Tamara Unleashed

Charlie Kirk was killed the day of our Democratic Candidate Town Hall. The Democratic Party office in an adjoining county had a visit from an angry man who threatened the volunteer in the office. I got a call around 3 PM from the RCDP Chair asking if I thought we should cancel our Town Hall. I said HELL NO and waited anxiously while he checked with the TNDP who was providing the liability insurance for the event. Fortunately, they were OK with us holding the event. The Town Hall was at a Middle School that was having a sporting event which took up quite a bit of the parking which was not ideal. All of the volunteers showed up to help get set up and new people were personally welcomed as they came in. The only detail I missed was that I should have had a jar for Undecided for the Straw Poll as many people were not able to pick a favorite. There are 4 strong candidates.

There were nearly 150 attendees. One person said they had not seen that many Democrats in the same place in Robertson County in decades. There were 45 people who signed in that were not on our email list which was GREAT. Craig recorded the event so we were able to post it for those that could not attend.

We had a private security person at the door which we planned prior to the Kirk assassination. There were no disruptions. Some audience members did choose to sit in the back on the side out of view of a potential shooter.

The Straw Poll was won by Aftyn Behn who is a passionate young woman in her first term in the TN State Assembly. She is the candidate with the most “fire” and she seems to be consistently appealing to those attending the Town Halls across District 7. I like her a great deal but we will not be able to win the General with a typical Democratic electorate. We are going to need to appeal to Independents and disenfranchised Republicans and it is hard to know if her “fire” will appeal to those voters.

The person who came in second in the Straw Poll, Darden Copeland. is a business man who has never run for office. His life experience is as a consensus builder and he does not have any record in the State Assembly to target by the Republican candidate. He has great confidence that he is the one who can get the votes by Independents and disenfranchised Republicans. I really don’t know who I am going to vote for at this point.

We had a man post a threat on our RCDP Facebook page later on Wednesday so we will now need to have security at our monthly meetings. This is truly hard to believe but that is our current reality.

I was really hoping for at least 200 people to attend the Town Hall but with the parking situation and the fear of a threatening situation, I am satisfied with the attendance. Now to figure out what our next event will be to keep people engaged.

What does it take to get the Democrats in Robertson County TN to poke their heads out and engage? I am not sure, but I am willing to try about anything. I think I make a pretty good Donkey. This may go up on the RCDP FB page if those in charge (not me) think it might help.

I canvassed both Saturday and Sunday (without the costume) and am headed out now on my bicycle. Again without the ears.

Canvassing is mostly dropping a flyer about the Town Hall on Wednesday but about a third of the time someone comes to the door and is willing to engage. Most continue to be unaware of the Special Election and the opportunity it provides. With the typical low turnout for Special Elections, the people I am reaching through canvassing may be enough to make a difference.

At the Workers over Billionaires protest yesterday we saw the 3 women who cared for Craig at the John Lewis parade just over a month ago when Craig suffered from heat exhaustion. Mandy and Julie, left and center are partners. Andrea, on the right was the ER nurse that recognized how compromised Craig was. They met over Craig and have remained friends. I wanted to get a picture of them and they wanted to make sure they got a picture with Craig. We are so grateful to them and look forward to seeing them at future protests.

My involvement in politics has been limited aside from financial support. I did do some phone banking in 2016 and lots of postcards in 2024. While I had heard from others that canvassing was fun and rewarding, I was not convinced that would be the case for me.

The Robertson County Democratic Party Treasurer, Donna, has become a friend and she had never conversed either. The RCDP Chair was concerned that canvassing for the Primary Election would burn people out and they would not want to canvass for the General Election. He may be right given the level of energy members have been willing to put in so far, but I think people will engage for a a few hours of canvassing over a couple of weekends prior to the Primary. To NOT make an effort to get democratic voters engaged in selection of the candidate they will be hounded to vote for in the General election strikes me as one of the the many things that led to our defeat in 2024.

So Donna and I decided to go canvassing for a few hours as an experiment. I had a list of people and addresses in my district of Robertson County that had recently voted democratic. The list was not geographically arranged so I hand plotted addresses on a hard copy of a map to create an area to canvass. I then created a list of the addresses in “walking” order and we set out. I now know that the Vote Builder software can generate the map of neighborhoods for canvassing.

In 2.25 hours we walked 3 miles, visited 25 addresses, had 9 Doors answered and 8 conversations. One woman took materials for her daughter. We dropped materials at the other 14 addresses. This was a new development and everyone had cameras in their doorbells. After I started showing the Town Hall flyer in the camera, it seemed like more people came to the door. One person was aware and one person vaguely aware of the Special Election. People were VERY happy that we were out raising awareness about the Special Election. We developed a nice little rhythm going back and forth with our key points and we got more comfortable as we went. We had a great time.

Donna was so excited that she wanted to make a “training” video to share with her network of friends to encourage them to do some canvassing. We did this while she and her husband Mike were out at the Garden observing a podcast. Unfortunately I can’t upload the video without upgrading to a premium account.

We each introduced ourselves and then I did the initial talking and looked to her to do her part and she just stared back at me. I asked if she wanted to add anything and she said “NO”.

Well, our training video ended here. We tried a couple of more times but they didn’t record. Technology and older persons can make for interesting times. At least we try.

She sent the video out to her friends anyway and I am going to put it on Facebook. I am going to go way outside of my comfort zone on FB and ask for donations to the RCDP if I can include the ActBlue link. RCDP has very little money and the Chair is very uncomfortable asking for money. He says we need to start fundraising and need to plan a fundraising event which is way more work than directly telling members we need money. We have an Executive Committee of 28 people and a email list of over 250 names. In April I started a small monthly donation and encouraged the rest of the EC to do the same. Few, if any did.

It seems like the Robertson County Democrats have been in hiding for decades and while they enjoy the camaraderie and support that comes from the monthly meetings they can’t quite grasp the with enough sweat equity and money we have an opportunity with this Special Election to gain a Democratic seat in the US House. THIS IS A BFD.

Craig and I are doing everything we can to make things happen. Craig designed this to go with a RCDP flyer about our Town Hall that while informational (time and place) was not motivating. We are both so scared for our democracy that NOT doing everything we can think of is NOT an option for either one of us.

Donna and I are going to try to get some people out to canvass next weekend. It will be interesting to see if more people will have time after Labor Day.

Craig and I are unique in that we don’t have ties to the community so we don’t have a lot of other friend groups or activities to occupy our time and we don’t have grandkids’ events to go to. This means we don’t have many distractions as other RCDP members do. Hopefully our energy/fear will be infectious over the next few weeks.

The Robertson County Democratic Party (RCDP) Outreach and Engagement Committee, which I chair, decided it wanted to do a podcast to be a helpful voice in Robertson County to promote the Special Election and hopefully turn our District 7 seat blue. Beyond that we want provide helpful information as the full effect of the recently passed BBB has more and more impact on Robertson County residents. Robertson County does not have a local newspaper or radio station anymore. Portland TN a nearby town still has a local radio station and they started a radio show, The Loyal Opposition a while ago which is also put out as a podcast. That show was our inspiration. We have no members with any podcasting experience, but fortunately we have a younger man with the “can do” attitude about technology and software and he figured out the how. Others jumped in to be on the podcast as hosts.

Craig and I have quiet space on our windowless third floor that we have turned into a podcast studio. To do this, it needed to be emptied out and repainted – the maroon walls had to go. Craig found some cubby dividers on Marketplace and the studio was born. We had a tight deadline to get experience with doing podcasts so we can get each of our 4 Special Election Primary Democratic Candidates interviewed on the NHN Podcast before the Town Hall on September 10. Craig is continually improving the studio,

We have completed 2 podcasts and will hopefully be doing 1-2/week. While this property has very little sound except for the occasional mooing and the 3rd floor is isolated from outdoor noises, I failed to take into account that with an open atrium inside sounds carry up to the studio. During the first podcast, I was out on the back deck with a friend but had to go into the kitchen a couple of times. Craig came racing down the stairs to remind me to not make any noise. Now we have an ON AIR sign visible from the door.

Here is the link to our first podcasthttps://youtu.be/8OKXpIDKl1I?si=pe-8ZZA-mfHOf80B

Nothing like trial by fire. I look forward to seeing the evolution of our podcasters. I will likely get involved in being on camera at some point soon.

Stay tuned for my first experience with canvassing.

The biggest challenge in my move to Tennessee has been the lack of safe cycling. In DC, I could ride 20-30 miles from the door of my condo, mostly on bike paths. There are some greenways in Nashville but they are a 20 minute drive. There is the Natchez Trace, but that is a 45 min drive. While bike lanes are improving, they often don’t connect with anything. And there are always poorly graded hills. I had hoped it would be better in rural Tennessee but not really. There are some areas that have just the right amount of hills, but the low car speed roads don’t often connect to other roads. Shoulders on roads are rare and where we live there are hills too steep for me. The prospect of having to get off of my bike on a hill on a road with no shoulder makes me very uncomfortable.

The only factor I could really change is to make sure I would not have to get off the bike going up the hill. So I got a e-bike, Lucy. I wanted to get a model that only had pedal assist with no throttle, but there were no step-through models. Getting my leg up over the seat is a time when I have come close to falling on occasion. I didn’t figure that would get any better with age. Falling with the heavier e-bike was not appealing so the step-through was a necessity. I wanted to get one a local bike shop so I ended up with this lavender Velotric.

The day after I got it, the heat dome settled in so it sat for 3 weeks. I took it out Monday and today and I am getting used to it. It is much more stable on our gravel drive and the weight of the bike with riding does not seem that different. Of course I am not trying to get any where quickly. I have only used the battery a handful of times on the last part of hills so the battery will likely last me a week or more of riding. Lucy has managed my fear.

Now I need to get a bike rack so I can explore other areas in the country. Here, I am pinned in a bit by high traffic/high speed roads so to get to the desired destination ride where I can have lunch and return, I will need to drive to bike. It doesn’t sit well with me but there is no way around it.

We had lots of help getting our tent set up. There were so many of us that people were out working the crowd – getting people to come over and do the Bean Poll and signing up on our email list. We had 26 people sign up. 8 was the biggest number to date. There were no rude comments and the weather was lovely. After it was all up and running, I had Craig take me to a nearby Mexican restaurant for chips, salsa and a Margarita. They really hit the spot.

The positive reception of people in the crowd was very encouraging and energizing for RCDP members. Many people were not aware that there was even a need for a Special Election.

Several people hung around to help us tear down the booth. I was determined to keep things organized (and did a pretty good job). All was well until it came time to take down the tent. One of the arms would not release to fold up.

Unfortunately, Craig was out getting the car and was driving around when this was taking place. He would have had more patience and likely would have figured the problem out before it ended up broken. The Chair had decided to get a customized tent anyway to make it much easier and faster for 1-2 people to do set up for an event. By the time Craig was able to get through, the evidence of impatience was all disposed of.

We do not have another event until the First Friday in September. We should have one or two Podcasts completed by then to promote by then and full details on the Town Hall.

Since the middle of June, I/we have been working hard on behalf of the Robertson County Democratic Party which has grown pretty inactive over the past 2 decades. Everyone has said that the Springfield (county seat) First Friday event is the most important event to be at. Tonight is our first, First Friday. We had a dry run of table/booth events on July 3. Both events went well and I saw how things worked (or didn’t) and we have devised ways to make things better.

Instead of plastic cups with duct tape label for our “bean” survey of important issues (which took up way too much table space), we now have tiered mason jars with easier to read labels. We ask people to put a bean in the jar of their top 5 issues. Previously we tried top 2 or 3 but it takes people too much time to prioritize so tonight we are trying top 5. Hopefully more people can get engaged. The supplies are all nicely organized in containers -one for the tent and one for the table so when it is time to tear down the booth, everything can go back into the correct containers for next time.

We have a Special Election for Mark Green’s vacated US House seat that will become the focus of our efforts until the General Election on Dec. 2nd. Tonight we are going to be collecting questions from the community about what questions they would like the candidates to answer and have a survey to collect what people’s top issues are. These would not be considered scientific in any way but it will be interesting to see what we learn.

It took me forever this week to create a flyer that we can hand out tonight. My skills are rusty and there is much I don’t know. I eventually got something Craig found acceptable. I couldn’t figure out how to include our RCDP logos for reasons that escape me. It communicates what we need it to communicate and sadly, most will likely end up thrown away anyway.

Through my efforts to learn how to build Community Engagement for the party in this community, I have had many 1/1 meetings with people who have been involved with RCDP much longer than I have. I am meeting wonderful people and have some budding friendships. This is one of the most rural counties in the state of TN with tobacco being its most important crop. While it pains me to say this, they grow some good looking corn here as well.

So today at 2 PM, I found that I was all done with my preparation and had time to reflect and blog. As I have never been involved in local politics, I look forward to the next several months -going through an expedited election cycle for the Special Election.

Stay tuned!!

It has been brutal weather here as in many places around the US. We have curtailed outdoor activities. There were 3 opportunities to protest this week in this area – Good Trouble protests in honor of John Lewis. There was 1 on Thursday, 11 AM-1PM or 5PM-7PM and the Annual John Lewis March in Nashville on Saturday. I thought the evening one would be more tolerable on Thursday. I went with a woman from the Robertson County Democratic Party RCDP deciding to leave our men at home as neither were feeling tip-top. The protest was on a pedestrian overpass in Clarksville. There was a breeze for most of the time and it was tolerable.

We ran into 3 other women from RCDP. At peak there were probably 80 protesters – not bad for a small community and a miserable day. We were glad we made the effort.

Craig and I decided to attend the March in Nashville yesterday. It started at 8 AM and we thought it would be tolerable. We parked about half-way along the march route so there would be less walking to get back to car at the end when it was hotter. The event seemed well organized and while we would have loved to have seen thousands of protestors, there were more than 500. They had a series of speakers which started about 8:45 and we kept moving around the crowd and looking at displays until it started. It was overcast and there was a breeze. I was pretty comfortable.

About 30 minutes into the talks, Craig said he was going to go into the shade and sit down. After about 10 minutes I went to check on him and someone had provided him with cold water. A protester had noticed him and brought him some grapes thinking he might need sugar. He was hot and it was clear we would not be able to march so I left the lovely protester watching over Craig and went to get the car. I talked to a police officer on the way and he called to the officers closer to where Craig was and said they would let me by the barriers so I could pick him up. Very helpful.

I got the car and as I was approaching I texted Craig and then he called. I could hear lots of commotion around him and he wasn’t making much sense. I got easily by the barriers and by the time I got to Craig there was a event volunteer medical professional with Craig as well as a ER nurse attending the protest and the the original protester and her partner attending to Craig. I was gone about 15 minutes getting the car and he had rapidly deteriorated. One woman was fanning him with her poster. They had cold water bottles on his neck and an iced lumbar support to cool off his back. His blood pressure was low and he had stopped sweating. They had already called the ambulance which I was grateful for. He did not fully lose consciousness but he said he was almost there. I am so grateful for the volunteers and protesters that looked after him and missed the march.

I suggested the ambulance take him to the VA ER because that is where he gets most of his care and it would be less busy than Vanderbilt ER. As soon as the EMTs arrived and gave him a liter of IV fluids, they said he was conscious and oriented. BIG sigh of relief. There was no need for sirens on the way to the ER and the driver drove so I could follow – also VERY nice. As I had to park the car, I could not go in with him and ended up in the waiting room for about an hour before I got to go back and see him. He was sitting up and wondering where I was. I had his phone and he didn’t know my phone number.

As I was getting out of the car, I grabbed his cap because I figured his head would be cold. Sure enough, when I walked in he had the blanket up over his head and gratefully put on his cap. He received a total of 3 liters of fluids before he was discharged. He was so dehydrated that he had a bit of injury to his kidneys. His creatinine had improved with hydration or they would have kept him overnight.

He received EXCELLENT care at the VA ER. The doctor suggested he get support stockings to wear at future events to help keep the blood circulating. At our previous protests, we had done a lot more walking around and this was certainly the hottest protest. In addition, it is hard to be as hydrated for an event first thing in the morning. When he is working outdoors, he is always hydrating with electrolyte solution. As we had been indoors all week, he may have been less hydrated with less tolerance to the heat. It was the perfect set of circumstances that led to pretty rapid onset of severe heat exhaustion.

When we got home he slept 3 hours and he says he feels fine this morning. It is fortuitous that he has an appointment with his PCP on Tuesday so we can recheck his kidney function.

Lesson learned. .

We left Nashville about 930 AM with plans to meet a friend from Pfizer days in Lexington KY for lunch at 1230 completely forgetting about the one hour time difference. Fortunately Daniela was able to move a meeting around so that she could do lunch at 130 instead. Then we drove to the wrong location of the restaurant. She sent me the correct one but when I plugged it into Maps, the other one came up and I didn’t notice there were 2. Not a great start for our weekend.

However, we had a great lunch and made it to our Airbnb in Cincinatti with about 20 minutes to get ready to go to Riverbend Music Center. Since we had never been to this venue, we wanted to allow plenty of time. We ended up parking as far away from the venue as possible. Fortunately the temperature was tolerable so the walk wasn’t too bad. We met up with college friends Kris and Bill, grabbed some water and went to sit down. Their seats were a couple of rows from ours but they sat next to us, planning to move when someone came for the seats. The couple ended up coming in during the 3rd opener but preferred our friend’s seats so it worked out great.

During the first opening act, Natalie came out and we were able to see her for a few minutes. The openers were good, but we were there to see Natalie!!. The show was amazing. None of us were familiar with Keith’s music so there was no nostalgia. It was pure awe and joy watching the amazing musicianship from every single person on stage.

Natalie was all over the stage playing the fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo. Keith is an incredible performer and very natural in his interactions with the crowd. They performed one duet and Natalie KILLED it. This is the song they performed at a previous show. I can’t seem to post my own video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWq_hy_lPWc

Natalie radiated joy from beginning to the end of the show as we all did. It was an amazing way to celebrate our two years together.

The venue did an amazing job of routing the traffic out of the parking areas. By the time we got to our car, the area was nearly empty. Our route was several miles through the countryside before we could get back to main roads. When we were almost back to our Airbnb we decided we were hungry – we hadn’t eaten dinner. We spent the next 2 hours criss-crossing between Cincinnati and KY trying to find a place that was open late. We ended up at a Waffle House that was only doing take out. So we ate our breakfast on picnic tables for an adjacent pizza place. It was the best Waffle House meal ever.

The next day we drove cross country to Kris and Bill’s place outside Greenville OH. Greenville is an amazingly vibrant community of just less than 13K. We have a tradition of sharing a pitcher of margaritas at a local restaurant. The pitcher and each glass comes with flashing lights and rubber ducks. Very festive.

We are back home and we will be dog sitting for Hazel, a Pomeranian, for about 10 days. I kept Hazel for a month in 2020 and she was very well behaved. Now I must get organized for 2 overlapping events for the Robertson County Democratic Party on July 3.