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Since the Obama winners weren't selected entirely by chance (the campaign chose from 50 randomly drawn names), the Green Party likewise handpicked Harrison Wills, the president of the student body at Santa Monica College in California, who had donated $5. To pay for school, Wills started Naturally Harrison, which sells locally made organic mattresses. Wills' lunch choice was Thai Vegan, where the menu tops out at $7. The Beyonc fundraiser for Obama featured a 350-bottle tower of Armand de Brignac at $300 a pop. Net-worth-percentage-wise, I was paying more for my fundraiser than Beyonc.
Wills, 27, had no idea who I was. "But I can't tell you how important I think investigative journalism is," he said. A bit later he asked, "Do you do investigative journalism?" I don't think Wills got his five bucks' worth despite being $2 up on the pad thai.
We had a great conversation while eating vegan food on a picnic table overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I learned a lot about some really good educational and electoral reforms in Finland. Wills was incredibly charismatic, using my name a lot and pounding his fists as he got excited about improving our country, our planet and humanity. "I'm not just going to throw bricks. I'm going to build community gardens," he said. This was a man who cared so deeply, he truly believed those were his only two options.
I left our meeting hopeful, energized about the democratic process and full without any kind of heavy, bloated feeling. And, most important, I got the student-body president of Santa Monica College to read one of my columns.