Joyce and I went to vote late tonight. We have a mixed marriage – in primary elections, Joyce votes on one side of the precinct and I vote on the other. Smile. After I voted, I stayed for my party caucus. There was a lot of pep talk about Texas’ native son who is in the race.

Most of my friends know I’m partial to the Bush family, and since there are no Bushes in the race now, I pretty much kept my mouth shut. Even so, I was elected as a delegate to the district convention, and I will be a candidate for election to the state convention, and maybe to the national convention as well. While I don’t particularly enjoy all the internal side swiping and manipulation that occurs in this arena, I do feel it is important for people with disabilities to be represented at every stage of the democratic process.

For me, though, the most important and most interesting aspect of engagement in this process is not filling the role of a token delegate with a disability … for me, it is the opportunity to influence a party platform.

Tonight at my precinct meeting, I put forward a resolution demanding that the U.S. Senate ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Mine was the only resolution offered at the precinct convention, and I was obliged to explain the resolution and its purpose, and to provide background information about it for my neighbors. I gladly did so, and afterwards the resolution was passed unanimously.

Now, our precinct will move the resolution to the district convention and then to the state convention. As the author, I will have the responsibility of presenting the resolution at each level, and I do not expect any opposition to it until it reaches the national convention. At that point, I hope there are disability advocates, family members of people with disabilities, and other disability-friendly delegates there who will pick up the resolution and push it forward through predictable roadblocks from party leaders and senators who have opposed it in the past.

Here’s the thing – and it is something I’m not sure everybody in the disability movement understands: In our democratic process, one small effort by an individual at a neighborhood meeting can snowball into a wave that can result in having every member of a party who is campaigning for elected office at the local, state and national level pledged to campaigning on a platform that is committed to ratifying our UN Convention.

All I’m saying, colleagues, is if you want to foster change for the better, get your feet wet and your shoes dirty. Learn about the process, understand the process, and use the process to your benefit, the benefit of your colleagues and the benefit of the movement.

For those of you who live in states that have yet to vote in the primaries, consider going to your precinct meetings after the polls close – get yourselves selected to your respective parties’ conventions, and put forward a resolution that can educate others and possibly interject disability issues into the mainstream of the political debate. #RevUp #VoteDisability.