A political path to inner peace

This time six years ago, a friend put out a call: come to Cleveland to help re-elect President Barack Obama. I've never been much of a campaigner.  The last political campaign I'd worked on was Alex Sanders for US Senate, which resulted in South Carolina sending Lindsey Graham to Washington for the very first time. So, yeah.  Political greenness aside, I couldn't stand the idea of staying in solid blue Boston when there was work to be done around the country; so I begged leave of my business school professors and off to Ohio I went.  In hindsight, those four or five days knocking on doors in Cleveland change the course of my life. I witnessed poverty and disenfranchisement within American borders that rivaled communities I'd visited and worked in throughout Latin America and Africa. Naive world-changer that I was, my sense of pride and security in my native land was rocked to its core.  Fast forward four years, and the call came again: this time to North Carolina