As i try to do what i can for the campaign each day, today due to cold weather i decided to log on to my.barackobama.com and start making some calls. I had made calls from the new Warren Township Campaign Office on Washington & Mitthoeffer last week, have done the neighbor-to-neighbor knock on doors thing, and as a former phone canvasser that fought utility deregulation for Citizens Action Coalition, i think my main strength is on the phone. The cold weather helps that decision.
But after logging on to the site to get voters to call, I kept getting the message "No Voters" for the Indiana phone campaign. I called the field director that got me more closely involved in the campaign as a volunteer to see if he had any phone voter rolls i could use and he sent me to meet him at a building on the east side of Indy, just east of 30th & Arlington Ave.
As my field director mentioned when he first entered the building, he was reminded of the scene in the Lord of the Rings when they enter the great temple filled with relics from great dwarves. This hall was once a temple to the midwestern auto worker, a worker we see far less on this side of town.
The building is an old vacant United Auto Workers office and hall. I'll be meeting with many more volunteers from next weekend through election day at this location to help Barack win this election. The fact that the building is vacant and now for sale in this skeleton that is left of the real estate industry is perhaps the most poetic yet disheartening illustration of why we need CHANGE.
If anyone would like to help us on election day, or the days leading up. please email me at djadamjay@gmail.com
We need all-day volunteers for the polls primarily, but have many other ways to help. Many teenagers will be knocking on doors for us, seniors making calls, and the moms and sisters of great volunteers helping to keep all the other volunteers fed, hydrated, and motivated! You can help too! We will be coordinating lots of volunteer efforts from this and the Washington & Mitthoeffer location. Email me for more info!
Indiana Is Going Blue! My video diary from the morning of 10-23-08. Headed to the Obama Rally at American Legion Mall in Indianapolis, IN.
copy and paste this YouTube URL into your browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv39oiy6_p4
Barack says in his speeches, ads, and i even found it on the script of my neighbor-to-neighbor walklist, that in order for change to truly take place we all have to want it to. I hope that "Turning off the TV" goes beyond rhetoric and hyperbole this time around.
Barack has done alot to energize a great many of us, and my hope is that if he is elected our energy does not dwindle back into complacency and that we don't rely on Washington to bring us all the change we need. In doing neighbor-to-neighbor canvassing, while i may only be able to dedicated four or five hours a week to it, i have relearned why volunteering is so crucial to the spirit of our country.
After i got back from the rally at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, even after stopping off for lunch with my girlfriend, i was still just so filled up with emotion and excitement that i decided to write a letter to one of my oldest friends who was too ill to go to the rally that day. I really wanted to describe as best possible what i experienced that day. Below you can find the pictures and video from our experience, plus the email sent to my friend.
Pictures and video from our day at the rally:
Motorcade: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2925520300_ddd13948a7.jpg
Codi and I: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2925521044_0f35553731.jpg
Obama speaking: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3070/2925519746_17de53b0ce.jpg
Obama: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2924707777_f51da975e1.jpg
Wide Shot of Grandstands: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3126/2924666371_514021ca8a.jpg
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzO6cTv2Nr0
Okay, i don't have a blog or anything cool to post this too, maybe i'll myspace it. But below is my Oct 8th Obama Rally experience, i'm just so filled with stuff to say about today that i gotta type it all out and i know you can read fast so here goes....
wow that was awesome.my twitter www.twitter.com/djadamjay is littered with pics and comments, codi and i took more close up pics with her actual camera. and some video too.The line to get into the grandstand was huge, from the northwest parking lot, all the way up to 38th street, wrapping around a few buildings, and then into the grandstand. The line was like a giant snake that went through the various fairgrounds buildings. Lots of places along the line to buy Obama/Biden stuff (some legit, some not) and lots of folks signing up more volunteers. Just before the security checkpoint there were a bunch of pro-lifers holding up signs but everyone ignored them and the line just kept moving. It took us about 20 minutes to get from our car to our seat which wasn't that bad at all.
