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Pictures from last week’s training:

Headed to Yellowstone for the week. Back Thursday!

Last Monday night (19 May 2008), I had the privilege of seeing Barack Obama in Bozeman. I’m lucky I got in–the free tickets disappeared almost instantly. The line for the 7:30 pm appearance started forming at 10:00 am the morning of, and wrapped around the block when I showed up at 5:30 pm.

Oh, but the wait was worth it.

After a surprise appearance by Michael Keaton, Barack came on stage to cheering and deafening applause. He spoke for a full half hour, before leaving the stage to shake hands in the crowd.

At times, listening to Obama speak, I felt as though I could have been sitting in a rally for George C. Wallace in 1972, or even William Jennings Bryan in 1896. Thoroughly charismatic, Barack brought the audience to our feet time and time again–barely giving us time to find our seats before bringing us again with another thundering denunciation or demand.

He spoke on behalf of the “little man”–the everyday blue-collar worker from Dillon, MT. The factory worker in Detroit. The single-mother who works two jobs and still can’t afford health insurance for her son. He decried the wealth-mongering greed of oil companies, or drug companies. He demanded stronger government regulations, and more accountability for politicians to their voting constituents–rather than lobbyists and corporations.

He spoke highly of Hillary Clinton. The audience erupted in applause and cheers when Obama assured us that, whatever happens in November, the name George Bush will not be on the ballot. The audience was cautioned, however, that John McCain is “running for George Bush’s third term.”

I’ve long been excited about Barack Obama. My enthusiasm has ebbed and wained over the last few months–but I’m once again full of enthusiasm. Barack Obama’s candor and neo-populist politics set him apart from any other politician in my lifetime. His track-record of community service and tough reform legislation assure me that he’s sincere in his commitment to the every-day, working class American. His positions on education reform, health-care reform and foreign policy are, to my mind, spot-on.

For these reasons, I’m excited to be voting for Barack Obama in Montana’s primary on June 3rd, and I’m excited to vote for Barack Obama for President this November.

I’m not actually “having” coffee with Mr. Quammen (this year’s MSU Walt Stegner Chair) … but sitting in the same coffee shop, anyway. The Daily is the Montemartre of Bozeman…

Yesterday, I pledged the same oath that President Clinton once led some 15,000 Americorps members in reciting:

I will get things done for America to make our people safer, smarter and healthier. I will bring Americans together to strengthen our communities and environments. Faced with apathy, I will take action. Faced with conflict, I will seek common ground. Faced with adversity, I will persevere. I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond. I am an AmeriCorps member. And I will get things done.

And with that, I was inducted into the Montana Conservation Corps.

I will serve for the next five months with a team of six other individuals from across the United States. Called “Team Entomology,” we will spend much of the next five months working in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness and the Big Hole River Valley.

The Jedediah Smith Wilderness lies to the West of Grand Teton National Park, in the Grand Teton range.

My schedule will consist largely of ten-day “spikes” or “hithces,” with four days off in between. Ten on, four off. Spikes begin on Mondays.

I’m part of a “saw crew” (as opposed to a “trail crew”), so most of my time this summer will be spent in front-country locations, clearing trails of downed timber, etc. I’m disappointed that I will not be part of the crew spending a full month 26 miles into the wilderness of southern Yellowstone. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to this summer’s projects. Moreover, experience running saws and doing other fuels reduction work will prove invaluable if I choose to fight forest fires next summer.

We–the entire Montana Conservation Corps (some 170 corp members, from six regions across Montana)–spent the last four days at Camp Paxton outside of Seeley Lake, MT. We completed a day of first-aid and CPR training, and some service projects around Camp Paxton–while staying and working in buildings constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (the grandfather of the MCC) in 1939. On Monday, our region (the Greater Yellowstone region) will travel down to Yellowstone for additional training.