stumping for art

Yesterday I went to Olympia with some other people (and we joined a large group of people from all over the state) to ask our elected officials to budget more money for art. The whole experience felt very choreographed and I have many mixed feelings. First off, a couple of the people in my group have been schmoozing with these politicians for a long time so I was definitely not one of the club, I was just a warm body to hopefully make the group as a whole look more impressive. Speaking of not being one of the club, it's very alienating for me to hang around these people who have more money and more clout than I. I teeter between believing that my voice makes a difference simply because I care and that no one cares what I have to say since I have membership in only one or two priviledged groups in our society. Who knows. I don't really know how to articulate my feelings, partly because I didn't even really know what was going on a lot of the time. However, to end on a positive, it was a new experience (I'm trying to collect as many of them as possible) and has given me more to think about as I try to become more a part of my community.