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You have probably been wondering where I have been and what I have been up to.  That is certainly the idea I gather from your many questions on my facebook asking just that.  I have been elusive in my answer, for many reasons, the best of which is that I myself did not know where I was (in a metaphysical sense) or what I had been up to.  But now, I shall give you some answer.

You know, perhaps, that I finished college.  Hooray! – for now I may attach letters (besides Jr.) to the end of my name.  There’s a strange paradox to college;  if you’ve been to college and done your studies you know that the act of going to college does not give really give you a great boost into the next step of existence (which some people jumped straight into, avoiding for a time, or for good, any further studies than that which is compulsory).  Indeed, college doesn’t provide any great educational boost forward; education is a step-by-step process.  That said, to my friends still working for a degree at college – stay there!  It is for the experience of education, including all its facets of leadership, late-night study, and sometimes pointless classes that you are there.

So, I finished college, and when my temporary employer, the U.S. Census Bureau needed no further work from me, I moved to Washington (state).  Some of you have asked me, how can “BDole” find a job for himself in his major, political science?  I have picked on some of you, my friends, for studying in school, and upon completion of a commendable degree, to have no further inspiration than to continue to work as a checker at a market.  Well, how can I find something permanent in politics?  Politics, and political jobs, are temporary by nature, subject to election and/or funding.  There can’t be a permanent “I have found my job in politics” answer.

Politics may be a temporary job by nature, but it is a permanent game, if game I can call it.  Well! – I didn’t only wander off to Washington, leaving many of you behind, to golf.  I came to see what I could see, and I found some answers – in politics.  I am not, contrary to belief, running against Levi (Johnston) mayor; and although that was a joking guess, you who said that know me very well, for I dropped no hints.  I am, in fact, campaigning for Kevin Van De Wege, incumbent state representative running for reelection. That means, therefore, that I am also campaigning for Steve Tharinger, a current county commissioner, who is candidate to replace the retiring majority leader in the state house of representatives.

Am I just puttering around doing odd jobs for the campaign? Well, yes. The primary just ended ended here, so work is just beginning to pick up. When I come back from my next mysterious vacation, 3,000 miles from Washington, I’ll go very happily into full-time mode, working as if politics is not a temporary job, but a job upon which our collective future depends.

I hope that answers some questions. What have I been doing? Now you know.