An excerpt in Jonathan's book

I found this excerpt from page 112 worth sharing and I recommend that you buy Jonathan's book, The Compassionate Community:

In January 2000, I was sworn in as Kentucky's first Jewish statewide elected official. While it would be ridiculous to compare myself to John Kennedy, Jackie Robinson, or even Joe Lieberman, I took small comfort in the notion that my election, in a small way, signaled a social evolution beyond the anti-Semitism I had experienced as a child.

I give partial credit to Jerry Seinfeld and Jon Stewart for my electoral success. Seriously. Twenty years earlier, it would not have been possible for a Jewish candidate to aspire to statewide office in Kentucky. Voters want public officials who share their values, and for most of the state, Jews were very unfamiliar. However, popular shows like Seinfeld, Friends, and The Daily Show broght Jewish comedians, actors, and characters into the living rooms of middle America. Rural citizens who had never met a Jewish person before now understood that "they were just like us"--maybe just a little wackier.

Wow. I would have never guessed all that. I will state this, while I cared a little bit about politics before August 7, 2000, had it not been for the nomination of Joe Lieberman to the Democratic ticket for Vice President, I would never been as active as I am now. I would have never met people like Jonathan, Evan Bayh, Wesley Clark, Ben Chandler, etc. Jerry Abramson's always been a family friend, and Mayor, since as long as I can remember. But it was August 7, 2000, that I knew a Jew could run and win for national office (Popular vote, he did).

Okay, here's a brief interlude. I quit politics as a career in October 2003 to go into improv comedy.

In the summer of 2004, after Ronald Reagan died, I start giving serious thought to law and politics for a career. It was on June 12th that I renewed my political ambitions. On June 30th or so, I finally started this blog which has enabled me to meet so many cool and awesome people.

A few days later, on July 7, 2004, I decided to contact Jonathan through his old campaign site. Lo and behold, he replied to my email and we've been corresponding ever since. Thanks to some encouragement from Secretary of State Trey Grayson, I finally decided to invite Jonathan to campus on the day of the first presidential debate...and I should have picked a smaller room but hey, I've learned my lesson after the Jack Conway visit where only two people showed up. Thankfully, we had at least 10 or so at Jonathan's speech where I introduced him as a future governor.

In November of 2004, I interviewed Jonathan for my newswriting class. I later decided to publish the article online--it's on the sidebar.

I found out about the book in April 2005 when I interviewed Jonathan for my then-comedy show and we spoke about it a little bit.

But, anyway, had I known in 1999 that Jonathan Miller was Jewish, I would have been active politically that year.