“WE ARE NOT SILENT”

“We have government by the majority who participate.”

-Thomas Jefferson

“WE ARE NOT SILENT”Civic Duty.  I never even knew what that meant.  Growing up in a military family, I was the closet activist, the anti-war protester, civil rights, Chicano Pride…but I was really in a bubble.  I never knew the inter-city struggle or even the civil rights struggle because my parents raised me so very muxh in mainstream America.   I learned Spanish in school, not at home.  I loved to discuss current affairs and my mom would get up in the night to find my father and I at the dinner table discussing the Vietnam War, civil disobedience, Nixon and Watergate.  I could argue with the best of them and I had my facts, but it wasn’t until I was in my thirties that my mom told me I didn’t have the right to complain if I wasn’t registered to vote.  So, I registered.  But, it wasn’t until our President announced his candidacy did I first work on a campaign.That was 2007/2008 and since then, I have met some amazing people in local politics.  It was because of that 2008 election I decided to find out how local government works from the ground up, so I became a Precinct committee member.  I am a transplant from California.  I moved here in 1999 when my husband was given his disability rating from the Veteran’s Administration.  His family is from Oxford, here in Granville County.  What I have found, is there are a lot of transplants like me that have made Granville County home and want to make it the best home they can for their families and their community.  Chairman Ed Gleason, 3^rd Vice Chair Cuz Spirio, and our Treasurer Lael Pennix are transplants, as I am.  I find it hard to believe that out of thousands of Granville County Democrats, we can’t get hometown folks to help the party as a member of the Executive Committee, participate in a meeting or two, volunteer on a committee, float an idea or two in an email.    But, I am learning what Thomas Jefferson said, is more often true, than not…”“We have government by the majority who participate.” This last April, at the Granville County Democratic Convention, I was elected Secretary of the Granville County Democratic Party.  It’s not an election year so the participation this year has declined.  When I attend meetings, I see the same people, the same concerned faces.  This Board wants to change that.  We don’t need every Democrat in the County to attend every meeting, but we want everyone to be engaged, to be informed about us, about the issues facing our locale, our state, our government.  We suffered a set-back in the state government in 2012.  We have little or no voice.  Mrs. Mims said something at our first meeting on the 29^th that she heard at the 13^th District Convention held in Nashville, NC.  The guest speaker was State Treasurer Janet Cowell, a Democrat.  She said Ms. Cowell spoke on a strategy to deal with, on the NAACP Moral Mondays going on in Raleigh, and of note “We may win, we may lose, but we are not silent”.This could very well be our mission statement:   “We may win, we may lose, but we are not silent”.I chose to participate.  Please join me.  Until next time…God bless.Posted By:  Elizabeth Torres EvansGranville County Democratic Party10 June 15