I am finally finding my energy again after the 99-day sprint that was my husband’s second political campaign. In 2021, Glenn–that’s my guy, in case you didn’t know–ran for our local fire board. He gave that race his all, but it was his first one and he was running against an incumbent. Thus, he lost. Ever since that defeat, we’ve been waiting for the right opportunity for him to step back into our local political arena.

Quick backstory on Glenn: it’s always been a dream of his to serve the community in public office. Family knows this. Close friends know this. So when a dear friend and mentor to Glenn challenged him at the end of December 2022 to get back to his dreams and find another race to run in locally, Glenn got to work. In January, my love casually mentioned that our local school board would be up for re-election. By mid-Feburary he had filed for the race. It was official. Glenn was running for one of the four open seats in the upcoming North Clackamas School Board race.

Little did we know at the time that this election would matter tremendously. In fact, Oregon educators called it a state-wide, “emergency.” When informed of this, I had to ask him, “Why is this such a big deal?” Maybe you’re asking the same question.

Well… Our current school board, like many nationwide, had survived COVID and made all the necessary decisions to keep our kids safe, but it was at no small cost. We all remember the trauma of 2020-2021; the pandemic, racially-motivated murders, and sacred spaces under siege (don’t even get me started on Jan 6. I was in D.C. at the time and it was horrifying).

The national landscape has intensified dramatically in the two years since. We see an uptick in school slaughters, a former president indicted (as he should be), and so much more. In some ways, our nation is more divided than ever. With the extreme conservative right almost louder than ever. And the next space this group sought to infiltrate is local school boards across America. Our local school board, in fact…

This is the backdrop for the 99-day campaign that I unassumingly entered into alongside Glenn. I confess right now that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This was not like the local fire board election whatsoever.

Though the school board is non-partisan, this was a partisan race through and through. Therefore, this is somewhat of a partisan article because it’s the facts of what really happened during those 99 days. This is my lived experience; and, in my mind, it’s also an indication of what’s happening across our nation in many places. So read for the real, otherwise close your browser.

Here are the first two of five main lessons I learned during the 99-day sprint to the school board finish line:

Lesson One: Local Politics Matters

This is my biggest lesson learned. Hands down. Local. Politics. Matters.

At Glenn’s campaign kickoff event, several of our state legislators were in attendance. A state senator turned to me and said, “People get all hot and bothered about what's happening at the national level, but what they don’t realize is that the policy changes they will feel first and most dramatically are at the local level. But these are the elections in which people hardly participate. It’s in local politics where decisions are made that affect individuals and their families for years to come.”

I was struck by his statement, but in walking alongside Glenn through this campaign, I see how right this legislator is. Local politics is the stage on which national politics is acted out. What we’ve seen on a national scale since 2020 is locally insidious. There are people in your communities who are newly empowered by the hate-based attitudes they saw from Trump’s White House. We all get in a tizzy about Trump, but to some extent, he isn’t the one hurting us. It’s the person down the street who has internalized his message and is determined to spread similar lies. And lemme tell y’all: that determination is REAL. I am shocked at the levels this extreme contingent will go to.

Want an example? In my local area Proud Boys are just that—extremely proud out loud. In fact, the same School Board that Glenn has been elected to had to move meetings online with a passcode, because Proud Boys were showing up at their in-person meetings and being incredibly disruptive and disrespectful. One of them even came to a local campaign event and caused major disruptions while spreading bigoted ideologies which would shut down groups that are historically on the margins. Honestly, this person wanted to shut down anyone who didn't agree with his group’s extreme world view.

And let me be clear: not even people who would traditionally identify on the right agree with their worldview, which is essentially a worldview fueled by hate and fear. But I’ll share more about that in Lesson Two and Lesson Five.

BUT… if you take nothing else from this blog, please take this: LOCAL POLITICS MATTER. And I beg of you to always be an active citizen. Vote in every election. Vote whenever you get the chance. Use your voice and the power that you have with your vote. These elections come down to two or three votes sometimes. Never think your vote won’t count. Friend, I cannot tell you how much it truly does. Especially in your local area.

Lesson Two: Haters gonna Hate, so Lead with Love

This takeaway goes hand in hand with the Lesson Three, Stay in Your Lane. But it’s important to still honor it on its own.

I’m not going to mince words, I’m just going to boil it down to the plain truth: if someone else has an agenda or narrative driven by fear, insecurity, hatred, lies, and/or propaganda, there's nothing you can do to flip that script.

Why? Because fear is one of the strongest motivators in life.

Pretty sure Hitler taught us that.

And we’ve seen in recent years how fear morphs into “otherizing” – a word I’m making up for the “us” versus “them” dynamic. When fear-driven otherizing takes root, that turns into judgment, separation, and loathing. That fear-driven, otherized loathing strips away the humanity of the object of our loathing while giving birth to the one thing we humans love to do when we are afraid: grasp for power and control. Dominance over the dreaded other.

Stay with me …

Fear-driven, otherized-loathing, control seeking is the foundation of certain groups in the American political landscape today.

And when this happens…

When someone is entrenched in this belief system–on the “left” or on the “right–we must love them despite their hate and let. them. go.

Why, friend? Because haters gonna hate. They’ve made that decision. They’ve chosen that destructive narrative. It’s internalized. I can’t say it any better than Jordan Klepper, comedian and now co-host on The Daily Show, does in this video. We can debate the things we want to see or not see in our society, but once someone has made their political agenda who they are, you cannot debate that. And so we can’t get too focused on them. We have to let them go and get back to our own business.

Here’s the other truth I comforted myself with in the last 99-days: hate loses. Hate is of the darkness. Hate grows in the darkness. But the rhythm of the ordered world shows us that darkness never lasts forever. The sun always rises. Light is the state in which we were meant to live and thrive.

I got caught up in the other slate’s hate. No cap. I became fearful. I wanted to otherize. The partisan temptation on both sides of the aisle is merely a human temptation. We are all capable of otherizing. We all have to choose whether or not we will. I had to fall to my knees in prayer to not let fear and lies dominate my thinking… To pick up truth and compassion instead and let that rule in my heart. It was not easy, but it was my choice.

I’ll borrow from my boy MLK JR. to bring this section to a close. These are words he spoke at the National Cathedral, in 1968, a mere 20-min walk from my childhood home. These words are now inscribed in stone at his memorial in Washington D.C.: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Friend, may we turn away from hate and always lead with love. This is how we stay above the fray.

Ok, let’s take a beat to pause and reflect. I didnt realize that I had this much to say. But since I do, let’s come up for air before I dive into the final three lessons in Part Two.