I remember before the last election you sent out an e-mail -- a 4th and Goal, Henry V at Agincourt burst of insight and inspiration -- do you have any more in you? I know we're all getting near the finish line and we're tired and the national news isn't making us feel any better. Will you reach deep and see what you can do?...
Fire Us Up!
Thanks!
Donn
You know what? When a Donn Marshall asks you to do something you give it your best shot.
Let me tell you about Donn Marshall. I wish every elected official in this country was of Donn Marshall's caliber. I am not alone in thinking that.
I would single out first and foremost (Donn’s) demonstrated personal integrity and moral courage… He is energetic and purposeful, knows how to plan and implement, has shown an unusual capacity for working with people of differing backgrounds … and has a keen sense for what is important.
Samuel V. Wilson Lieutenant General, U.S. Army – Ret.President Emeritus, Hampden-Sydney
Donn Marshall worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency as a civilian analyst on the Southeast Asia drug trade. His wife also worked for the DIA and on Sept. 11th, 2001, she was among those killed at the Pentagon.
Donn could have let his grief take over. He was widowed with two young children. He came to West Virginia and found a home here for them.
But he has done more than that. He's gotten involved, founding a charity in his wife's memory to help others. I have seen him volunteer to help other campaigns and this time he is running himself for state delegate.
There is not a candidate any where who has worked harder to be a public servant. I've walked to the post office and run into him. I've seen him going door to door and I've seen him working events. He has seemingly been everywhere in the district.
And in all the times I've run across him, he always had a smile on his face. He always took time to listen to the people.
I saw him today at the Berkeley County Democratic Headquarters. He looked tired.
This is a candidate who is leaving it all on the field.
I know many of you are tired. Some of our candidates have left us disappointed and the odds we face seem overwhelming.
Many of you have been out there day after day week after week month after month.
Too many of us have been punched, kicked, curb stomped, brutally detained and all for standing up for democracy and the nation.
We're told we're fighting a lost cause, that the odds are overwhelmingly against us.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
It is not the size of the dogs in the fight that matters, it’s the size of the fight in the dogs.
That has always been true throughout history: from the men who made a stand on a bridge at Concord to the Screaming Eagles dropped behind the lines of Normandy to the Battered Bastards of Bastogne to a man who took that first step on the Moon to a woman who would not give up her seat on a bus in the South.
We took on the news media, too many of our own Democratic strategists, and often our family and friends and we held our ground.
We cannot give up. There is too much at stake.
Forget the polls. In all of those historical endeavors I listed above, from the bridge at Concord to the segregated deep South, the odds were overwhelmingly against those who achieved incredible victories.
Those of you who are active, keep going. Those of you not active, get involved in any way that you can.
Those people with you at your local campaign office or at the rally or canvassing across the street, those people are your brothers and sisters. If you are weary, remember them. If you are discouraged because of your last phone call or the door you knocked, remember them. If the news has you too down, remember them. Let them lift you up as on the wings of eagles.
You are not campaigning for the candidates, you are campaigning for them.
You are campaigning for the Donn Marshalls of the world.
We have done the impossible before and that made us mighty. And it is time for us to do it again.