Support Eric Lesser for State Senate

Last Saturday, I spent an afternoon knocking on doors with one of my future students. It was a Day of Action for Eric Lesser’s state senate campaign in the First Hampden-Hampshire District, and the student I was working with was one of twenty or so student interns on the campaign. I’m not much for canvassing or making phone calls, but I put in the time because, as skeptical as I typically am, I strongly believe in Eric. Anyone at BMG who knows me well knows me as an active commenter, occasional diarist, high school teacher, small town selectman, active Democrat, and not much of an idealist. The closest I come to being idealistic is with my students: they all lifetime guarantee of support and good wishes. Until now, I have never extended that guarantee to the political arena. Eric Lesser has always been exceptional. 

Technically, Eric Lesser was never my student. In fact, he actually attended my school’s cross-town rival. But his coach Marty O’Shea and I had decided that our debate teams would share a bus for away meets. It was on these bus rides and before and after debate rounds that Eric and I got to know each other. We discussed debate, politics, and, of course, debate. It is important to note that this was policy debate, focusing on a single foreign or domestic policy issue. Teams prepared their cases and argued them against an opponent prepared to refute them.

It should almost go without saying that Eric was an outstanding debater, and I like to think that this experience contributed to his good work in the White House years later. At any rate, he and his partner Amos Shemesh eventually won the league championship. Eric was the kind of kid you expect to set the world on fire. I was not surprised when he told me he was headed for Harvard after graduation. Nor was I surprised, a few years later, to read in The Springfield Republican that he was handling the luggage for the Obama campaign and hosting a Passover seder with the President himself. Teachers always hope for the best when it comes to their students, and Eric was one of those students in whom hopes were high. His success was not a surprise—though I will admit that I never expected him to spend a few years working in the White House. Eric is intelligent and does well at pretty much everything he does. 

Eric’s political life began in high school when he organized and campaigned for a Proposition 2 ½ override to prevent drastic cuts from happening in his school system. He assembled a team, which literally knocked on every door in Longmeadow, and on the second vote, his campaign succeeded, and the education system from which he had benefited so much kept its teachers. Eric proceeded to work in Congressman Richard Neal’s and Senator Edward Kennedy’s offices. I lost track of him until the 2010 Democratic State Convention when we ran into each other. Eric was full of enthusiasm, for his work in Washington, his upcoming marriage, and the candidacy of Elizabeth Warren. I would occasionally read about him the news, but the next time I heard from him was when he called me to discuss his bid for state senate. He was still in the act of deciding whether to run. I was still trying not to choose a candidate too quickly. 

We met at Dunkin’ Donuts in Granby. Our conversation assured me of his core beliefs and his politics. He soon set my concerns to rest about the optics of a Harvard graduate and Harvard law student who personally knew the President Obama. As he greeted people I knew, I realized how foolish I had been to worry. Eric is no longer a kid, but he’s still the same person I knew when he was a high school student. I aware of his substantial talents, but I was pleasantly reminded of his sincerity. At this point in my writing, the debate coach in me is asking for evidence of Eric’s sincerity. His interactions with people demonstrated it to me, but what really drove it home to me was hearing other people use the word “sincere” when describing him. Eric is hardly naïve. He knows how politics works, but he also has the sincerity to go along with that knowledge them. Not only has he shown up in Granby, even for small crowds, he’s thankful for the opportunity. He’s made stops at the library, Dunkin’ Donuts, and the driving range/diner. He attended our Memorial Parade, the Congregational Church’s tag sale, and our Council on Aging picnic. 

With his enormous energy and enthusiasm, Eric has attracted a lot of volunteers, many of them in college or just out of college. (One of those college kids turned out to be another former favorite student of mine. Two others have since joined the campaign). This is the generation that I hear people my age and older dismiss as stupid, lazy, and disinterested. Eric’s campaign is demonstrating that these critics are wrong. This younger generation is facing problems—from the student loan crisis to global warming—that they had no hand in creating, but in many ways, they are a better generation than those that have come before them. They are typically kinder and more thoughtful. They are less apt to discriminate, and in spite of talk about bullying, they are less likely to victimize others. In Eric, I have witnessed the excitement and capability of his younger generation, and given the mess we have made of things, I believe he and they are exactly what we and our children need.

Please join me in supporting him.

P.S. I was going to insert this picture after the second paragraph https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152699999849447&set=t.811744446&type=3&theater

I was going to insert this picture after the third paragraph from the bottom https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152719583749447&set=a.10151333378659447.587784.811744446&type=1&theater

I don’t know why they wouldn’t work, but they are on my Facebook page.

Please share widely!

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