Sunday, August 17, 2008

Meet Kelly Jacobs: Clinton Delegate to DNC08

The Democratic Convention starts Monday in Denver. I've put together a list of all the Mississippi Delegates with pictures and basic information. A link to this list is in the column to the right under Convention Links, along with other interesting sites.

So who are these people? I've already discussed how they got elected. There are some politicians, of course, but most of them are party activists, who've been working for Mississippi Democrats for quite a while. This is a profile of one Clinton Delegate, and next I'll do an Obama Delegate.

Kelly Jacobs is a happily married mother of three college students, two sons at Ole Miss and one stepdaughter in California. Her husband Paul works at FedEx, and they live in Hernando.

A member of the Mississippi Wildlife Rehabilitation, Kelly volunteers her time fostering injured or orphaned wildlife. She's currently the foster mother of four baby raccoons, a yellow finch, three red headed woodpeckers, one mockingbird, one blue jay, and an American Robin named Batman.

In addition, she's also a peace activist and the State Coordinator for Code Pink Women for Peace. When Cheney was in Southaven recently, Kelly was there protesting all alone in the Free Speech Zone, even though a Sheriff wouldn't let her park anywhere nearby. She hadn't been there long when a SWAT team with unholstered machine guns told her she had to leave. As she said, you don't argue with guns - she left. Then she tried to walk across the street a few times with a peace sign and was stopped by a Sheriff again. He told her if she walked with her sign anywhere in Southaven, she'd be arrested. She said she had a deal with her husband, " I can protest all I want. I just can't get arrested." So she left. Poor Dick Chaney needed all this law enforcement to help protect him from one protester.

Kelly is an active member of the Desoto County and State Democratic Parties and was the recipient of the 2004 Fannie Lou Hamer Award. She went to the Democratic Convention in 2004 in Boston and will be going again this year as a Clinton Delegate. She and her husband are driving to Denver in their Prius - in fact she might be on her way as you read this.

Oh, I forgot to mention that in her spare time, she's a farmer of Japanese persimmons. Let me close with the saying that ends all Kelly's emails.

Voting is like driving. To go backwards, select R. To go forward, select D.

UPDATE: Kelly is already making news. See her quote in today's Memphis Commercial Appeal.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a dynamic and inspirational person! I met Kelly at Hillary Clinton's speech in Jackson earlier in the summer, but really didn't know much about her--you could not miss her wearing all the buttons. Great to see passionate and compassionate people representing the Democratic party! Rock On!!