Welcome to A Habit of Hope — a weekly practice of optimism and joy. We get inspired, there’s music, and use a set of tools for community and accountability.
First off: got your plans for today? Gut feeling: it’s gonna be big. Join us? I’ll be at the Ventura County Government Center, along with my hubby, my kid, possibly my mother-in-law, and at least five friends who don’t regularly go to protests, to say loudly and clearly:
Local Hero
This week’s story is going to start with Cory Booker, make its way back to Nordhoff High School in 1983 to meet our Person of the Week, contain not one but two references to Sen. Strom Thurmond, and veer back to the moment in which we find ourselves today.
First: here’s to Cory Booker, who just set the record for the longest floor speech in US Senate history by beating by nearly an hour Senator Strom Thurmond’s record for his filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. It’s not just that deeply symbolic victory that matters. It’s that Booker reminded a frozen nation that civil rights have never been won or defended without a combination of physical pain and moral clarity, and that if we want to get ourselves out of this mess, we’re gonna need to let go of comfort, keep our eyes on the prize, and get to it.
As I watch our nation’s institutions under attack from within, I wish I could transport everybody back to my 12th Grade AP History class at Nordhoff High School, so my teacher Steve Bennett could straighten us out. It was a civics boot camp in that class. I learned how the three branches of government are supposed to function, the vital role of investigative journalism, the way elections are designed to operate, etc.
Mr. Bennett had no tolerance for slacking off. You were gonna be ready to participate in a substantive discussion every day. No coasting just because you were smart. When he was disappointed in you, it was the worst.
I was a teenage activist — knocking doors for the Nuclear Freeze, protesting the San Onofre nuclear power plant, cheering on Greenpeace and sending letters for Amnesty International. In the Spring of my senior year, I saw a flyer for a “leadership conference” at Pepperdine University. Apparently they welcomed all Southern California high schools to send two students each year for free. I asked Mr. Bennett about it, and he told me it was an “ideologically slanted program” but that “you could probably handle it.” So he signed me up and asked me to report back what it was like.
Well, first of all, the keynote speaker was to be Senator Strom Thurmond. There was literature from the John Birch Society. There was recruitment to Oral Roberts University. There was a film about the benefits of clearcutting old growth forests. And the boys’ curfew was fifteen minutes later than the girls’, so they could walk us safely to our dorms each night. To say this annual event for Southern California was conservative is not accurate. It was a rightwing recruitment operation. And the fact that this was back in 1984 gives an idea of the long game that the Right has played.
On the final day of the conference, it was announced that the then 82-year-old Senator Thurmond would be unable to join us, so instead we’d be hearing from his 44-years-younger wife, the former Miss South Carolina Nancy Janice Moore. In a hot pink suit, she told folksy stories about the man she referred to as “the Senator.”
Fast forward. Steve Bennett runs for and wins a seat on the Ventura City Council and then the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, on campaigns of environmental stewardship, fiscal responsibility, and support for foster families. It’s not just that he was my high school teacher — it’s his doggedness for causes I believe in that compels me to sing at benefits and make calls for him. There is so much enthusiasm for his campaigns, and it’s a joy working for a candidate I truly believe in. It does take a little getting used to to stop calling him “Mr. Bennett” and refer to him as “Steve.”
When some neighbors and I start an environmentalist group called CFROG, I get a new education from Steve Bennett: a three-year crash course in how activists must work with — and sometimes against — local government, to effect change at ground level. When we form, Steve personally meets with us and warns us to be smart and thorough. Steve is an ally to our cause, though he doesn’t always vote the way we want, and we learn a lot from him about how to build a sustainable and robust strategy, which finally leads to great success that is reflected in the General Plan (and is now under attack from the current presidential Administration).
Several times, Steve is contacted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about running for a US House seat. He always declines, feeling that his work on the Board of Supervisors has more impact, and worrying about his seat being taken over by a hostile candidate. Then, about ten years ago, California is redistricted, and the conditions are such that the DCCC talks him into it. There is a clear heir apparent who will likely win his Supervisor seat. He launches a “Bennett for Congress” campaign.
But his heart isn’t in it. After a month or two, he makes a hard decision. He withdraws from the race and endorses then-California Assemblymember Julia Brownley to run in his place. He returns all donations and continues his job as Supervisor. Brownley wins big, in a district that has been Republican for decades. She’s still serving as our Congressmember today.
I took three things from this. First, my experiences with Steve Bennett taught me to be rigorously ethical in political matters. Second, I learned how much about the quality of our lives is decided at the local level. Local politics matter — this is something the Right has known for a long time.
And number three: I finished a song! I had been writing a song about a train for a couple years — a simple song, but it just wasn’t coming together. Seeing an ambitious politician decline an opportunity to ascend to the US House of Representatives because he felt it was more important to stay local was just the inspiration I needed for the one train song that is about not leaving town for greener pastures.
A few years ago, Steve Bennett was termed out as Supervisor. He was not done with politics, though, but still he kept it local: he is now serving his second term as Assemblymember for California’s District 37.
And I am still the activist I was in Mr. Bennett’s US History class! Hopefully by now I’ve learned a thing or two about the long game.
A Habit of Hope
Reminder: I have something for you — a Habit of Hope Journal! Feel free to download it for your own use in a practice of optimism and joy. And feel free to comment in the chat about how it’s going!
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xo Rain
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