The Petition

Is the glass half empty or half full?

This is the question de jour.

I wrote a petition supporting Al Gore’s run for the presidency and I sent it on to something like maybe 1,000 names at most.
From this sample, we got all kinds of feedback.

A lot of you didn’t want to give Al a second try. You thought of him as being unable to relate to the people; of being too haughty perhaps, too regal.
Others thought his campaign was too disorganized; his choice of Vice President demonstrated little feeling for the needs of the electorate; his failure to involve Bill Clinton a fundamental mistake and his failure to listen a blunder!

I personally had to agree with most of these.

I had been there at the beginning for Al when we couldn’t get enough people to hoist the banners and posters we made up and the Mayor had placed us behind some stanchions so that we seemed mostly invisible. Through the intervening months leading up to the election, we were jostled, insulted, poked at by freepers and more…

In the end, the crowds grew geometrically and we got the numbers we needed, or so we thought.

Through it all, I had become disillusioned with Al. On the one hand, he was hitting some high notes, but it was as if he couldn’t help but being detached. On the other hand, I thought there was some real greatness in Al and I still do.

He is certainly one of the smartest people to run. He has the talent. He has the experience.
And he worked his heart out the last time. The trouble was that the other guys were consummate pros and they had limitless money and control of the communications.

But now I say things are different!

I feel that Al has hit his stride.

All of his speeches have been knock-outs if anyone knew about them and had the chance to hear them….

And I think he understands what kind of creatures he is up against.

So, I conducted a petition and I opened it up to some of my mailing lists to see what you had to say…

We weren’t asking for you to vote for Al. We weren’t asking you to have his baby. Just to petition him to run. Well, surprisingly this is where the glass is either half empty or half full.
We barely got something like 90 people to sign on.
That’s no big deal.
But it shows that almost ten percent of my list were willing to give Al a try.
Viewed however from another perspective look what Jesus did with 12 followers?

Okay, so taking the perspective of Six Degrees of Separation, imagine what would happen if our 90 people sent this request out to the average 200 people on their list. The first time out, that would translate into 18,000 votes and if they all sent the request out, two times out would translate into 3,600,000 votes for our boy…

I was only shooting for maybe 25,000….

Anyway, there are other articles on the candidates in this Blog and so we will all have to make up our own minds as to whom can serve us best…

And may the best man win!

If you would like to sign on for Al Gore, please go to www.thepetitionsite.com and look up progressive petitions. We are listed there…

Or Email me at hubmaster@aol.com and mention PETITION and I will send you back details.

Thanks,

Les Aaron