Hi, it’s me, Dickon.  I’ll make it short.  I’m the sixth kid of nine.  I had the best parents, great childhood in western Pennsylvania.  That’s not Philadelphia.  Think deer-huntin’, truck-drivin’, wood-splittin’, in-grown, conservative, back-in-the-holler country.  By the way, that’s the place to grow up.  Lazy summer afternoons, the sound of leaves rustling overhead, water rippling, fishing with a friend.  Long walks through a still, silent, snow-covered evening, just Dad ‘n me.  No worries.

The big world was there when I needed it.  That was 2008, junior high school.  Barack Obama was my hero.  I saw him as the solution to every problem.  That’s right, naïve.  On election day, with two freshman friends, we walked down to the county Obama Campaign Headquarters.  (A county is like a borough, but with less people, more hunters.)  We canvassed the entire town, walking down all three streets, knocking on doors.  We asked people to vote.  We changed the world.

Today I’m a Tolkein fan (see picture).  I am passionate about the Pittsburg Steelers and fighting climate change.  Corporations own President Obama, but he’s better than Mitt.  I guess we were wrong four years ago.  We can’t hire someone to change the world.  It is up to us.