Man of the people

Today I spoke with Senator Feingold.

I've admired him for awhile now. A man who stands on the world's largest stage, and speaks (and votes) his principles.

Every year he visits every county in Wisconsin for a listening session. His website lists his schedule a few weeks beforehand. At the beginning of the summer, last year, I started watching to see when he'd be up here. I think he came up while we were Out West. Then he was coming up to Eagle River in the fall, but earlier in the day than my route goes through. But last week I noticed he'd be here on the 7th, so I took the day off to visit a part of politics I haven't been to before.

I got to the meeting room at the court house only five minutes before they started and had to stand in the threshold. There were others in the hall. 50-60 of us altogether. Young staffers handed us notecards to write down the topic about which we wanted to talk to the senator.

So when he asked, "Bernard Ronyak?" (he pronounced it correctly), I said, "Allow myself to introduce myself." No, just kidding.

I appreciate his defense of the People's right to know what their government is doing. I thanked him for"sticking his political neck out for us." And, doing my best to speak coherently in front of a crowd, I made him aware that I wanted him to keep a vigilant watch. (No I wasn't that eloquent.) As he did with many of the citizens before me, he quickly made me feel at ease, and a part of a conversation. He asked his regional coordinator to send me his recent work on this subject.

It was fulfilling to be a part of our representative democratic republic.