Bloggerific Resume

About 6 weeks before Super Tuesday, I was picking up the living room and had the TV going in the background. My 7 year old son came in, plopped down on the recliner and said, “What happened?”

I said “What?” very flatly.

He pointed to the TV and said “That. What happened?”

I glanced at the TV and said “Oh, a lady was killed in Pakistan.” I’d been hearing about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto for days, and quite frankly, it was on another planet as far as I was concerned.

But my 7 year old persisted. “Who killed her?”

I slowed down and started to pay attention, not to the TV, but to my son. “They don’t know. That’s why they’re talking about it.”

Then he asked “But why did they kill her?”

I looked at my husband for help. He said “They didn’t want her to be the leader of their country.”

My son got this look on his face, his eyes narrowed and you could see the contemplation, “But why did they kill her?”

I was confused. What didn’t he get? “She wanted to be the Prime Minister and some people didn’t want her to be, so they killed her.”

Again, he was thinking. Then he said it all “So…. why didn’t they just ….not vote for her?”

That was the moment for me. That was when I decided to pay attention. That was when I decided to get involved. I listened to the debates, I choose carefully and on Super Tuesday, our family of 5 stood in line for about 45 minutes to be counted among the supporters of Barack Obama. It was cold, our three year old only had on a hoodie, we hadn’t been expecting to stand outside at all, but there we were, in line, in the mud in the freezing rain and wind. It would have been easy for us to just go back to the car and say forget it, but Benezir Bhutto wouldn’t let me. A lady I’d never really cared about before was now the inspiration to have my voice heard. I don’t even know what she stood for, but I do know this: She didn’t die in vain.

So, when you get your chance, don’t pass it up. Be heard and participate in this country’s fair and peaceful change in leadership.