Last night I watched a PBS program on Billy Jean King and her place in women’s sports. I remember this well party because I played tennis and partly because I was at that impressionable age of about twenty.
Even as a junior high school kids I noticed that there were no school sports teams for women. I had been in awe of several female elementary school chums athletic skills. My next door neighbor Becky Penny taught me how to play catch and “burn em in.” I looked askance at a cigarette company financing the women who were liberating themselves from the low status professional tennis circuit but I cheered Billy Jean on from her nose thumbing foe Bobby Riggs.
I missed the part about how she beat Riggs because that was when President Obama gave his speech on Syria. It was an intelligent speech with no bombast. It may not win him any points but I’m glad he’s the commander and chief even though I see both sides of whatever decision is ultimately taken. At least it won’t have the aura of bullshit around it like the Iraqi WMD’s had.
All the while I sat and addressed a couple hundred envelopes for a second fundraising letter. At about ten I got a call from Jana the Trib’s Education Reporter telling me I made it through the primary with all but two precincts reporting. Cool. Not suprised. Gratified that I didn’t waste money on the lawnsigns especially because it looks like the cost will mostly fall on my shoulders. They were about $500 more than I anticipated and the early donations are trailing off. Thus a new fundraising request.
I spent about eight hours putting the letters together to be mailed. It required addressing 200 envelopes by hand, adding a footnote to the letter noting that Loren Martell didn’t make it through the primary, printing out a couple hundred return address mailing labels, stuffing the envelopes with the letter and a labeled return envelope for donations, sealing the envelopes and putting postage stamps on them. I only got a couple fitful hours of sleep and got up at 2:30AM to plow on till I was able to mail them at about 9AM. It was almost enough to discourage me from sending any more letters out.
I got a call from a potential constituent who wanted me to know about some of the dyspeptic qualities of one of the other candidates running for teh school board. I assured the caller that I was not very keen on putting up with anyone even more dyspeptic than me but also saying I was not at all inclined to rat the candidate out.
I met with Liam at noon to look over the precinct by precinct results to divine how to proceed. Frankly I know what to do based on dozens of local campaigns but at the moment I’m fatigued from having burned the candle at both ends for a couple weeks. I’ve got a list of about twenty tasks to do at my elbow. Many are little but its such a long list it tires my eyes. At least the first task is crossed off – the second mailing.
Yesterday after I voted I spent the afternoon messing around with my webpage. Thank Goodness I began to figure out how to put it together. I’m not going to link to it here because it still requires a lot of attention but at least I now have a feel for how to use the software. Maybe I’ll attack it tomorrow while I wait for a new round of donations to filter in.
If anyone wants to add their two cents (or maybe dollars) to my campaign the address is: Welty for School Board, PO Box 3434, Duluth, MN 55803.
