Yesterday I met with a group from Fayette and after the speeches one gentleman, even older than I, walked up and took my hand, looked me in the eye and said " If we elect you - Can I trust you?"
I said yes. But he didn't let go. Holding my hand with the grip of a man 20 years younger, he said " Can you hold the public trust?" Looking me right in the eye to the point that it was getting uncomfortable.
He wanted more from me than a simple politicians' yes. He wanted a vow. He wanted to hear "To Have-and-to-Hold, from this day forward, I will hold the public trust!"
Like jilted lovers - the citizens of the counties in district six are so tired of being betrayed by their elected officials. They are sick and tired of being sick and tired of politics as usual. Being stolen from lied to and made to sit for re-election photo-ops to get back a fraction of their tax dollars. This resentment for the status-quo extends, I believe, beyond the seven counties in district six, beyond Alabama all the way from Canada to Mexico and Sea to Shining Sea.
The place that we have come to know as America is hurting.
I spoke to a bee keeper along route 129 about the drug problem in his front door. He held my hand in the same grip I had seen a few hours before and with pleading in his eyes asked me to do something to stop the drugs and corruption. I spoke to the Wal-Mart Greeter who took my card. Looked at it for a moment then in a flash of recognition, said " I know who you are running against -Give me a hundred cards!"
I am struck with the sadness and desperation of the people who remember having jobs, even jobs in the woods and coal mines and trailer plants. Jobs that fed the family without having to "sign up every week" for a handout.
I spoke to the mayor of one city and asked him if the town had a drug problem. He said "Only one" and started to cry. I didn't dig deeper. I didn't have to because I know the story. It might be his daughter, his wife, his brother. But I know the story.
Last night on my way home the immense responsibility of being the senator for these aching people struck me with such enormous force that I had to pull over on that dark backwoods stretch of highway 241 and get something out of my eye.
So there it is. My vow. If you will have me, I promise to have and to hold your trust above all special interest and above the desire to get re-elected for the tenure of my office and beyond. Until death do us part.
Signed and sealed this day August 11, 2010
