Many, many, many years ago, I wanted to change the world. Call it idealism or just plain naivete–but I really, honestly wanted to make a difference.
This text is from my high school yearbook. I think the guy who wrote this to describe me wanted to kiss my bacon. 
When he said four-digit IQ, he probably meant .0001. But seriously, back then, I really did want to make the world a better place. That this slowly became a cliche as I grew older is really sad and disappointing.
I’m not writing about the PASS election process. I’m too new in PASS to even have a strong opinion about it. I’m also not writing about Steve Jones. The only direct relationship I have with Steve Jones are his Voice of the DBA podcasts. However, I’ve been reading some articles about him in the past weeks…and, looks like Steve Jones is more than a podcast to a lot of people. These people are not happy about his exclusion from the Board of Directors election and what’s awesome is, these people are speaking up about it. Passionately.
In the short time that I’ve been with the SQL community, I’ve seen passion so hot it burns. It reminds me of the days when I actually thought I could change the world.
I’m different now from the girl described above. I’m no longer desperate to make the world a better place. In the workplace, I’ve mastered the art of avoiding confrontations. It’s just more…peaceful. But being part of a community where people stick their necks out for people and ideals despite the possibility of conflict is kinda inspiring. It makes me think it may be possible for me to change the world afterall. Peace can be overrated anyway; I think I can forego it once in awhile for the possibility of something as underrated as change.
Nice post, I can tell you that Jones has been a leader with us SQL Server folks for a number of years, along with a number of other people.
Thanks, Chris. Looking forward to getting to know these people more in the next few months.