Feels Good, Huh?

This is an email blast that I sent out to my team today. It's been one hell of an experience, and really the time of my life. For anyone outside of CD12, which is the northern half of the San Francisco Peninsula, it has been my privilege and pleasure to have met and worked with each and every one of you.

For those of you who came to one of our meetings, registered people to vote, canvassed a neighborhood or provided any other kind of infrastructure or input to our family here at CD12, I would like to acknowledge your participation and congratulate you on a job well done. Frankly, there is no Barack Obama presidency without each and every one of you.

I know I speak for April Vargas, Mary Twieg, Mary Kunitake and all of our incredible support staff when I tell you that in addition to your hard work and amazing contribution to this campaign, the friendships we have developed with you and the laughter and the grimaces that we’ve shared with you are permanently etched into our hearts and our memories.

Some of you spent your time in our South City office. Many of you didn’t come on board until we moved into our office in San Carlos. Some of you even split your time between either the San Francisco office or the Silicon Valley office. Most of you tirelessly cajoled your friends, families and co-workers to come on board the Obama bandwagon, even if they originally looked at you like you were from another planet.

So this is definitely not goodbye. As a matter of fact, just the contrary. If getting involved and being involved has gotten into your blood, like it has mine, and you feel like it’s feels pretty damned good to actually make a difference in your community, your state and your country, don’t become complacent. We have really just begun. There will be other races, new candidates or causes and old issues that will become deserving of your time and effort. You can take what you’ve learned and apply it to the next campaign.

Many of us are not completely satisfied with this election. Prop 8 didn’t lose. Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Michele Bachmann won and Al Franken didn’t. But we inched ever closer to betters days in this country, and the election of Barack Obama wasn’t just historic; it was vindication for all of us taking a stand and standing tall and proudly for fairness, equality, the end to war and the hope of a new kind of leadership.

So our offices will or have closed, but the enthusiasm and excitement that we’ve all shared will continue to burn brightly and strongly, and our paths will cross again, and yes, we’ll take a moment to chuckle and reminisce, and then we’ll dig into whatever our next project will be and work together to once again attempt to make it a better and happier day for ourselves, our families and our entire communities.

It was an absolute honor to be a city leader, a precinct captain, a precinct specialist, an Obama delegate and ultimately CD12 volunteer coordinator, and though I will hang up my virtual uniform and have to find something equally useful to do with my very rare spare time, I will smile to myself every now and then knowing what we all did together and realizing that we all did something that was right, and that we were rewarded for once with the culmination of a job well done and a candidate that actually won this time.

All the best to you! Yes, we did!!

Mark Brickman