O, Facebook and the audacity of my kids

Written by: Megan Foster on Feb 11, 2007 2:00 PM EST

Linked to groups: Democracy for Florida

Even though my two eldest daughters are politically aware, they usually seek my advice when they vote.  They would call me when they were completing their absentee ballots and we would discuss each race and candidate.  But quite frankly, most of the time, I had to remind them to put a stamp on the ballot and mail it.  I asked myself "What kind of activist am I if I have to work this hard to get my kids to follow through with their vote?"

My kids have attended protests with me but they didn’t necessarily like doing it.   My younger ones would just die if one of their friends saw them protesting or planting signs for candidates.  They "get it" but would prefer that their activism be limited to watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Even though my two eldest daughters are politically aware, they usually seek my advice when they vote. They would call me when they were completing their absentee ballots and we would discuss each race and candidate. But quite frankly, most of the time, I had to remind them to put a stamp on the ballot and mail it. I asked myself “What kind of activist am I if I have to work this hard to get my kids to follow through with their vote?” My kids have attended protests with me but they didn’t necessarily like doing it. My younger ones would just die if one of their friends saw them protesting or planting signs for candidates. They “get it” but would prefer that their activism be limited to watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

When my 21 year old daughter studied abroad, I took possession of her laptop and changed her homepage to rawstory.com.  When she came home and took her laptop back, she said "Mom, I like Rawstory but I kind of miss Brangelina."  In 2004, when she was just 18 and voting for the first time, her voter registration was illegally changed to Republican by a company hired by the RNC. We filed a complaint with the state but my daughter never returned the investigator’s phone calls.  She was too busy with homework and campus life.

Yesterday, everything changed.  

Yesterday, my oldest daughter had the audacity to say that she watched C-Span.  I said "What?  You were watching C-Span?"  I was just getting over the shock of that when she had the audacity to say that she donated to a candidate for the very first time.  She donated $20 online via Facebook.com to Barack Obama.  She watched his announcement online.  Both she and her boyfriend can't wait to get an "O" T-shirt.  

She had the audacity to donate to a candidate for the first time without any prompting from me.  In fact, when I told her about the Facebook group "One million strong for Barack," she said that she had already signed up for that group and at Obama’s official website as well.  It was then that I remembered calling her a couple of weeks ago and asked her where she was.  She said that she was at a Barnes and Noble check out counter.  She was purchasing 2 books written by Barack Obama.

This is more than the ramblings of a proud mother.  This is about the fact that Barack Obama is connecting to the youth of this country and they are responding to him.  Maybe like John Mayer’s song, they really have been "Waiting on the World to Change" or maybe they are growing up, or maybe just maybe they finally found a candidate that they can relate to.

In 2008, all 5 of my kids will be eligible to vote.

This could be huge!  

 Howard Dean got our attention.  "O" is commanding theirs.

Even if Obama is not your first choice for president, join Facebook and support our youth and the audacity of their maiden voyage into the world of politics!

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