One of a Kind

It's been a rather odd day, so pardon what I presume will be a bit of a ramble. But on the one hand, yesterday was just the right kind of day to get the news of William Proxmire's passing. Full of distractions, easy enough to just not have to ponder the loss and what it may or may not mean to me. And after that, it was off to a bustling Harris County Democratic Party Christmas event. More distractions, more folks to meet and greet ... more escapism. After all of that, a bit more socializing ... and a bit more distraction.

Somewhere on the way home from an 18 hour day, however, a few thoughts jelled. There's a long litany of quotes that all seem to capture a part of the essence of Proxmire: maverick ... iconoclast ... I could go on. But the one that had always stuck with me the most was one muttered by Joe Biden upon Prox's retirement from the Senate. It was along the lines that there was room for one Bill Proxmire in the Senate ... but JUST one. To say that Proxmire was one of a kind was putting it gently.

Yet there's this odd temptation we sometimes possess that makes us think that we'll never see another like this or that person who has departed us. To be sure, it may well be a long long time before we see someone elected to the Senate who campaigns on nothing more than a couple of spare hundred dollar bills in their wallet, a vigorous handshaking campaign at State Fairs and NFL games. But I've always found it annoying that some would look around this vast population of ours and bemoan the lack of some saint of hero. Gary Hart managed it best when he ran with a series of blog posts bemoaning the lack of a Thomas Paine or the lack of a John Adams or the lack of a Thomas Jefferson. While I truly believe that we're hardwired for individuality, I also share the belief that none of us is truly indespensable.

So, somewhere towards the end of this long long day of work, meeting & greeting, and socializing, I began to think of what I'd really seen around me.

I was out and about because of some ongoing work to hit the streets for Borris Miles' campaign for State Rep. Part and parcel of why I'd willingly put myself through a grind for the meager hope that someone else gets the job they've got their dreams tuned to is the realization that this guy has the unique combination of roots drilled deep into the district as well as the type of business background that truly represents what I believe the future of the party to look more and more like. Borris is a walking success story right out of Third Ward. In his own way, he's one of a kind.

I'm also out on behalf of another great candidate I believe in: Kristi Thibaut, another State Rep. candidate. While I was posting missives on how a certain district just might be a bit more competitive than most anyone else had contemplated, Kristi was finding herself in the right place waiting for the right time. I truly believe that 2006 will be that right time. And working around Kristi as often as I've sometimes forced myself to do has been the biggest whirlwind I've been on in a good while. She is, at once, a country girl and a suburbanite with every bit of killer instinct that you'd never imagine if you'd just met her for the first time. It may well be true that all women are an enigma, but it might just be a bit more true in Kristi's case. She's one of a kind and I fear for the ways in which the other side is about to find out once that campaign heats up.

Later in the evening, I manage to get introduced to a man who's made a contest in yet another State Rep race - one that I'd not previously thought to have a dog in the hunt on. Well, after a bit of convo, I do have a dog in this hunt. Steve Brown isn't far from the mark in what I've described of Borris Miles, just tune down the swagger a bit and replace it with a more steely confidence and broader vision of the political landscape. Like Borris, Steve is an accomplished professional who'll tell you in a heartbeat why we need to get a new generation of leaders brought up in the Democratic Party. In his own way, Steve is one of a kind as well.

More incidental contacts along the way involve Richard Schechter, recently elected to the Houston Community College board and expressing a rather deep desire to make a change for the better there, Chad Khan (another candidate for State Rep around the county), who's taking a more uphill race in district 126 ... David Murff (including his beautiful wife, Lindsey), a candidate for Congress ... Ella Tyler, our wonderful SD17 Committeewoman ... Ellen Cohen (back to State Rep candidates), who's going to blow away everyone in District 134 ... as well as a whole bunch of people who never run for anything but commit their time and energy each according to their life's plan and even a few who have tried running before - Byron Barclay (including his beautiful wife, Rhonda), and a few who have helped guide candidates through the treacherous waters of a political campaign - Karen Loper, and lots of other really important people whom I could list, but nobody'd ever know who they were. Every last one of them ... one of a kind.

Perhaps the reason I'm not too big on picking and choosing "heros" of any kind is due to the fact that I'd rather find the qualities of those "potential heros" in the folks right around me. So if you ever find me wondering aloud or in pixelated form where all the William Proxmires have gone, feel free to remind me that every individual quality that I've come to appreciate in this man can be found just as easily in many of the folks I'm likely to come into contact with on any given day. It's just a matter of looking.

Bill Proxmire was a hero in the sense that he embodied a good deal of those qualities all in one central location and embodied them in a fashion that got noticed - by way of bills, news headlines, catchy awards, and sometimes through sheer dint of willpower. Not everyone gets noticed that easily and not everyone can make an excuse to shake hands with everyone that enters a Packers game. But if it's truly just a matter of looking for the qualities we admire in the big name folks, then the qualities really shouldn't be all that hard to find in the lesser-known folk that we cross paths with as well.

Oh yeah, and there's a lot of really good links Furled over on the bottom of the sidebar if you want the obligatory obits and whatnot on Proxmire. I'll get around to touching on a few of them later, but it's getting sorta late as it is, so I leave you to your own devices for the time being.