Guest Blogger Annie Fox: This is a Movement, a Reawakening

Guest blogger Annie Fox describes her experience at a house party she hosted:

Recently we hosted a "Bushwacking party" in our home. There were 18 of us there. We had a really great group, very high level conversation, and an inspiring conference call with Dean.

Several people who came in on the fence, uncertain, cynical, absolutely jumped on to the playing field by the end and are now ready to get involved. Many of us in the room agreed that what's building here is about more than Howard Dean's candidacy. This is a movement. It's re-awakening millions of Americans to the importance of being politically active. For way too long we've let the "great white father" call all the shots. After Vietnam and Watergate it's surprising that we had fallen asleep at the wheel again, but most of us had and the car's been hijacked.

But things are definitely changing. Now that we've seen the gang at the wheel running the economy into the ditch, bleeding education, social and environmental programs. Now that we've seen them working overtime to erode our civil liberties and promote the message that dissension is un-American. Now that they've driven us dangerously close to the edge in the international arena, we've finally fixed our eyes back on the road again.

Bush and company are so obviously going in the wrong direction, racing down a one-way street and running over anyone who gets in their way. There are lots of us who refuse to along for the ride. We are patriotic Americans in the tradition of people who stand up against tyranny. And because of that deeply cherished American value, we used to be the good guys. But now, because of greed, arrogance, and bully-ism, we're the most feared and hated people in the world. So here we are, more and more of us each day, willing to do whatever it takes to get those other guys the hell out of the car. Then, as a reawakened nation, we'll chart the next part of the journey together, with the rest of the world. Because, after all, there are no roads off of this planet.

In friendship,
Annie