My Month Long Contribution

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been commenting or posting anything on TalkingPointsMemo for a while now. The reason is that I've decided to spend the last month of the election in Missouri volunteering full-time for the Obama campaign. It's a sacrifice I'm willing and happy to make. Missouri is on the point of tipping blue, and I want to see that it actually DOES go blue for Obama on election day. There's no reason that it can't.

About three weeks ago, I moved from Vermont to Washington state, and more specifically, the Seattle area. Both states are hardcore for Obama, so my services were practically unneeded. Missouri, on the other hand, needs all the help it can get. So last Friday, with the help of a friend of mine from school, I hopped on a Greyhound and traveled 48 hours to get here. I arrived at 4:00 in the morning, and promptly got up at 8:30 later that morning and got right to work. Since then, I've been working non-stop, phone banking and door-to-door canvassing, including a straight seven hours of door-to-door yesterday.

I have to say, it's a difficult job. It's also a stressful and frustrating job at times. But it's more rewarding than I can possibly explain. Yes, we're in some hardcore Republican turf here in the southwest of the state. But sometimes, and in increasing numbers, there are people that throw themselves out there in support of Obama. A couple of stories from just the past couple of days...

I was phone banking, and I got a guy who told me he was a lifelong Democrat, and his wife was voting for Obama. But he said, though he dislikes McCain intensely, and he loves the things Obama says, he wasn't sure if he could bring himself to vote for Obama. Why? Because he's black. This man seemed a little ashamed of the way he felt, but he said, being and older man and having grown up in the south, that he had certain prejudices, and he just couldn't help but feel that way. Yet I talked to him. "Yes, I understand the way you feel," I said. Sympathy and understanding go a long way. And eventually, he came through and told me, "You know, I think I will be voting for Obama. You can put me down for that. But don't tell nobody!" His own prejudices were eclipsed by his concern for the country, and for the American people.

Yesterday, when I was out canvassing, a kid of maybe ten years old called out to me and said, "Hey! Who're you?" As soon as I told him I was with the Obama campaign, he went to get his dad, whom he said was an undecided voter. Though his dad refused to talk to me, the kid was enthusiastic just to be able to talk to me. I asked him, "If you could vote, who would you vote for?" to which he immediately responded, "Obama!" When I asked why, he said, "I think the country is ready to have a black President." -- A 10-year-old kid. It puts a real smile on your face.

On my first day of canvassing, I was just walking down a normal suburban street, when a red car started slowly following me. I saw inside that there were two guys and a girl, and the two guys were total rednecks. I don't mean this in a prejudicial way. I went to high school in rural VT/NH. Still, in Missouri, I was a little suspicious and weirded out. Why would they be following me? They stopped their car, and the two guys got out, and asked, "Are you one of them guys registering people to vote?" I told them I was out canvassing for Barack Obama, and they immediately started inquiring how they could get registered to vote in order to vote for Obama. I admit, I was surprised. Even me, I need to stop "judging a book by its cover". Outward appearances just aren't reprisentative of inward feelings.

Although these are a couple of small instances in a few short days, they show, for me, how hungry so many people are for change. People are putting their prejudices aside, and reaching out to others in order to get involved. People are seeing the way that our country's economy is crumbling around us, and they want solutions. I can't stress enough that this all took place in the same county where, on my first day of canvassing, an old man told me, "I ain't votin' for no black man". Racism is quite apparent here. Yet the climate is shifting. Change is in the air.

I will continue to be working every day up through the election on November 4th. On the ground, you can feel the difference being made every day, with every phone call and every door knocked on. I've said before, "It's the ground game people!" Never before has that rung so true for me. Never before have I felt so excited and so enthusiastic for the future. Never before have I felt so strongly that I'm directly a part of shaping that future. Because I am. And so are you. We all our. This is our time. Let's not let it slip away.Yes. We. Can!