A Very Dedicated HACC Chairman

Photo by John Hoff

Peter Teachout walked through the neighborhood, today, sometimes carrying his youngest child, McKenna. He was...

...distributing fliers to let folks know about the big neighborhood get-together on September 25, 6-9 PM, Fairview Park.

Peter was willing to go by himself, and I said THAT IS INSANE. Peter said he's not going to live "like I'm in Beruit," that he's "an American citizen" and he experts "to be able to walk the streets in my neighborhood" and that's just what he's going to do, with his baby along.

I had expected--well, OK, I had HOPED the protests surrounding RNC 2008 would be hitting the fan by now, and hitting early. The sight of a banner welcoming the Virginia and Virgin Islands delegation to the Ramada in Stadium Village...in the very heart of campus...was a major downer. Where were the protesters? Where were all my friends? I wasn't going to stand there and protest MYSELF, I needed at least one other person with me.

Well, since the excitement hasn't kicked off quite yet--I have faith it will, though, just not early enough to suit me--I told Peter I'd be able to spend some time with him, after all, doing the flier thing. Since he was CRAZY ENOUGH TO DO IT BY HIMSELF.

"I'm not by myself," he laughed. "I've got McKenna to protect me."

The deal was I drove, he walked, and soon enough he figured it was better to just put McKenna in my car. Good thing I spent $3 vacuuming up every speck of window glass from that recent vandalism incident, figuring my own son would be sitting on the seat.

An ice cream man went by. I bought McKenna a push-up ice cream bar, raspberry flavored. Hard to tell if she was eating it or wrestling it to submission.

Peter went all over the neighborhood, passing out fliers, talking to people in the neighborhood. A few times we called 311; once when we found a duplex with the door kicked in, another time I called on a severely overgrown lawn. I saw a car near "the Towers" which looked like it had been totalled in a hit-and-run while parked. I figured I'd just wait several days on that, given my stance on "predatory and abusive towing" on my other blog, www.towingutopia.com.

McKenna is just starting to talk, and she seems to imitate the words "big people" are saying. I know I heard her say "Flier." I kept telling her, "Daddy is passing out fliers. Fliers."

And she repeated: "Fmmiers."

Peter is a very dedicated Chairman. And the work which needs to be done never ends. But that doesn't mean it can't be set aside, sometimes. Word of something important comes in mid-blog.

More on that in the next post.