01) Student Body Vice President

I started my high school years as an insecure, terrified member at the low end of the school social structure. I was a constant target for punches and humiliation delivered by those who were not strong enough to fight with the kids who loved to fight, but felt some kind of a need to dilute themselves into believing they were strong in some way.

A transformation from the scared nerd that was me in the 9th grade to my college years where I was one of the more successful and popular people on campus had a significant mile stone at the end of my Junior year when I was elected into the office of Vice President of the student body.

I learned an important lesson that year. A lesson that guides my choices to this day, something significant enough to earn membership in the top 10 experiences that shaped me most.

I did not attend every high school so I can only speculate but I expect they all had some students (a small subset) that lived in the lime light, and another group (much larger this time) that are more or less invisible outside their own very small social circles.

Prior to my Junior year I had never been involved in the student lime light. I never heard the crowd on the bleachers go wild after stealing the basketball and rocketing down the court and doing a lay-up. I never caught a pass to score the winning touchdown or had the lead in a play. When they were choosing the home coming king I'm quite sure my name never came up. I was a strong member of the invisible majority.

Every year there were student elections of the student council members. Each year it seemed to be the same thing. The "popular" kids would put their posters up, pass out some kind of trinkets in the halls and wait for the invisible masses to do their duty and re-elect them into their continuing roles as the social leaders. Meanwhile the invisible majority would complain that it was always the popular kids and they weren't doing anything.

Another year rolled around. Another set of posters went up. Another group of campaign slogans was written and the annual re-run that was student council elections started yet again.

About a week prior to the voting, an announcement went over the school wide PA system. There would be an assembly next Thursday where the candidates would be given an opportunity to pontificate eloquently on their pedigrees and why they alone should be bestowed with the honor of the office for which they were running. As the announcement blared out of the speaker and yet another of the invisible ones raised the same old complaint of nobody doing anything I had an epiphany.

An all school assembly. The candidates would be given an opportunity to speak at an all school assembly. I was 15 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, and 130 pounds soaking wet. I had a big mouth and something to say. I went straight to the office and registered as a candidate.

The next day I put up a single campaign poster. It simply said "Jim Crawford is running for student body Vice President". It did not say to vote for me. That was not my desire in running. It did not have a snappy campaign slogan like "Eat a lolly and vote for Molly" (my competition for the VP seat spent a good portion of each day passing out tootsie roll pops with this slogan attached to the stick). It was not multi-colored and it was not in every hallway in school (like the multiple posters most candidates put up). For me the campaign was over. It was all about the assembly.

Thursday rolled around. I don't recall the order of the speeches and I expect I didn't prepare much in the way of a script. I do recall that I didn't practice my speech and I remember that I followed Cindy Radden.

Cindy was a cheerleader every year for as long as I can remember. I seem to recall seeing her in the role of cheerleader at the college in Casper Wyoming when I came up to visit Dennis who was attending there so I assume her role in the lime light did not fade immediately after high school. Cindy was popular and without a doubt she was the nicest popular person who ever attended Campbell County High School. I hope good things continued to happen to her -- but I digress.

As part of her attention grabber at the beginning of her speech Cindy pulled out a massive pack of "speech notes". She began her presentation and seemed to be working off the first page and then in a well practiced theatric move she "accidently" dropped the speech. As a dozen pages of white paper floated to the floor Cindy went into the real speech which was memorized and flawless. Her speech ended, appropriate applause was delivered and it was my turn.

As I walked to the stage I had an sudden impulse and I stopped with my back to the crowd. Slowly, I bent over and one by one, picked up the pages that were Cindy's speech. I turned, faced the crowd and exclaimed

"This is Déjà Vu all over again. Every year they have an election. Every year the same people paper the walls with their tired campaign slogans. Every year you sit, invisible to the illuminated ones, and complain. Every year you elect the same popular people into their leadership roles and once again fade back into the shadows of obscurity. Every year I watch another redundant cycle and I wonder."

I hoisted the papers I just gathered off the floor into the air.

"I wonder if I just did more for the school than any of them! I wonder what they do at their meetings. Perhaps they pass around lolly pops and..."

The crowd erupted into violent cheering and applause. I really don't remember the rest. I still recall the reason for my actions. I wanted a chance to tell the rest of my invisible counterparts that we had no right to complain because we were playing our role just as the popular kids were. You couldn't do the same thing year after year and expect a result that was any different. Further - if we chose to put them in we really had no right to complain. We knew how the story was going to end. We watched it play out last year, and the year before, and the year before that.

It's been close to 40 years and I don't remember it all, but I remember this. Chris Huff was a guy who I had a significant fist fight with the previous year. The battle was an attempt to communicate my displeasure in his hobby of pushing and hitting me. I recall I had just gotten my class ring and to this day I have a clear mental image of my new ring opening his forehead above his right eye when I delivered the decisive blow in the battle. Chris and I both got a short in-school suspension over the ruckus. Chris never pushed or hit me again (as is typically the case with bullies). We also had never talked to one another since. It was a still Thursday, a couple of hours after the assembly when Chris walked up to me in the hall. He looked me right in the eye and announced "I voted for you. I don't know why but I voted for you". He then patted me on the shoulder and went on down the hall.

The next day the election results were announced. I won the election by a massive land slide and for the first time since middle school, Polly didn't have a place on the council.

When I entered the election I had no intent on winning. All I wanted to do was to gain a public forum where I could tell the invisible people to stop doing the same thing while hoping for a different result. Instead I learned an important life lesson.

People are looking for someone to follow. It's a simple but powerful fact. If you are willing to declare yourself as the leader it really doesn't take much to get a crowd to march along with you. The world shifted on its axis for me a bit that day.

Since that time I've considered tragedies like the ones caused by Jim Jones and what I affectionately called "Those wackos in Waco". I've watched moral, intelligent men like Jimmy Carter fail and weak leaders like George Bush prevail. I believe there is a great deal of responsibility with many leadership roles but if you really want it - just stand up and start down the road in a direction you feel strongly about. It won't be long before you begin to attract a crowd and get them marching the same direction.