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When thousands of people donate no more than $100 per person per election, we can build a campaign without money from special interests. _______________________ But it's about more than money. We need your energy and your enthusiasm, too. Sign up to volunteer on Jim Hansen's campaign for Congress.
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Coffee shop in Buhl ripe for conversation
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
9/9/2006 |
When I was visiting business owners in Buhl the other day, I stopped in a coffee shop called the Cosmic Jolt. It is a setting where people feel comfortable sharing their frustrations with the direction our country is going, spiced with specific examples of their own struggles. It is also a place where I enjoy sharing my sense of optimism and hope that change can happen.
I love going into every business in the downtown of small communities. Often, the conversations are brief, since there never seem to be enough hours in the day to get work done. Since I run a small business myself, I know how tough it is to get everything done in the typical 60-80 hour work week.
But in the coffee shops and barber shops, I have met people who are primed to talk about what's on their minds. That certainly was the case when I stopped in the Cosmic Jolt in Buhl. While there, I visited with a schoolteacher (just before the school year began) who had a wealth of experience dealing with the challenges of the testing regimen of the misnamed "No Child Left Behind" law. I also visited with the owner of the massage therapy business next door who was on his break. He was pretty pessimistic about the direction of the country and has heard a lot of stories from his clients that reinforces his sense of frustration. Another young man I spoke with worked in construction and he said he was thinking about moving because he was fed up with low wages in the area.
I am a chronic optimist and found myself encouraging all of them to hang on to a sense of hope that we can change the direction our country, if we get involved in making change happen. They all seemed genuinely surprised to have a candidate for federal office actually listening to them, rather than having some TV ad spouting sound bites. They also encouraged me to keep up the grassroots approach.
The way Congress and our national politicians ignore local communities while they focus on national interest groups and their money, it is not surprising that so many people feel isolated and pessimistic. And it is probably not surprising that they might first assume the only way things will change is with a "cosmic jolt." Deep down, however, they know that real change comes from the bottom up, from people getting involved, talking to others about how we can change and inviting them to participate as well.
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