It is coming down to the wire with just 27 days left until election day. We are all probably feeling the pressure of the responsibility on our shoulders. I look around me and see my retirement funds shrink, my grocery bills go up, and people getting just plain anxious about the uncertainty that the future holds. The only certainty that we have now seems to be that there has got to be a change. Oh, yes, we are all waiting for that change. STORY OF THE WEEK I canvassed in an area near me on Saturday. I was running late, arrived in the area a bit dissheveled. I talked to a couple of voters who were undecided and had a conversation with them for a long time. It is always the same vague story. Some of these undecided people are Democrats, and I am just astounded when I hear that they still don't know. I go over point by point about the issues, especially the issues close to my heart, such as the war in Iraq and the debt that the future generations will be paying off over many, many years to come. The funny thing is that they agree on all of them, but still say, they just don't see themselves supporting Obama. Why is that? I just wonder. Have the Republicans succeeded in painting Obama as the other, as other than me, other than us, and not one of us? This got me thinking. Sarah Palin apparently thought that her performance at the debate last week had been brilliant, when in fact, as I have already shared with you a few weeks ago, she was non other than Sarah the seductress and bullshitter. Oh, yes, our supreme seductress/bullshitter was back in full force. So there she was in Florida over the weekend, she was on a ranting rampage. Only this time, she was a much more dangerous seductress. There were reports of the mob yelling, "kill him!", "treason!", and other unspeakably horrible lunacies from this event. How have we as a nation come to this? Then it dawned on me. Sarah Palin is now Salome, dancing seductively in front of us. As we watch her dance, we are all Antipas under her spell, we are all daughters of Herodias, as she is about to ask for John the Baptist's head. So here she is, she is about to ask for, about to incite, about to fuel the fire of the worst of all anger in those who are looking for someone, something to blame. This is the point at which we MUST stand up. We have to stop this lunacy. We have to got to fight this emissary from the land of the ignorant, who is the last great hope for those who are hopelessly blind on the issues that concern, not us or them, but you AND me. We have bring civility back into political discourse, allow exchange of ideas in order to save the democratic ideals upon which this nation was built. I just really hate that this ominous emissary is a woman, but such is how low McCain has sunk. I have to admit, I was feeling low on Saturday and, by the evening, I was feeling shaken up as the result of the cumulative negativity of that day. Then a miracle happened. I was phonebanking on Tuesday. After calling many people who were not home, I called a Mr. Arthur N. When I identified myself as an Obama volunteer, his immediate response was, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Ah, this was as ordinary as an ordinary question gets, but the spirit with which it was asked! He was a joy to talk to, a wonderful, wonderful man, who has a positive outlook on everything in life. He thanked me for my ordinary activity of making phone calls, and we talked for a while on everything from where we have been and why we support Barack Obama. These following words of his ring especially true to me: "when you go to war, everybody loses. Even if you win, you lose." This one ordinary man had the extraordinary gift of lifting my spirit. It was nothing short of a miracle. As the election nears, and as mud will be slung for sure, we all need to brace ourselves. We are the ones that need to bring about the change. I think Obama was right all along. We are the ones who have to believe in our ability to bring about real change. WE ARE THE ONES. This change will not come easily, for sure. We are going to have to work for it, for all that is certain is that no great deed has come without much work and a measure of sacrifice. That is why we volunteer. I will leave you with the echo of the great words spoken by us as one out of many: "YES, WE CAN! YES, WE CAN!"
Respectfully submitted,
The tireless chief of my neighborhood change crew has cooked up something big for October. It is called "Women Across Southeastern North Carolina R.I.S.E. Respect. Include. Support. Empower." to be held at Hugh MacRae Park in Wilmington on October 12th from 1-4. We added the "S" to Obama campaign's slogan. Isn't that clever? Women make about 55% of the electorate, and George Bush owes a big part of his win in 2004 to women who voted out of fear of terrorism striking us again. It is critical, therefore, that we reach out to these women and inform them on the issues. We really want to bring them to see that Obama is the better and safer choice on all issues, but especially on women's issues. There is a broad spectrum here, from education to healthcare, just about everything that influence women's decision making. Our task is great. The plan is to hold simultaneous rallies of varying sizes across all seven counties in the region, in Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, and Pender. At 3:00 pm exactly, we will all join in holding hands and raise them in an effort to show solidarity. We would like to let our words soar, "Respect! Include! Support! Empower!"
The New Hanover event will feature speakers of varying life's experiences who will tell us about how they came to support Obama. We may even have a couple of women of importance from the Capital speaking to us. The ad hoc committee is working on the structure of the event and also looking for volunteers to help out closer to the rally day. This event has a huge potential to be a great turnout for Obama and a show of force of women the likes of which this region has never seen. We hope to reach a lot of women, and everyone is very excited.
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Now on the more sobering side, the nation's economy is on an uncontrollable downward spiral. The proposed $700 billion dollars, possibly $1 trillion or more, is a huge sum the magnitude of which no one fully understands. Who will pay that off? Who knows how long that will take? But just who exactly is getting this astronomical amount of money? The way Bush wants it, it will be appropriated by the Congress, given to Paulson who will have virtually all discretion of how to spend this money. This puts all the power in the Executive branch in an effort to put a band-aid on this debacle so that they can say they did something before they left. There is no mention of holding those responsible for this fiasco accountable, no mention of a structure to prevent future meltdowns, and no mention of punitive measures. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATORS AND LEAVE ANGRY MESSAGES! We all have the right to be angry. The CEO's are about to be compensated for their losses, and we are left holding the bill! Demand to know how the money will be spent.
Folks, we need change. We need it bad. We need it so bad that I wish we could hold the election right now and get to work at fixing things righ away. What better time to persuade others than now when people are coming to the recognition of the sheer magnitude of this mess and who created it? Volunteer. The office is getting busier and busier, and it is just great to see it. I made about 70 calls today, I plan on making at least 50 everyday of the week. I challenge you to beat me! Are you up to it? I am also going canvassing on Wednesday. If you like to join me, let me know. I am FIRED UP and READY TO GO!
Please help donate! Obama is finally up in North Carolina by 2 in one of the polls. Our hard work is starting to show, and we are all very excited. Follow the link.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/Yuna
Thank you!
Now that all the dust has settled, it is time for all of us to sit back and think about the messages of the conventions.
Obama's message could not have been clearer; we are the agents for change, we are the ones organizing. We are ready to take the government back and restore it to the people because "change does not come from Washington. Change comes to Washington."
I have had a little over a week to ruminate over the words of Sarah Palin. She said nothing substantive, so much everyone agrees upon.
But her presence in an arena filled overwhelmingly with aging men in suits was dazzling. She beguiled them with feminine charm. She pouted, her mouth puckered as her eyes twinkled. She left men swooning with each crack of the whip.
I was just dumbfounded. Palin spewed venom, belittled, mocked, ridiculed, told lies at every turn with an unimaginable immunity. She played the part of a seductress perfectly, ready to let loose at the any moment. Her performance was an insult to women, stripping us of all that we have tried to achieve for so many years. No wonder the men rallied around her; here she was, a woman who set out to destroy women's rights. "Look here! Look here! We know what women want," these men seem to be saying.
I take offense to Palin's speech on two fronts. The first is what I would call her "bullshit." According to the philosopher Harry Frankfurt in his essay "On Bullshit," bullshitting is different than lying. Wikipedia sums up the argument very well: "a liar deliberately makes false claims in order to conceal the truth while a bullshitter is simply uninterested in the truth." But why does that matter? "Bullshitters aim primarily to impress and persuade their audiences. They, interested solely in advancing their own agenda, have no use or respect for the truth." Thus, Frankfurt claims that "bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are." And that is what Palin was, bullshitter qua seductress. Perhaps a seductress because she was such a great bullshitter.
The second is more of a personal one. The jab she made at Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer left me fuming. We, the campaign volunteers, are community organizers in our own right and know that grassroots organizing is no small task. We aim at mobilizing people at the local level around a common purpose, whether it be the PTA, Boy and Girl Scouts or Meals on Wheels. This is how communities are created, and this is how these communities are empowered. Palin's remarks betray her deep-seeded belief that power comes from top down, not from ground up. "Trust us, we know better," they told us. "Trust us, the market will take care of itself," they told us. But just look at where this belief has led us. That is how we ended up in Iraq, and that is how we ended up in the whole economic meltdown.
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Now let me ask you. Are you going to have regrets on November 5th, that perhaps you could have done more? We are the machine that drives this campaign, and we depend on each other to do our share. Please give the campaign the precious gift of your time. Volunteer If you only have one hour, go online to my.barackobama.com and go to Neighbor to Neighbor Tool. It will help you reach the undecided voters in your neighborhood. These voters will decide this election; it is that crucial. Show them how enthusiastic, passionate you are about this election.
"Bullshitters" need to be shown the door. We need to show the Republicans that we do matter. Whenever you are discouraged, when you are feeling down, just remember Obama's words, "together we will begin the next great chapter of American story with words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea. YES, WE CAN! YES, WE CAN!" I am FIRED UP and READY TO GO! I hope that you are too.
