In 1999 as a young nine year old boy I was walking with my mother in the Olympia, WA farmers market when my mom was stopped and solicited by a person collecting signatures for I-713, an anti animal trapping bill. It was designed to outlaw inhumane animal traps. While my mother was signing the petition I got bored and asked the lady collecting them for a flier. She handed me one, I read it and it got me excited about politics and what people can do when they work together. From that moment on in my life I went from being a sports fanatic to a political junkie. I went from always watching ESPN to watching CNN all day. That was probably the most important day of my life.

Left to right: Lisa Hayes (mother), Caleb Hayes, Brita Fosse (girlfriend)
Before prom last year.

I took that flier home and talked to my mom about the petition. Unfortunately I couldn't sign it but I knew I could make my voice heard by getting others to sign it. So I called the number on the back of the flier and the next day some came to my house to give me the materials to collect the signatures. I would go on to collect around 2000 signatures in the next month or two.

A few months later we drove by the democratic headquarters. It wasn't even open yet, but I was instantly excited. I was homeschooling at the time, so my schedule was very flexible and I knew instinctively that was where I would spend the better part of my summer and fall. I wanted to come in as often as possible to try to help Al Gore get elected. However, that summer I learned politics wasn't just about the Presidential race. I also worked on the Brian Baird congressional campaign and Gary Lockes' gubernatorial campaign.

I had lots of great experiences that summer, including lots of firsts for me. I met high powered politicians for the first time. I felt like I had important responsibilities for the first time. People treated me like an equal for the first time. However, one of my favorite memories is the day of the Primary when I experienced my first protest, with police and everything. I got up for primary day and got all dressed up. My mother and I had agreed I could spend the whole day at the office. There I was, ten years old, in my little suit and tie, when around 10:00 am a group of people came down the street with signs. I greeted the first of them at the door, and they came in and just kept coming. Hundreds of them flowed in before it was over. Being Democrats that believed in freedom of speech, we didn't try to stop them. However, before the end of the day, they chained themselves together with bike locks and there was a police stand-off. The picture of me in my suit and tie, with the protesters and police are still in my mothers office. They are priceless! We didn't get any work done that day, but I learned a lot.

Unfortunately, as we all know, Al Gore lost. Although the other candidates I had worked for had won, the loss of the presidential election was overwhelmingly depressing for me. My parents had been divorced four years earlier, and I sailed through that pretty well. But the Bush inauguration sent me straight to therapy at ten years old. I sort of turned my back on my passion for quite awhile.

In February of 2002 when I was 12, I had simply had enough. I was watching the news Saturday evening and the coverage about Bush just made me sick. I decided in that moment I had to do something about it. I think at 12 you are just too young to know better. The thought that you are too young, too small, or only one person, doesn't really occur to you. Fueled by anger and optimism all at the same time, I set to work on the home computer to learn HTML. I had never looked at HTML before, but by 6:00 am on Sunday morning I was waking my mother up asking her to register a domain name for the web site I had stayed up all night creating. It was that sunny Sunday morning that www.anti-bush.com was born. My life was never the same. My web page got thousands of hits. I got emails from all around the world. Thanks to George Bush I got thousands and thousands of hits. He kept screwing up and my readership kept growing. I got newspaper coverage and radio interviews. I felt like a bit of a celebrity for the first time. It was great. However, don't be mistaken by the glamour here. Not all of it was bright and shiny. We had to set up a system for my mom to read all my emails to help keep track of the threats against me. I had many death threats and on occasion the local and federal authorities were involved. I was in good company with that problem with other liberal activists online. It's just that I was 12.

In 2004 shortly after another disappointing Presidential election I was offered an incredible honor. The county democratic party offered me the position of party Vice-chair for the 2005-2007 term. I was 14. The loss of the election was tempered by my upcoming responsibilities in local politics. The move by the party was unprecedented and required a change of the language in the party bi-laws. Previously it had stated you had to be a registered voter to be an officer. They were amended to say, "resident" . With that, I was sitting at the big table in the front of the room.

Although my story is somewhat unique, what it illustrates is that anyone can get involved and make a difference. Over the years I have talked or emailed with thousands of people around the world. Probably millions have read my materials. Hundreds of thousands have heard me on the radio. I have been invited places I thought I would never go and met people who have been a part of history. How did this happen? I didn't know any better. At my core, I thought I could do something and make a difference and because that's what I thought it was true. Something else I know is true is that you can do something and make a difference too.

Anything is possible ~ I've proven that.

- Caleb Hayes, founder of www.YouthDemocracy.net