Every Day Is Extra by John Kerry

Author:John Kerry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

CHAPTER 13

Dusting Myself Off

I STEPPED ONTO MY front stoop in Boston on a cold gray late-November morning to pick up the morning newspaper. Tucked between two bright orange pumpkins marking the season peeked an envelope addressed to me and Teresa. I picked it up. There was no return address. Overnight, someone had quietly, anonymously stopped by and, without knocking on the door, without disturbing us, left a handwritten message: they were thinking of me and Teresa, still praying for health care for their child.

The scene repeated itself more than once that fall. A note from a kid who said she was still fighting for a clean environment, or a letter from a veteran who said he still prayed for a sane foreign policy.

Not since 1972 had I been knocked on my ass in an election—and this had been no ordinary election. Sometimes amid all the cynicism about politics, most of it justified today, people and pundits forget that most of us who run for office are in it because we believe in what we’re fighting for. It’s not an act. There are exceptions; frauds and charlatans have always dotted the political landscape. But most of us who put our reputations on the line and expose our families to the ugliness of modern campaigns do it because we believe in our ability to make a difference and we believe the issues at stake are enormous.

When you believe deeply and you lose, it hurts like hell.

The first presidential candidate I ever worked for, Mo Udall, said that after his campaign ended, he “slept like a baby”—every three hours he woke up and cried. I didn’t cry. But I felt a galloping sense of frustration, disappointment, anger and sadness, often all at once.

When I least suspected it, the campaign would come rushing back to me: on my dresser in a little leather tray, I’d spy the lucky Ohio buckeye, or the four-leaf clover, or any of the talismanic objects I’d accumulated on the campaign trail and carried with me to its bitter end. Even the contents of my emptied pockets reconnected me to the extraordinary supporters who invested their hopes in the campaign. On my wrist, I’d look down and see the yellow “Livestrong” bracelet I’d received in a rope line from a man battling cancer. I wondered whether he’d made it through to the other side of his fight. Bruce Springsteen brought me the guitar picks he had used when playing my campaign appearances, and I kept them close by, a reminder of his loyalty even when the sun wasn’t shining, and of the song that had become our campaign anthem: “No Surrender.”

I especially derived disappointment and determination from the young people who came up to me and said they’d cast their first presidential vote for me. I hated to feel as though I’d let them down. They’d yell, “Keep fighting!” and all I could say was “We all need to keep fighting.”

The campaign’s abrupt end was at odds with what I felt inside.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.