Twelve Hours

Twelve hours from now I would normally be getting my blog post up, pouring a second cup of coffee and getting my family out the door. But tomorrow will be different. In twelve hours my family will be sleeping in and I will be standing at the polls in support of Kirsten Coombs for the Howard County Board of Education.

My kind of advocacy usually comes in the form of a blog post or a well-timed letter. But every once in a while even I know that the time has come to move beyond doling out insight from a distance. Sometimes one must go to the meeting, give the public testimony, stand at the polls and meet new people in support of something bigger than oneself. In twelve hours that time will come again for me.

As you are reading you are probably realizing that I wrote this twelve hours ago because I have not figured out a way to stand at the polls and blog at the same time. As I write my daughter is looking forward to watching "Dancing With The Stars", and my husband is playing the guitar while watching the Orioles game. At the George Howard Building the County Council is very likely about to endure a dog-and-pony show of budget testimony from school system employees who have no choice but to be there. Just another Monday evening in HoComd.

It sounds like a perfectly ordinary evening, but it isn't. The balance of power could soon be shifting, and the opportunity for Howard County citizens to have a real voice in their school system could finally come into play. Right now, as I type, I feel the air around me crackle with the power of possibility.

It could happen. If we choose to make it so.

Twelve hours from now I may smile at you, say good morning, perhaps engage you in conversation. And twelve hours after that I'll be at home, watching election results come in and hoping for the best. Well, that's putting it mildly. I'll be highly invested in the outcome. And I'm not alone. Some incredibly good people have put themselves out there to work for a better board of ed.

The clock is ticking. The time to take a stand for something bigger than ourselves is now.

See you at the polls.