Hey gang, you did good last weekend. We heard back.

[TayTay]

A lot of people last year spent a great deal of time worrying and hoping and intensely caring about the election. There was a great deal of outrage over the various personal (oh so personal) slams that were made against both JK & THK. (People have written about this in this group and how it tore them apart. It was just so unfair and awful and it hurt.) The loss was crushing for all of us who worked and hoped for change.

Ever since last year, one of the underlying, small themes of this group that has come up from time to time is the idea, "Are they okay? Are THK & JK and their families and all the people that we saw last year, in person or on C-Span, are they okay?" This came up whenever one of us would go to an event and hear Sen. Kerry speak or when we would hear about Teresa. We would listen to what was said, take down the words and analyze what was going on. But there were always questions like, "How did they look? Did they seem relaxed? Did they seem, you know, happy or tired or what?" It was a way of asking that oh so human question, "Are you okay?" While we knew that this would take time to heal, we just wanted everyone who worked so hard on the campaign, from JK & THK to all those staffers that we saw on C-Span and on TV to heal and be 'okay.' (Really, it is a sub-theme here. It comes up all the time.)

I think there are a lot of people who have wondered this. (Not just us.) But I think little actions like the ones we took help in making things okay. They communicate caring and concern and they let JK & THK know that there are people out there who really do want them to thrive. And we heard back from someone who helped us organize this event. I think we did a good thing here. You should know that.

And, once again, those of us in Boston were representing everyone here. (Hey, you newbies count too you know!) This isn't just for 'the Boston crowd.' If it was, I wouldn't be posting it here. It's for all of us. (That card so rocked. Take a bow again babylonsister!)

From one of the organizers of last weekend: (Printed here with permission)

... I hope you know how deeply happy you have made JK and THK. And,
in my book, that makes you all golden. Thank you, from me, for going the
extra miles (literally, uphill and on ice!) to let them know how much
support and love there is out here in the world of the internets.

I told (some of us) that John and Teresa were the ONLY people in the
campaign (well, Elizabeth Edwards too) who *got* the value of the blogs
and bloggers. That you all gave up whatever you had going on and flew or
drove to Boston just to say happy birthday and deliver the good wishes of
all the bloggers--well, that just tells them a lot.

(We) worked very hard on the campaign; we were often
frustrated by the lack of attention to all of you who cared so much and
worked so hard, both online and on the ground. Over the past year, we
have seen the toll the loss and subsequent reliving of the "mistakes" that
were made (and there were some made, but not the ones (...spoken about the
loudest on the blogs!)) that has been taken on both John and Teresa.
This party was joyful for them, and it makes my heart sing to know this.

Thirdly, I know how joyful this was because Teresa wrote to me and told me
how happy she was.

I just thought you might want to know, I really think they are okay. I really do. And this makes my heart sing too! Thanks to everyone, you guys rock!