LAST DAY OF DEM CONVENTION

I attended the Women’s Caucus meeting on Thursday morning. It was great to hear so many women speak who are in public office. The highlight of the morning was Michelle Obama’s speech.

Only one speaker mentioned women as a voting bloc—and small business ownership wasn’t mentioned at all. The Ohio representative who mentioned women as a voting bloc talked about “women in mini-vans.”

But it hit me at this caucus that perhaps I was starting to “whine.” It’s not enough to sit and complain about small business not being mentioned enough. The big issue is—what are we going to do about it? Well, I’m doing part of it, by showing up at the conventions and being a part of the process. And even more importantly, being bi-partisan.

We need to write letters to our representatives, to newspapers and be involved in the dialogue. Our time will come if we keep up this work. Being involved in associations like WIPP is vital.

This was hit home even more in the afternoon when I attended the meeting for Obama’s campaign on small business. In my introduction I stated my disappointment that small business wasn’t mentioned more from the podium. Another gentleman disagreed with me and said that Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s speech on small business was great and that we should be pleased that we even got there. “There were many other issues that never got mentioned from the podium that people feel passionate about,” he said, “including HIV-AIDS.”

I realized he’s right. Our steps may be small, but we’re making them. And we have to keep up the hard work to be recognized as the voting block and economic engine that we are.