Sometimes inspiration slips in where you don't expect it, and sometimes you can find faith from circumstances most mundane. That's the best way I can describe why I enjoy going to small local party club meetings in Maryland, because suffering through the uncomfortable chairs, the boring minutia and the oddball characters often banishes my cynicism.
Last night, the first meeting of the Northwest Baltimore County Democratic Club was short, uninspired, and anti-climactic. But that didn't matter. It was a sunny little reflection of the idea that by and large, people go into politics to make positive change.
Our 11th district delegation came to speak about their policy initiatives now that our state legislature is in session.
As you know, Governor O'Malley's been getting a lot of bad press these days. Some of it deserved. Some of it not. But the overall astonishment with which all three of our delegates and our state senator reported on the Governor's aggressiveness on environmental issues put some things back in perspective.
Dana Stein, Dan Morhaim, John Cardin and Bobby Zirkin are as green as you get when it comes to legislators--all three of them spoke about bills that they had been fighting for, and intending to pass, which had been adopted in whole by the O'Malley administration before they even got a chance to break a sweat.
And speaking of breaking a sweat, there's Bobby Zirkin. For those of you who have been puzzled by the improbable rise to political power of this small-statured young man, last night's performance would have explained everything.
State Senator Zirkin is a new father. His infant daughter was sick with a flu, which she gave to her parents, which prevented Bobby Zirkin from making it to Annapolis. But he quite obviously dragged himself out of bed to talk to his constituents on a January night when he didn't have to. He said he was sick as a dog, and he looked like it too, but he muscled through what ailed him to give a comprehensive speech on his work on juvenile justice, and what he wanted us to help him accomplish in the state legislature this year.
He showed such passion for the things that he believed in, that even when I disagreed with him (as I do on his plan to expand information collecting on sex offenders who have served their time), I felt that he showed a real command of the issues.
All we hear from the media is how bad politicians are, and how venal and corrupt the entire system is. It's enough to make a lot of people not want to participate. But when you go to one of Maryland's little town hall type meetings like this one, and you get to hear from the people who represent you in a real way, it can infuse you with a little hope.
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