Jennifer isn’t Ohio’s only Profiles in Courage award winner for no reason, but accepting a request to monitor the upcoming Presidential election in Afghanistan, when the Taliban is targeting elections officials, was tempting fate. I was reading the paper Wednesday morning 2/26/14 and read how the independent elections bureau had been attacked the previous trapping about 70 workers inside the building and resulting in 5 deaths. Five Seconds later, Jennifer tells me that she has an email asking her to come to Kabul to serve as election monitor and observer from Democracy International. By lunch time that same day, she had made up “our” minds that it was the right thing for her to do, despite the obvious risks. She accepted the invitation and then let our family know. The family was split on the acceptance issue with our outspoken daughters leading the opposition. Jennifer withstood the arguments from her 2 “clones” and made ready to depart on 3/28/14. Her itinerary and flights came through via email, she made ready the acceptable attire for females in that land, but then at around 3:45 p.m. 3/27 she got a call from the top official at Democracy Intl. saying the entire mission was being scrapped. We suspect that DI and the US State Department which funds it, came to the realization that they could no longer provide any credible appearance of protection to the election professionals they were flying in to monitor the election. Jennifer’s acceptance of the request posed many risks not only in terms of safety but to her ongoing campaign for public office. Yet she accepted the call when called and I proud of her for that. But truthfully I’m relieved for a lot of selfish reasons. I’ve urged her to write about her reasons for accepting this challenge.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 14:23:41 +0000
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