next committee meeting is Tuesday, April 2, 2009 at 7:30 pm at the Oconee County Government Annex on Hwy. 15 in Watkinsville. The Democratic Committee will be working on an event with David Poythress, a candidate for Governor, sometime in the future as well as a bicycle commuting seminar on a Sunday sometime later in the next month.
We had some vigorous, robust and dynamic debate about the length of weekly newspapers needing advance notice to be spoon fed notices about monthly meetings, why we meet on Thursdays, the political leanings of former teachers at OCHS, and just about every thing else we could possibly disagree on in a 90 minute discussion where everyone can talk about the problems, but no is really ready to step up to the plate, myself included.
Being a Democratic party member in Oconee County carries a heavy burden and quite a social stigma which prevents a lot of people from crossing the Rubicon to come to our meetings in this mass of apathetic suburban and rural dwellers. If anyone has any ideas on how we might go about changing this reddest of red counties back to being purple at least, let me know please.
I had just come from the dedication of the new Gymnasium of the Veterans park. They have a nice three point line on the short courts on the wooden basketball flooring. There are tons of weight machines and cardio workout machines upstairs as well.
Nothing was accomplished at this evening's meeting, except that our meeting was not announced in the calendar section of any of the papers, and that was as much our fault for not having a tag for this meeting such as "Chairman Veit teaches Oconee Democrats LaCrosse techniques while riding bikes." Liz Goodroe and Erica Ferrari talked about their meeting with the Food Bank, with the wrap up of the Transferable Development Rights Educational Summit provided by Jonathan Veit (with a dozen people and the Mayor of Watkinsville Jim Luken and no other public leaders despite being invited). Becky Vaughn will be leading an Advocacy Workshop for members of the committee at their house in Lane Creek next week after Violet Dawe does her best with the local Legislative Delegation at the charter meeting in North High Shoals at 6 pm, in which she urges all interested parties to turn out to the lovely new North High Shoals Elementary School at 6:00 pm to the State Representative Bob Smith, Senator Bill Cowsert and Ralph Hudgins know of the support for the city at the confluence of Morgan, Walton and Oconee Counties.
The next committee meeting is Tuesday, April 2, 2009 at 7:30 pm at the Oconee County Government Annex on Hwy. 15 in Watkinsville. The Democratic Committee will be working on an event with David Poythress, a candidate for Governor, sometime in the future as well as a bicycle commuting seminar on a Sunday sometime later in the next month.
We had some vigorous, robust and dynamic debate about the length of weekly newspapers needing advance notice to be spoon fed notices about monthly meetings, why we meet on Thursdays, the political leanings of former teachers at OCHS, and just about every thing else we could possibly disagree on in a 90 minute discussion where everyone can talk about the problems, but no is really ready to step up to the plate, myself included.
Being a Democratic party member in Oconee County carries a heavy burden and quite a social stigma which prevents a lot of people from crossing the Rubicon to come to our meetings in this mass of apathetic suburban and rural dwellers. If anyone has any ideas on how we might go about changing this reddest of red counties back to being purple at least, let me know please.
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