Last night was an exciting night for the Glenview Clovers 4-H club. They held their yearly election of officers. I guess the reason that I thought this was worthy of writing about was because of the character it showed in the kids. I took an observatory role in the back of the room and watched as the current officers lead the group in one of the simplest examples of democracy. From the floor came nominations and speeches from the potential office seekers. It was at that point that I recalled being their age and the angst of getting up in front of a group of peers and parents and trying to talk the group into doing something or thinking in the same line as myself. It was nerve racking. For the kids last night, to stand up in front of a room of over 100 people and give a short speech on who they were and why they wanted the office was really neat. While I know there was some disappointment in the election results I will fall back on the cliche, there is winning in just the act of trying. It was Alexis de Tocqueville who traveled the United States in the early nineteenth century that said what set Americans apart from our European brethren was our desire to participate. We form clubs and associations to get things done on our own where in other places they tend to look towards existing organizations and government to do it for them. Let's hope that the kids of today keep working to find ways to get the issues that loom ahead tackled.
