Some political perspective

A friend passes along the note below as a reminder of why grassroots political involvement matters - even when what gets noticed among much of the public may seem like nothing more than a clash of scripted theatrics:

I am sitting at home on a Saturday night after having watched many of my friends battle it out this past week in the game of politics. I was mainly a bystander, yet I still feel emotionally exhausted by the weight of the events. I can’t begin to imagine how my friends must feel.

I am writing this because I don’t think enough people understand what it means when my some of my politically-active friends tell others that they're "involved in politics.” How does that look? How does that feel? What does that even mean?

Here's what it boils down to: People immediately seize upon the glitz, glamour and fanfare of a large, successful campaign they saw on TV, and picture you in the background laughing, cheering and holding some sort of flag or identifying marker to show your side.

But politicking is so far from being a pep squad member. It’s complicated, it’s damn hard work, and it’s something that you can’t even put on your resume despite all of this. Politics, unlike other activities, is a calling, not a Saturday afternoon leisure sport. But don’t get me wrong: It sure as Hell requires a lot of sweat and stamina. Politics eats up everything: an unbelievable amount of time, energy, and resources of all kind, especially financial ones when you have to take a leave from your job, or work for free on a long campaign.

Most people think being involved in politics only means supporting a candidate or being one during a six-week period leading up to a provincial or national election. But that’s far from the case. For those truly involved, it’s just one small slice of the pie.

* “Being in politics” involves costly nominations of candidates to a party before they can even represent it in the aforementioned elections. It involves tough decisions as to who you should support, especially when you feel everyone who is running is qualified.

* It means passing along your beliefs during countless hours outside, unremunerated, knocking on doors, or inside, sitting in people’s houses or phoning around.

* It means spending time traveling to be on committees at local, provincial and national levels to determine policies. It involves watching the news and the papers and the blogs and the pundits and reading the pamphlets and talking to the right people so that you’re as informed as possible when you have to make those policy calls.

* It’s spreading yourself thin, trying to do your best to understand all areas of policy through which you're supposed to represent others: Education, Environment, Health Care, Economics, Business, Unions, Agriculture, Utility Rates, Housing, Poverty, Childcare, Women’s Issues, Ethnic Minority Concerns, Aboriginal Rights, and the list goes on.

* It’s not being able to sleep at night because you don’t know if you made the right decision or said exactly the right thing, because it’s damn hard to keep on top of all of these issues. It’s feeling guilty if you let even a day go by without taking time to fully understand the point-of-view of a particular segment of the population involved in these issues. It’s knowing you’ll never fully understand any situation, you'll just have to do your best.

* It's feeling like a mouse – like a voiceless and powerless child -- When you are too sick or stressed to work to your maximum for what you believe in and for those who represent those beliefs. The feeling is intensified because of the high expectations and demands for understanding and keep on top of everything.

Politics isn’t something you do for yourself. It’s something you do for others. Politics is understanding that whatever you hold most dear could be taken away from you tomorrow if people don’t understand how our current government came about, and why it is a living entity that needs to be nourished, grown, and preserved, not a museum monument.

Politics is understanding that our freedoms are not a given. It’s understanding where the power really lies.

* It’s knowing that, tomorrow, low-income seniors could be kicked out of a nursing home because of policy changes if people aren’t there to stop it.

* It’s knowing that hundreds of union members could lose their work benefits due to legislation the United Nations has said is the worst it has ever seen out of any country in many, many years.

* It’s knowing that our education system is being drained of resources with each passing day. It’s knowing that it’s not the fault of the teacher, or the school, or the school board, but of the government that cuts funding to it. It’s knowing that things won’t get better unless we go right to the source of the problem.

* It’s understanding that people take our healthcare system for granted, and that no amount of complaining to friends and family will make wait times go down. No, if you really want your mom to get that operation sooner, you have to fight for it by contacting your local MP, MLA, and getting involved with local interest groups.

* It’s knowing – and not knowing – so many other things, too.

But don’t get me wrong. Yes, politics brings with it feelings of stress, guilt, exhaustion, and frustration, just to name a few.

But that’s not where it ends. If it were, none of us would have the courage to go on.

* Politics involves sitting around a table with your friends after an event, feeling the huge high you get from the satisfaction of knowing you are doing your best to make changes in this world. It’s feeling involved at the highest, most significant level, knowing that you’re doing something that will go down in history, even if you tried, and failed.

* It’s knowing the privilege of living in a democratic country, where you CAN take action, however hard the work towards change might be. It’s knowing that there is so much good in this world when people work together, even though it’s not always easy to do so.

* It’s feeling happy, and actually relaxed, at the end of a long day, knowing that it’s never too late to create a better world.

And as crazy as it might seem, I'm going to be bold enough to say that, in the end, I think it's what keeps us all sane.