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Edited on Fri Jul-07-06 10:14 PM by OzarkDem
Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and wife of Rep. Sherrod Brown, candidate for US Senate will be writing a regular column for the Huffington Post during the 2006 campaign. I look forward to every column, they're all great...
We Are Not Afraid
by Connie Schultz
My husband, U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, is running for the Senate, but it can feel like he's about to march into battle as I answer the same question, day in and day out, across the state of Ohio.
"Aren't you afraid?" people ask, usually before Sherrod gives a speech or I show up on his behalf.
Every time we hear this question, we see what a chokehold the politics of fear can have on so many decent people - from university professors to small-town farmers, from stay-at-home mothers to corporate executives. They want to believe in fair elections and a campaign of ideas, but they can see what's coming by who's already laid tracks in this bellwether state.
So far, President Bush has shown up twice in Ohio to raise money for Sherrod's opponent. Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove, the mastermind of some of the nastiest campaigns in recent history, have made high-profile visits here. Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell is pulling out one hat trick after another to impede voter registration -- even as he runs for governor.
So, it's not hard to understand why so many Ohioans have nervously pulled us aside or stood bravely in a crowded room to ask if we're scared of what "they" can do to us.
We are unequivocal in our response:
We are not afraid.
...
Countless reporters have described my 53-year-old husband as "boyish," athletic and quick-witted, and he's all that, but what convinced me to agree to the rough-and-tumble of a political marriage was the Sherrod I see when no one's watching. I come from the working class, where both my parents wore their bodies out and died in their 60s because they vowed their children would have easier lives. Those are the people Sherrod has been fighting for all of his adult life, and they never fall off his radar. I see that in every aspect of his life, from the big tips he leaves for servers and valet parkers to his refusal to accept the Congressional medical insurance because so many Americans have no healthcare at all.
The people Sherrod has been fighting for throughout his career need him now more than ever. And whenever I start to feel a little sorry for myself because my back aches from too many hours on the road or I miss my job or I haven't seen a movie in months, I meet someone who reminds me why Sherrod's race is so important.
Last week, this jarring reminder showed up in the face of a young mother who is recovering from breast cancer.
A soft-brimmed hat covered her bald head as she sat across from me with her four-year-old daughter at a potluck dinner in Washington County in Appalachia. Our conversation was the usual jumble of topics whenever two women get to spend a little time together. She talked about her hopes and dreams for her little girl, mentioned that she had just finished her last radiation treatment and that maybe now she'd stop feeling so sick all the time. "My problems are nothing compared to so many around here," she said, gesturing around the room. "People need to feel some hope."
As we were leaving, she handed a check for $200 to a member of our campaign staff and then smiled sheepishly. "Can you wait till Friday to cash it?" she asked. "I don't get paid until then."
That is why Sherrod is running for the U.S. Senate.
And that is why we are not afraid.
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