2006 Precinct Election Victory - Doc & Cov 103:36

I came across this scripture today in my morning studies and it reminded me of a political moment:

"All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith" (Doctrine & Covenants 103:36)

If I remember right, I came across this scripture when I was just a week away from the 2006 precinct caucuses where I was planning on running for precinct chair.

Our precinct at the time was pretty volatile, since both mayoral candidates from the city election months before lived in my same precinct. Even though we were all Republicans, there was still a HUGE division in political mindset concerning how to handle the city, and the candidate that I supported won. Rumor had it that the losing mayoral candidate was going to try to run for precinct chair. To complicate matters further, an individual from Eagle Mountain City had declared to run for US Congress against the incumbent. Why did this matter? Well, the group of people that supported the losing candidate for mayor also supported this congressional challenger, while those (like me) that supported the winning candidate for mayor also supported the Congressional incumbent.

Since the precinct caucuses elect delegates to the county and state conventions, smart candidates in contested races realize that the election is half over on caucus night, depending on how many committed delegates they can get elected to attend the convention on their behalf. So, good ol' Eagle Mountain politics suddenly extended into the Republican congressional race. Sigh!

At this time, our city was still the laughing stock of the Wasatch Front, and many government officials (especially UDOT - the Utah Dept. of Transportation) still brushed us and our needs away like little irritating children. I knew this could change if our city became more organized and coordinated on a political basis, particularly in the Republican Party since the large majority of elected officials in Utah County were Republican . I figured that if our precinct chairs and delegates attended debates and open houses, actively participated in party committee meetings, and voted in large numbers, then hopefully we could form good relationships with the elected officials that really matter, so that at least our needs could be seriously heard and considered.

From 2004-2006, I had served as EM02 precinct secretary. In my observation (which of course, is limited), precinct chairs from Eagle Mountain up to this point had done just about nothing but show up for the convention and vote, except for maybe Erin Madsen over in the 1st precinct. To me this was totally unacceptable considering our city's needs and the potential for good that existed.

When our newly elected mayor originally wanted to run as precinct chair in 2006, I strongly felt that he would not have the time necessary to do the work that I felt needed to happen. (Perhaps did I subconsciously have a premonition about what would happen with this mayor? Who knows?) Even though other major political players in the city at the time tried to encourage this person to run and discourage me from running, I was able to persuade our mayor not to run but to support me instead.

I won't go into detail here about the rest of the hurdles I had to clear - let's just say there were very very many over the course of the three months I was working on this. But once when I was quite discouraged, I came across Doctrine & Covenants 103:36, which clearly impressed upon me that I just needed to keep going, continue faithful, keep praying, and then things would work out okay. Did that mean, as someone close to me once misunderstood, that I felt that God wanted me to win instead of the other person? No, that wasn't it. I felt that if I relied on His help and guidance, that I could do my very best and feel content with that, regardless of whether I won or not.

Well, long story made short - the losing mayoral candidate did try to run against me for precinct chair, and I won by only 7 or 8 votes! Once I won, pretty much everyone else on my slate won, except one of my county delegates who lost that position but still won as an alternate. So, all in all, it worked out. Besides winning as Junior Class Secretary in High School, I think this was the first election I had won. Michael and I celebrated afterwards with Arctic Circle shakes!

Well, I learned a lot over the next two years, actively participating in the central committee meetings, trying to connect with other precinct chairs, learning a bit about how the party works, helping to get some good Republicans elected, holding voter registration drives, and trying to get more organized and communicate more with my neighbors about political stuff. I didn't always feel successful, but I know I was able to do much more than had ever been done before, and hopefully I was able to set a bit of a precedent. We'll see. At least by serving as precinct chair, I was also able to run for the Constitution & Bylaws Committee for our county party, a position that is perfect for me right now. So all in all, I'm very very grateful and happy for how things turned out!

Alma 54 & 55:1 - A lesson about lies and power

I know I'm kind of weird - the infamous "war section" of the Book of Mormon, typically the part many people like to skip, actually is one of my favorite parts of the whole Book of Mormon. My favorite heroes (Moroni, Helaman, Pahoran) shine during these parts, and there are golden nuggets of political strategy and philosophy just begging to be read and applied!

Context: Amalickiah (the ex-Nephite, devious, & power hungry leader of the Lamantites) has just been killed and his brother Ammoron takes command of the Lamanite armies that are attacking the Nephites all over. Captain Moroni and Ammoron exchange some letters just dripping with "fightin' words" or "red meat" (using today's terms) but essentially it's a semi-diplomatic way of negotiating for the release of prisoners. I'm not exactly sure what I think about Moroni's letters - they certainly aren't a model of common courtesy - but I think I may write about that in a different entry.

Chapter 54:
Ammoron is the quintessential two-faced politician, spinning lies to make them sound like truths. He claims that the Lamanites from the beginning had the right to the government of the people, and that Nephi "did rob them of their right to the government when it rightly belonged" to the Lamanites, so this completely "justified" their aggressions against the Nephites, almost 600 years later! Again, this is the same old rhetoric that keeps getting the lazy Lamanites riled up from time to time. But the real truth of the matter sneaks out anyway, as it usually does, when Ammoron declares, "We will wage a war which shall be eternal, either to the subjecting the Nephites to our authority or to their eternal extinction" (Alma 54:20).

That's what it really was about -POWER! Not freedom, not justice, not reclaiming something rightfully theirs (as they claimed), but the ability to glut themselves off of the Nephites and do whatever they wanted with the "lesser class" of Nephites. Of course, this is very familiar - Gadianton Robbers, Kingmen, Adolf Hitler, Communists, Terrorists, and even in our day those people that are into politics for the POWER of it more than public service.


Chapter 55, Verse 1:
"When Moroni had received this epistle he was more angry, because he knew that Ammoron had a perfect knowledge of his fraud; yea, he knew that it was not a just cause that had caused him to wage a war against the people of Nephi."

I think I'd be angry too. I recall the day when the whole Culbertson mortgage fraud news broke out during the Eagle Mountain City Mayoral race in 2006. I was in the city council building right before the debate where Culbertson claimed he was a "victim" of political operatives in the city who didn't want him to fight the "land speculators." I remember looking him in the eye as he walked in that door, knowing what I knew about the truth, and I had the distinct impression that he knew he was caught, but was using this election as a way to manipulate his way out of it. I was pretty angry about his claims, but even angrier that a lot of people believed him! However, the real truth eventually comes out, and unfortunately Culbertson and his wife were convicted a short while ago and received some pretty hefty jail/prison sentences. I feel bad for them, worse for their victims, and even worse for those who believed their twisted lies. I think it helped our city in the end though, but that's a topic for another day.

I'll continue with the rest of chapter 55 in another post tomorrow hopefully. Good bye for now!

Utah County GOP Family Picnic - The Political Choice Was the Best Family Choice (September 11, 2008)

Hi there!

Tonight I decided to attend the annual Utah County Republican Party 's Family BBQ/Central Committee Meeting. In retrospect, I think this was actually the very best choice for my family, even considering the other options that were available at the time. It almost seems counter-intuitive -- You mean to say that choosing politics over other worthy events was actually family friendly? Tonight it definitely was for us.

First, let me just say that I started out this day on a very grumpy note, so much so that I retreated back into my bedroom during breakfast (and read a book about the presidential election no less!) because I wasn't handling very well the normal chaos of four kids, probably due to the fact that I was up too late the night before working on homework folders for Christopher's class at school.

But throughout the day, little things helped lift my spirits, especially the video clip on YouTube celebrating family life as the way to keep our nation strong. (See the clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1GRQGc5GQ0) This video is part of a huge effort to help defeat the gay marriage push in California, or rather, to help champion the victory of the pro-marriage amendment and counter the awful ruling by the CA Supreme Court in favor of gay marriages.

Well, here were my choices for tonight:
a. Attend the second week of an eight week course on home organization taught by Marie Ricks, sponsored by the Eagle Mountain West Stake Relief Society.
b. Attend the GOP meeting/picnic by myself and then try to catch the last half of the Ricks class.
c. Just stay home, put the little ones to bed early and let the older ones read or play computer games while I tackled the piles of laundry and dishes and overwhelming paperwork.
d. Take the kids with me to the GOP picnic.

All of these options seemed good. I vacillated between them throughout the day. Did I want to pay for a babysitter? No. Did I want the hassle of getting the kids all ready for a picnic that would take an hour to drive to? No. Should I focus on the home? Yes. Are laundry/dishes/papers important? Yes, to an extent. What about learning how to organize the home? Yes, important. Add to this the fact that Sister Ricks was coming all the way out to Eagle Mountain to teach what she teaches at BYU Education Week and that my focus lately has been to make our home "a house of order", yes, this was very timely and important to me although I knew I could read her workbook to catch the parts I missed.

But what about attending the GOP Central Committee Meeting? I am still involved since I'm a member of the Constitution &Bylaws Committee, and Central Committee Meetings only happen once a quarter. So what if I wasn't mailed a postcard reminder? I still found out about it on Jason Chaffetz' website, so I knew where & when it was. Plus, a part of me truly enjoys this sort of thing (more on this later) and what about taking care of myself and "catching the joy"(as Merilee Boyack would say) of something I like to do from time to time? Yes, that is definitely important.

Actually, my son Christopher made the decision for me. I told him after school about all of us possibly going to a GOP picnic/meeting at a park and he groaned because typically he doesn't enjoy being dragged to political meetings. I also think he secretly looked forward to playing computer games when I was gone. But when I told him later about deciding to stay here in town and go to the class, he just about threw a fit because he was looking forward to having dinner at a park. Well, there you go. I really didn't want to cook dinner tonight either.

Amazingly, by the time we needed to leave I was showered and dressed with hair and makeup done, all four kids in the car, diaper bag/shoes/socks/bottles/sippee cups/extra blankets packed, and out the door without too much of the typical stress. At the Lehi roundabout I realized I should check the rush hour traffic report, so I turned on the radio & the first thing I heard was a reporter mentioning that traffic was moving just fine down in Utah County. How nice! We sang "I Love to See the Temple" when we rounded the corner on University Parkway and the Provo Temple came into full view. I told the kids how my mom used to walk me around that temple in a stroller when I was little and they were students at BYU. I found Rock Canyon Park without too much difficulty (thanks to Provo City's wonderful Parks & Recreation website) and what a fun surprise to see the big yellow smiley face garden on the green hillside of a private home neighboring the park! I kept driving till I could see "political type" people (or just someone I recognized) and then nabbed one of the last parking spots by our reserved pavilion.

What a beautiful day for a picnic! And what a great location! The view from the parking lot - overlooking the valley and Utah Lake near sunset - was stunning. Add to this the golden sunlight reflecting off the jagged cliffs of Rock Canyon, making them stand out against the vibrant blue sky and creating an almost surrealistic backdrop. Finally, factor in the fragrant, fresh canyon air, the delicious catered BBQ meal, a huge playground that invited and entertained my three oldest children, and the fact that this pavilion was close enough that I could always see my children on the playground, far enough that their noise didn't detract from hearing whoever was speaking, but isolated enough from the football games & events of other groups that I didn't have to worry too much about my kids and WOW! Like Mary Poppins would say, this place was "practically perfect in every way!"

I enjoy coming to central committee meetings because I'm beginning to feel like I'm finding friends who share a common interest in politics, particularly conservative politics. Most of my friends/neighbors/family members/church acquaintances typically don't get that excited over elections or legislative issues or stuff like that. I learn a lot of "lingo jingo" from simply asking about things I'm not sure about, like when Dave Lifferth explained to me the "Lemmings for Obama" phrase and Mark Madsen clarified his role on the national GOP platform committee (quite an honor - he & Becky Lockhart were the two people chosen to represent our state on that committee) in comparison to the role of our national committeeman and committeewoman. In a way, I see my interest in politics like a hobby, much in the same way as people who like football tend to hang out together & talk football, same with scrapbooking, biking, computers, or whatever. It's just an added bonus that politics also incorporates public service - a pretty awesome institution if you ask me.

I got to chat with Lauralyn Eberting, chair of the C&B Committee, and briefly with David Starling, also a member of that committee. It looks like (finally!) we have some work to do, and I'm excited that the summer is over and at home we're settling into a school routine that will hopefully allow me more time to help move thoughts and ideas along on this committee. I also enjoyed talking politics with Ken Sumsion, and I'm impressed that he not only remembered my daughter's name but that she and her brothers all came to see him up at the capitol this year. (It's a family tradition, every Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to visit our representatives at the State Capitol and thank them for their service.) He's really good with connecting with the youth - I can see him doing especially well with the school groups that visit up there frequently. I'm kind of sad that more of my Eagle Mountain political friends weren't there - Heather and Dee and Ryan and Jennifer and Dannon, etc. but, oh well. At least Erin was there with Mark, and even though we didn't get to talk much, they liked that I wore my Mark Madsen for State Senate Tshirt. I told them that even though Mark won at the convention, I wanted to send a subtle reminder to the folks here that Mark was the best person for the job right now so don't even think about running against him next time. Erin wanted to put that on a plaque :)

Well, soon it was getting cold and windy and it was time to leave. We had such an enjoyable drive home. Our conversations wandered all over the place: the translated City of Enoch, the reason why we have Patriot's Day, why flags are flown at half mast, why the Pentagon is called the Pentagon, how the phrase "Let's Roll!" got started by the courage of regular Americans who chose to rush the terrorists and die to save other innocent Americans, why the War on Terror was started, the war in Afghanistan & the Taliban, the war in Iraq, the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's shenanigans with the UN about nuclear weapons, why some people think the war in Iraq is wrong, how President Hinckley declared over the pulpit in General Conference that it was his opinion that the current war (in Iraq) was justified, how people tend to sneer at McCarthyism but Ann Coulter's book, Treason, taught me that there is sufficient evidence that there really were spies in the State Department, what McCarthyism was all about, along with the rise of Communism and the Berlin Wall, Kruschev pounding the podium with his shoe and shouting that he would bury America, how our new GOP VP Sarah Palin probably has more security clearance and military intelligence than we're aware of because of her position as the commander-in-chief of the state's active militia, right there next to Canada and only miles away from Russia. Wow!

Hannah and Chris just kept asking more questions and I kept thinking of things I could share with them and before long, we were already home! Isaac and Geoffrey were already asleep or close to it, Chris went to bed soon afterwards, and Hannah finished her dishwasher job then went to bed while I wrote this blog.

The benefits for my children? Instead of sitting all night playing computer games and going to bed far too late with no chores done, they got fresh air and active outside time, a new place to explore, fun things to see, a yummy dinner and dessert, attention from Ken and Mark and Lauralyn, an interesting discussion on the way home, and a quiet way to end the evening.

The benefits for me? I got a break from cooking dinner, a rejuvenating trip to a canyon park, a chance to learn some more political stuff and enjoy talking with my political friends, a way to show support for Mark's campaign, a break from the normal ongoing tasks of laundry/dishes/paperwork, encouragement from Dave to start contributing to this blog again, and a totally fulfilling drive home sharing with my children things that I love and my convictions about what is right and wrong.

Now, looking back, I don't think I would have traded this evening for a hundred loads of folded laundry!