I am running for chair of Democrats Abroad Panama. The annual general meeting at which the election of officers is supposed to take place is a few days away.

I first worked on a Democratic campaign when I was 13 years old, stuffing envelopes in a party office in Michigan. I have served in party offices in Michigan and Democrats Abroad Panama, and in elected and appointed public offices in Michigan. I have also lost some elections and found that the world not only didn't end, but became a bit simpler and more peaceful for me.

Since 2009 I have run the Democrats Abroad Panama Facebook pages. I have done my best to keep them serious, even-handed and open to public view. I am going to avoid campaigning for myself on them because this would be a conflict of interest.

I worked hard for Bernie Sanders in the primary, and despite all of my differences, worked hard for Hillary Clinton in the general election. I knew the November alternative, which the world sees unfolding today.

I am 64 years old and will stop to watch and, as a journalist, chronicle amazing events. But I wasn't born yesterday and the best tomorrow I see for the Democratic Party is to take back one or both houses of Congress in 2018, so as to hobble the Trump monstrostity. It's an uphill battle that calls for hard work without distracting detours into fantasy land.

I am for a Democratic Party that as a practical matter manages and compromises the differences between its progressive and corporate wings. There is only one proper approach to doing that. We need democracy.

I am for a Democratic Party that stands with working people. Those of us without many means should not covet what wealthier people have, nor should we look at politics and public service as means to get rich. Still, we should never again be in a position in which things said to the "donor base" can't be aired in public. We need transparency.

We were badly hurt in 2016, both nationally and in Democrats Abroad Panama, by manipulative practices. That sort of thing has to change and the people who would do it again need to be marginalized. We need accountability.

Well before I was old enough to vote, during the dark days of Vietnam, I was an antiwar Democrat. I still am, although I do realize that the United States has to have some strong defenses. Having had my website shut down by hackers several times, one time with a bot coming out of China, I see the need for a Pentagon Cyber Command -- but I'm for a mainly butter rather than mainly guns foreign policy.

And cyber stuff? I am perhaps the most computer illiterate online publisher there is, but I do know that at the local level we are hampered by the lack of electronic communications of our own, which leaves people in the Interior or members who are traveling on the sidelines. On the regional and international levels, I will work for technologies that allow those of us in places with slower Internet connections and with no mail delivery to our homes to fully participate in Democrats Abroad.

I frankly found it annoying that once again there was a move to have a chair of Democrats Abroad Panama who was not elected by the members. If I am chair that sort of thing will not happen on my shift. I aim to have a local Democratic Party with a surplus of people ready to step into leadership positions, and an even larger group of talented people working for the cause without feeling the need for any sort of title or position.

Come to the meeting at the Balboa Union Church on Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m. Or give me your proxy by emailing it to me at thepanamanews@gmail.com, with cc copies to the DA Panama secretary at bonilla.360@hotmail.com and the DA Panama email box at panamademocratsvote@gmail.com.

What's important is that the work get done, and I have been there for that. What the next chair believes in and wants to do also matter.

So I ask you Democrats in Panama for your vote.