A Day in the Life -

I feel that I am neglecting my friends who read this blog, and I apologize. So, I thought I would try to give you a glimpse into my life “pre-campaign” and “on campaign” so that you can see some of the changes I am dealing with. As the wife of an airline pilot, I really do spend a lot of time as a single parent. When our children were younger, Joe would go to work and his boys would go to their mom’s house – so I typically was only single parenting my two boys. Now we have three boys in college, and my 6’1” baby remains at home.

Typically Joe is gone 15 to 16 days a month. I am an independent person, so in some senses this is the best of both worlds. But, it is a difficult way of life and I miss Joe when he is gone. (And for some reason, every time an appliance breaks or a wild animal has to be dealt with, Joe is at work.) When we were first married, I had a full time job during the day, taught Real Estate Law at WPCC at night, and was a member of the Morganton Service League, the Board of Options, the Board of the Presbyterian Learning Center and the Board of the Western Piedmont Symphony.

Then one of my children who had been diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome started having severe symptoms that caused him extreme physical pain. After a meltdown in which this child of mine was reduced to writhing in pain on the couch wailing that he just wanted to die (he was 8 years old), I realized that I needed to make some drastic changes in my life. Although my whole family was devastated that this neurological disorder was affecting my son so profoundly, as his mother I resolved to do all that I could to make his life as normal as possible. So, I quit all of the Boards, quit the Service League and did not continue teaching at WPCC.

The volunteering I have done in the last 7 years has been mostly centered on my children and sports. Physical activity and sports are a great outlet for folks who have Tourette, and I have done everything in my power to make sure that our children have had the opportunity to participate in sporting activities. I have formed wonderful friendships with people through our kids’ participation in various travelling teams, and I bet that those folks will tell you that I was a darn good manager.

So, that was essentially my life before I became involved with the school board. When I realized that the school board itself was running amuck, I started to attend meetings. I attended meetings when they were held at the Central Office and the meeting room was half empty. I attended meetings when Mr. Burleson’s contract became an issue and had to arrive at the meeting room hours ahead of time just to get a seat. (I have been locked out of meetings, too.) For a long time my schedule has been dictated by the whims of the school board majority, and I guess I have grown inured to that.

The apron strings have been tied particularly tight to my youngest child, so the separation and time away from home inherent in campaigning has been difficult for me, and I am sure it has been difficult for my son, too. Making sure he does his homework, stays out of trouble and doesn’t spend too much time alone is a constant concern. He is fifteen, after all, and ‘idle hands are the devil’s playground.’

But this campaign stuff is all-consuming and terribly exhausting. Most of you notice that my teammates and I started campaigning long before our competitors. That is because we understand the gravity of the situation if we do not win, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to win. We have multitudes of supporters who have helped us stay somewhat sane, and we have many close supporters who have generously given their time and talent to our campaign. We seem to be at “events” almost every week night and every Saturday. We have attended a “Town Hall” style meeting at beautiful Pilot Mountain School; we have manned booths at the Valdese Festival, the Glen Alpine Festival and the Burke County Fair. This week alone we have attended a forum for all candidates at Silver Creek Plantation; today we will have a forum for the four of us at the Waldensian Winery followed by a short speech at the Democratic Women’s meeting; tomorrow, we are going to see folks at Grace Ridge; Thursday we hope to attend a community program at an area high school; and Saturday we will spend at the Hildebran Town Festival. There is a fullness of life outside of the Morganton city limits, and we feel it.

Being a politician is difficult for those of us who are not predisposed to the role.

So, the campaign trail is physically exhausting. It is also emotionally exhausting. Sam and his precious family are dealing with issues that are overwhelming. Having been through a similar situation with my husband, my heart hurts for them. I know that our prayers and their continued trust in God will sustain them through this journey - but we would all rather this journey not happen.

The emotional exhaustion can persist into the activities we attend. I would say that all of the candidates running in this race (except for one) handle themselves extremely well in public, and are genuinely nice people. However, when this one candidate shows up at events, the crowd becomes polarized and the issues become twisted into some kind of psycho-drama starring that candidate. The skilled use of emotional manipulation, righteous indignation and creation of altered circumstances is masterful. As candidates who view these issues in a totally different light, we (at least Susan and I) are not sure how to respond to that.

We know that what we believe to be the “truth” and what most of the public believes to be the “truth” do not correspond to the words spewing from that candidate’s mouth. We know that there are many folks who listen to this candidate who are not familiar with the history and who will believe her. If we remain silent, we allow her verbalized cognitive dissonance to become accepted by the public as “truth.” If we respond with the facts, we are accused of being negative. So, it is an understatement to say that witnessing and being a target of these histrionics is draining. While that particular candidate seems to thrive on that kind of interaction with the public, (it seems to get her the attention she craves) it leaves me exhausted.

Back in private practice, I had a client or two that exhibited this behavior – I was strung along many times as story after story became more and more unbelievable. I have just never seen this played out on a public stage.

So friends, if I neglect posting an entry or responding to a comment, please realize that I am not doing so out of will. I, like many of you, have a job, a spouse, children, chickens, dogs, cats and a schedule full of campaign events – most extraordinarily pleasant, and a few absolutely discouraging. I hope that if my teammates and I win the seats in the upcoming election, we will tackle the issues facing the system in a workmanlike, reasonable and sensible manner, with your continued help and support.