Today in my campaign - A Hostile Environment for Democracy
In yesterday's post, I expressed hope for Democracy. Today, I realize it is going to take a lot more time and work than I realized. I certainly hope that the climate for Democracy is better in other places in our Republic, but today, I faced a hostile reception at the same event where I tabled yesterday.
I arrived at Riponfest today at the same time I did yesterday, just before 5pm, when the fest was scheduled to open. Almost immediately, after I put up my sign, I was confronted by an organizer, the President of the Fest who told me I couldn't have my table because I was not an approved vendor. When she first showed up, she told me, "We don't want political booths here. We don't want to ruin the fest." When I expressed (quite calmly and rationally) that I felt it would have been nice to have received an email telling me that (I did email this woman and identify that I was a representative of a political campaign and asked her what the rules for the fest were and I received no response.) She claimed to have sent a reply, but I rechecked my inbox (I haven't deleted any emails in weeks because I am organizing for the campaign. I just move them to newly created storage folders so they don't bog down my inbox). I then asked her if the park was considered private property for the fest (a question she wouldn't answer). She brought up issues of local preference and security, to which I replied that I did in fact send her an email identifying myself, and that furthermore, I am a local resident, and I would be happy to prove that. She then offered to let me "stay for the remainder of the evening." Then she said that she had to confer with the remainder of her board, and would get back to me about the rest of the weekend.
About a half hour later she returned and told me that if I wanted to host a table on Saturday and Sunday, I would have to provide a $100 deposit (money I don't have). She expressed that it would be unfair to the other vendors for me to be able to host a table for free, because of liability issues and fairness.
At that point, I said okay. I didn't have enough information to go upon to know whether what she was doing was even legal (I will follow up on that this week.) So at that point, she left and I hosted my table as I did yesterday, in the same spot, under the same tree. The difference this time is that I was right next door to a graphic clothing producer (hats, t-shirts, etc.) I briefly spoke with the man running it, and he seemed interested in the Governor, so I gave him a flyer. Whether he was interested out of business interest or personal, I cannot say, but we did also discuss the graphic clothing business a bit, and he gave me a sense of costs for t-shirts. I took his card.
While tabling this evening, I spoke with three additional people besides the vendor next door, and out of those three, two signed up to receive more information about the campaign. Those are excellent results, given the circumstances. Yesterday evening, all three of my contacts were fathers with children. Tonight they were all couples with no children present. Of the three people to whom I spoke, the two who signed up already knew a little bit about Governor Richardson. The third really didn't, but she seemed impressed with his qualifications. Of the three couples, I spoke to the women twice and the man once. Although in the first case, the woman who didn't sign up did speak a little bit.
The weather was nice again. It was probably right at 80 degrees again, and it was a little more cloudy than yesterday, but no real threat of rain.
On a side note, my high school civics teacher walked right past me and didn't even say hello. Perhaps he didn't recognize me with my hat, but his wife did, so I don't know.
When I returned home I checked the Riponfest website (www.riponfest.com) and maybe I can't navigate my way around the website, but I couldn't find a vendor application form on the site anywhere. Now I'm not saying that I couldn't have done more to find out the rules….and for what it is worth, if you're hosting a table in a public venue, by all means make sure you get a clear statement of the rules and regulations….what I am saying is that based upon my experiences over the past two days, we live in an environment that at the very least, indifferent to, if not overtly hostile to political expression.
We have to work to change this. Politics is how we have our national political discussion, and if politics are "unwelcome" in America, that is a bad sign. I discuss politics all the time. I don't demand that people agree with me. In fact, I adhere to one of my father's old expressions: "If we agreed upon everything, one of us would be useless." Politics is the process by which we get from difference to synthesis, and I believe, if that process is open, fair and respectful, we get a better result than if we try and slog through on our own. Democracy works when we believe in the process and the equality of the players. The key is for each of us to stand up for what we believe, without getting so wrapped up in being right that we are willing to trample upon the rights of others. Not an easy thing to do, mind you, but what our ideal should be, whatever positions we hold on the many issues our society faces.
I suppose in the face of so much hostility and indifference, it would be easy to quit. I say, a lot more people have given a whole bunch more than I have to defend democracy. I should at least have the courage to stand up for what I believe.
I arrived at Riponfest today at the same time I did yesterday, just before 5pm, when the fest was scheduled to open. Almost immediately, after I put up my sign, I was confronted by an organizer, the President of the Fest who told me I couldn't have my table because I was not an approved vendor. When she first showed up, she told me, "We don't want political booths here. We don't want to ruin the fest." When I expressed (quite calmly and rationally) that I felt it would have been nice to have received an email telling me that (I did email this woman and identify that I was a representative of a political campaign and asked her what the rules for the fest were and I received no response.) She claimed to have sent a reply, but I rechecked my inbox (I haven't deleted any emails in weeks because I am organizing for the campaign. I just move them to newly created storage folders so they don't bog down my inbox). I then asked her if the park was considered private property for the fest (a question she wouldn't answer). She brought up issues of local preference and security, to which I replied that I did in fact send her an email identifying myself, and that furthermore, I am a local resident, and I would be happy to prove that. She then offered to let me "stay for the remainder of the evening." Then she said that she had to confer with the remainder of her board, and would get back to me about the rest of the weekend.
About a half hour later she returned and told me that if I wanted to host a table on Saturday and Sunday, I would have to provide a $100 deposit (money I don't have). She expressed that it would be unfair to the other vendors for me to be able to host a table for free, because of liability issues and fairness.
At that point, I said okay. I didn't have enough information to go upon to know whether what she was doing was even legal (I will follow up on that this week.) So at that point, she left and I hosted my table as I did yesterday, in the same spot, under the same tree. The difference this time is that I was right next door to a graphic clothing producer (hats, t-shirts, etc.) I briefly spoke with the man running it, and he seemed interested in the Governor, so I gave him a flyer. Whether he was interested out of business interest or personal, I cannot say, but we did also discuss the graphic clothing business a bit, and he gave me a sense of costs for t-shirts. I took his card.
While tabling this evening, I spoke with three additional people besides the vendor next door, and out of those three, two signed up to receive more information about the campaign. Those are excellent results, given the circumstances. Yesterday evening, all three of my contacts were fathers with children. Tonight they were all couples with no children present. Of the three people to whom I spoke, the two who signed up already knew a little bit about Governor Richardson. The third really didn't, but she seemed impressed with his qualifications. Of the three couples, I spoke to the women twice and the man once. Although in the first case, the woman who didn't sign up did speak a little bit.
The weather was nice again. It was probably right at 80 degrees again, and it was a little more cloudy than yesterday, but no real threat of rain.
On a side note, my high school civics teacher walked right past me and didn't even say hello. Perhaps he didn't recognize me with my hat, but his wife did, so I don't know.
When I returned home I checked the Riponfest website (www.riponfest.com) and maybe I can't navigate my way around the website, but I couldn't find a vendor application form on the site anywhere. Now I'm not saying that I couldn't have done more to find out the rules….and for what it is worth, if you're hosting a table in a public venue, by all means make sure you get a clear statement of the rules and regulations….what I am saying is that based upon my experiences over the past two days, we live in an environment that at the very least, indifferent to, if not overtly hostile to political expression.
We have to work to change this. Politics is how we have our national political discussion, and if politics are "unwelcome" in America, that is a bad sign. I discuss politics all the time. I don't demand that people agree with me. In fact, I adhere to one of my father's old expressions: "If we agreed upon everything, one of us would be useless." Politics is the process by which we get from difference to synthesis, and I believe, if that process is open, fair and respectful, we get a better result than if we try and slog through on our own. Democracy works when we believe in the process and the equality of the players. The key is for each of us to stand up for what we believe, without getting so wrapped up in being right that we are willing to trample upon the rights of others. Not an easy thing to do, mind you, but what our ideal should be, whatever positions we hold on the many issues our society faces.
I suppose in the face of so much hostility and indifference, it would be easy to quit. I say, a lot more people have given a whole bunch more than I have to defend democracy. I should at least have the courage to stand up for what I believe.
