My Fellow Delegates,

I was 10 years old when I stood alone in a 4th grade classroom in my Republican dominated hometown and cast my mock ballot for George McGovern. I was proud to support my party’s nominee. My father describes himself as a yellow dog Democrat. He was a college professor who had worn black armbands to class to protest the war in Vietnam, who supported the civil rights movement in part by sponsoring his campus’ Black student union, and who raised his daughter to believe that even without a constitutional amendment she should expect women and men to have equal rights. I was raised to believe we should care more about people than property. Months before that mock election in the 4th grade, my father had been a delegate to the Texas State Democratic convention. He brought me to that convention on what became a defining moment in my political education.

More than 30 years later I’m now a college professor. Among the memorabilia scattered across my office at Fort Hays State University are two items of special value to me. One is a photograph of my father standing with Barack Obama in 2005. I take a group of FHSU students to Washington D.C. every couple of years and that year our group was volunteering at the Rock the Vote event. That’s where we had the chance to shake hands with the up and coming Senator from Illinois. The other item of special value is one I’ve carried with me to my college dorm room, my law practice, and now my academic home. It is a plaque the Young Americans (the Black student union on my father’s campus) gave to him in 1971. It bears a quote Bobby Kennedy made famous – “I dream things that never were and say, Why not?”

I’m hesitant to even mention the race issue in my letter to you, because I know that none of us are supporting Barack Obama merely because he fulfills that particular dream of an America united. Rather, we are standing with him because we are proud of him for opposing the war in Iraq even when it wasn’t popular to do so, because we share his concern about access to health care, about a struggling economy, and about the consequences of climate change if we fail to address serious environmental concerns. We support Barack Obama because he inspires, because when we listen to his eloquent speeches we find ourselves really proud to be Americans and genuinely hopeful about the future. And many of us who are no longer so very young ourselves are excited about Barack Obama because he has motivated the younger generation. As a Political Science professor and the mother of two teenage daughters (both of whom joined me at the local caucus and the oldest of whom got to cast her vote for the very first time) I not only have a front row seat from which to observe this incredible phenomenon, I get to participate in it every day.

Why am I asking for your support on April 12th as you select the next round of delegates in this process? Because I hope to carry on in my father’s footsteps and to inspire my daughters to continue the family tradition of Democratic support and activism. Because I hope to bring first-hand experiences back to the next generation of students and provide for them a role model of civic engagement and citizen participation in the political process. And because I believe I possess the passion and the skills to carry the 1st District’s voice to Denver as Kansans take an active role in putting Barack Obama in the White House. Please vote for me on April 12th. You can count on me to fight for Barack Obama in Denver.

Sincerely,

Shala Mills

That was the letter I sent to my fellow district delegates. I echoed many of those points in the 3-minute speech that I gave at the district convention when, along with 18 other women, I asked for the opportunity to be the one woman to have the honor of serving as an Obama delegate from the 1st district.

How did I get to the district convention? Well, like so many others on a snowy night in February, I showed up at the caucus and stepped forward when they asked for volunteers to serve. The “speeches” were shorter that night, really nothing more than a quick hello to a crowded room. And rather than a pre-printed ballot like the one used at the district convention, caucus voting involved writing down names on blank sheets of paper. Based upon party rules there had to be proportional representation between Obama and Clinton delegates, so that night I was asking to be one of the women to represent the Obama caucus voters at the district convention, where delegates to the national convention would be selected. Thus, I had to win two elections to become a national delegate.