Fight the good fight . .

When do you know your actions are making a difference? Sometimes you just have to believe. Isn't this what faith is anyway? Damn, I hope so. One way is a blog called www.rifuture.org. I discovered about three weeks ago, there's a candidate survey at the site that now includes my name as a U.S. Senate candidate for the Democratic Party. I think about April of this year is when Sheldon Walmart, Matt Brown and Chafee's names were the only ones there. So, I am definitely making an impact in a short period of time. If you're a fan, tell some friends about this blog. It has a mixture of issues and thoughts most RI'ers would find interesting.

Since I started out making people aware of the unquestionable power they have to make a difference in their own lives, I have met literally hundreds from all walks of life. Their stories are many. It makes the accumulation of unread magazines, backlog of work (my valuation livelihood) and piles of papers in disarray a little easier to take. Thank God my ex is helping with our kids, too, in order to make this campaign more doable. It's not anything secret, but seems lost on many of today's politicians... be approachable and listen.

It's more difficult to keep these efforts under the radar, which has been my strategy. I don't need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on polls to know what we read in the paper doesn't always jive with what is going on around us. I noticed there are more credit cards being used at grocery stores and gas stations in the past four months. This means available funds are likely to be tighter for not just the poorer families, but middle income, too. I know our discretionary expenditures have been cut way back this year. There is an anger building that I sense is based on fear of a questionable future. I have seen this in the many small business owners I have stopped in to chat with. I know, I'm pissed, too. These companies are the backbone of our RI economy and also the source of most private jobs in Rhode Island. These business owners take a huge risk to open their doors. I know, I'm one of them and have worked with over 700 owners in the past decade and half.

Personally, it's refreshing to know that the RI Chambers of Commerce are going to support business friendly candidates because many owners are tired of subsidizing the poor management of many of our state's elected officials. These officials are so on the “inside”, that they can be flagrant in their disdain for those among us trying to fight the good fight. Many profess to be the voice on behalf of firefighters, nurses, teachers, and police, but they often hide their costly, self-serving acts behind these contributing members of our communities. Often we forget our property values are measured by the success of these people and our property taxes are impacted as well when government is mismanaged by politicians.

On the positive side, I was immensely proud for the families gathered in Scituate this past week the return of Curt Varone and the members of the Rhode Island Urban Search & Rescue Task Force (www.riusar.com/) who had been deployed to the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.

A few final thoughts. I had a kick ass meeting with the URI College Democrats (CDAs) and their spunky president Katharine Amaral. They seemed more attuned than some of the other CDA groups I have met with as to how much politics and economics currently impact their lives (now and in the future). I think I'll know more when I visit RIC today. These meetings are a warm up for the big announcement on October 25. In my next blog I plant to share some thoughts on my announcement speech. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. I'm getting some really good perspectives from some of the third party members and war in Iraq protesters....... who are doing their part to fight the good fight. Interesting. Fight The Good Fight by Ralph Nader is the last book I have read in over a month. Read it - it will open your eyes before making you want to cry!