The Castine Democratic Caucus
(A Paper Written for Technology Class to Evaluate my Power Point Presentation shown at the Caucus)
Abstract
The Castine Democratic Caucus was held at the Castine Town Hall on February 10th. All registered Democrats and interested community members who were not registered with the Republican Party were encouraged to come and cast their vote for their preferred presidential candidate, as well as to elect local and county Municipal officers. The Power Point's aim was to clarify any lingering questions that people had in a clear, succinct fashion regarding the course of events on the agenda, as well as to entertain and inform the public. The presentation displayed images of the candidates who were still in the running, described how delegates would be selected from our town to attend the state convention and how many would proceed on to The National Convention.
The Power Point’s background colors were simple blues, reds and blacks. The accompanying music was a mixture between jazz and rock. The introductory slide was the only slide that was set to a picture back ground; the others were color back grounds or backgrounds from the layout section. The picture used was taken one summer in the Castine harbor and the words that projected onto the wall read ‘The Castine Democratic Caucus 2008’. Jazz music was added to this slide to spruce it up a bit and it looped on to the next slide after about one minute. My intention when adding the music was to create a participatory and spirited atmosphere. This worked well at first, when people were just beginning to trickle in; but eventually the room became much too crowded and the music actually became interference, so it was muted as everyone squeezed into the room. For those interested in learning more about the Democratic Party and the proceedings, the presentation's summation slide showed several websites (including Hanncock County Dems) for people to look up on their own time.
The rehearsal function was used to plan out how long each slide would run for. This freed me up to help out with other aspects of the event. After all, the posters that we had designed when advertising the event placed emphasis upon the fact that this would be a time for people to share their views in an open atmosphere. There’s nothing like it, we would say to people when they would ask what the Caucus would be like. Participating in our old New England style direct democracy where everyone is encouraged to speak their minds before the voting would be an experience not to be missed. Voters were asked to literally stand in their favorite candidate’s corner, a practice that has its roots here in New England and in Europe, as well.
All and all we had close to one hundred and fifty people in our meeting hall. Forty-seven percent of all of the registered Democrats in our small town showed. Many of the voters who were not in town sent in absentee ballots. Our Caucus was the sixth largest in the County after places like Bar Harbor and Ellsworth. Not bad for a small town with only three hundred and eight registered Democrats. People present were all buzzing with excitement and many of them brought food and drinks to share. People spoke with one another in an animated fashion, occasionally looking over at the wall; but all clearly amazed by the sheer number of people who turned out. The State reported record numbers in townships everywhere. The question circulating around seemed to be: why did so many people turn out for Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama, a Senator who harkens from Illinois; but lived for a spell in Indonesia and also in Hawaii. Could it be his reverie for the history of our country and the inclusivity of his attitude toward the people of all ethnicities, or perhaps his willingness to cross party lines to seek solutions to a host of problems that have been brewing over the past eight years? Or would Hillary Clinton regain momentum and become the first woman president?
When the time came to get started, our Caucus Convener, Gunilla Kettis began with the proceedings. We voted for our officers and eventually, people stood for their desired Presidential candidate. The results were tallied: the outcome was 2:1 for Barack Obama. So this brings me back to this question, what brought so many people out of their homes on this snowy afternoon to literally stand for Obama? Obama in his second book, “The Audacity of Hope” recognizes New England’s history for governing using direct democracy; but describes also just how unmanageable this method would be at a national level. He examines history for answers and seeks new solutions to age old problems. Obama willingly reminds us all that we have a right to stand for our basic liberties: the pursuit of happiness, a consistent government, predictability, coherence and fairness. These things are all part of the American way; he makes a point of declaring. We ought to be testing and retesting our government with ideas, policies and visions that promise to shape America, he stated in a speech to the people in Bangor Maine. Obama is a candidate who prides himself on leading not by polls; but by principles and is skilled at eloquently reminding us of the words of our former leaders. In fact, Obama began his campaign in Springfield Illinois, the same place where President Lincoln declared that he would be running for President of the United States. Since then, Obama and his grassroots campaign has grown and his message is clear: lobbyists and big businesses are simply not welcome, as he moves state to state, diner to diner answering people’s questions. One has to wonder what dinner at the White House will be like for Obama when and if he is elected President (for he has spent so many years reaching out to citizens in the community through his grassroots organizing). Will he continue to pop in unexpectedly at the local Mom and Pop shops located across our fine county? Who knows; but what one thing is certain: his natural desire to promote change in this country has already touched thousands of Americans lives. When Obama speaks, he has a spark in his eye any time he mentions JFK and I fervently believe that he will be a candidate who holds fast to his promise to bring about change in education. He wishes to offer college students scholarship money; however, in return he will be asking them to commit to community service. In the sphere of foreign relations he takes the stance that we should be open to negotiate with all countries and not isolate our enemies. China is our competitor for sure; but not our enemy. If Einstein were alive today, I have a feeling that Obama would have his vote for it was Einstein who believed in the friendly universe theory. He stated once ‘how do we see the world…if we see the world and the people in it as potential adversaries we create more of them’. Unfortunately, this is where we are now (we have many new adversaries world wide). Obama speaks of cleaning up some of the mess that has been made by the current Bush administration. Without going into too many specific details, these are just a few of the many reasons that I decided to focus in on the election at this time. I believe that we are at a pivotal time in American history and that Obama is not a ‘hope monger’ as some have said; but rather he is a man who is ready to emerge and lead our country toward a more responsible and sustainable future. Obama is a living example of a man who due to his remarkable abilities has risen to gain national attention. Perhaps Lincoln would be proud for it was he who believed in “the ability of free labor to advance life.”
There was plenty to discuss and several things happened at the meeting that I will quickly note here. I was elected at the Caucus to be the town Treasurer, and volunteered to be one of the Delegates who will travel to Augusta to represent Senator Barack Obama. The people at the Caucus seemed to view my Power Point with interest; however, I now wish that I had asked a few of them to fill out the evaluation form that I created for the course. The Caucus Convener was pleased with the pictures that I was able to copy from The Maine Democratic website.
The most difficult obstacle I faced actually was not a solvable one. When I first envisioned the project, the slide show was just the beginning. Gunilla and I discussed connecting our computers to Senator Clinton and Senator Barack’s websites and playing Utube videos from these sites. I really wanted to capture the ‘Yes We Can’ song; however, when I found out though that the only way that I would be able to get it would be to burn it to a CD using Lime wire I gave up on this fun thought. The problem that we had with playing Utube videos from the Town Hall was simple: the Town Hall was not connected to the internet.
The other thing that we had planned to do when we met; but didn’t end up doing (due to the fact that so many people showed) was show a video generated from Tom Allen’s office in Portland advertising his candidacy for Senate. This was just as well because the room was so crowded we had to move the projector. We were able to conduct the important aspects of the meeting though, and Gunilla reported that we completed everything in just fifty minutes. This of course was not including the forty five minutes that it took to register people she mentioned in a thank you email to all those who helped out with the event. We were lucky though. Apparently, in many townships, people had to change venues to accommodate the crowds. Luckily, ours was a friendly bunch. We all just squished together and then when the time came, we split to make our stand. Barack won; 2:1!
