08.21.08

4:30 PM

It’s already proving to be an adventure since I’ve returned from an awesome week in the capital of Minnesota. Power Vote training turned out to be the best thing that happened to me this summer and I didn’t even see it comin’. Blessings in disguise right? I remember when Mike first told me that there would be a training way out in Minnesota for the Power Vote Campaign. I was like WHAT! Which of course when I made the invite to other potential trainees they were like…

“WHAT!… MINNESOTA? I ain’t goin’ to no Minnesota.”

That’s some of the problem here in Chester. People don’t like to go DIFFERENT places much. The destination must be predictable or clearly recognizable to their sense of comfort. But then again I guess that’s not just a Chester problem but a human problem.

So I decided to cross the line of my personal comfort zone. I went to MINNESOTA! That’s right folks I was in Minnesota for the first time and probably not my last. (There are plenty on this blog who witnessed my attendance) I drove along with two other great partners Rob and Amy. The ride was 20 hours. Trying to get sleep was an adventure. I found myself practicing involuntary yoga positions in order to get comfortable inside of our small ride but it was all-good. I got a chance to see tons of beautiful stars filling the sky. No bright street lights to drown them out. They were right there. The moon did it’s best to show off it’s borrowed glory from the sun.

It was during the car ride that I began to get “that feeling” like something incredible was happening. I felt this way for the entire week there. An awakening was in the works. There are tons and tons of awesome things that took place during that training week but I don’t have time to get into that right now because…

I’m on my way to a very important public meeting here in Chester at City Hall @ 5:30. The city is in the process of urban development aka urban renewal aka city planning aka gentrification. And all the while the environmental hazards that could come flooding out of all this development are many. The current concern is with the Soccer Stadium which will be built right on top of a site that once had one of our nations worst chemical fires. The WADE dump. It is not completely clear as to how much needs to be done to the soil since that horrid fire in 1978. The term that is being thrown around is “environmental remediation.”

Actually I better go. I’ll have more on what’s up. Carol and I are videotaping the planning committees response to our questions and so forth. So check back in tomorrow.

Here’s the infomercial we put out over the web using my personal local contacts list: LINK