I don’t see myself as a political person; rather, I try to concentrate on specific issues that can be fixed. So it was very unusual for me to be attending the Democratic party’s pre-County convention meeting.

I went to support my friends’ resolution on geothermal, in hopes it will be accepted into the Democratic party platform at the State convention.

The meeting was held Saturday at Waimea Middle School, and 54 people were present from all over the island. I knew a handful of people there.

There was a procedure and format to follow in order to get a resolution before the group, and now I understand why that was necessary. Many resolutions were submitted and they all had to be in a certain format so the group could evaluate each in an efficient manner. The resolutions were submitted by email, one page maximum. At the meeting, each resolution was projected on a screen for discussion and approval/disapproval.

Before the meeting started, a person submitting a smart grid resolution asked if we could combine the smart grid and the geothermal resolution.  He was very passionate and forceful about the smart grid, and we tried to explain that maybe the objectives were not the same. Finally, we agreed to disagree.

There were resolutions to do with early childhood education, sustainable agriculture, medical marijuana, Democratic candidates needing to be party members, etc.

As I understand it, there will be a County Democratic party meeting, where we will go and support the resolutions that are forwarded. Then they go to the State convention, where the County resolutions are submitted to the State Democratic party organization for approval.

Very interesting!