Thankfully, the weather was not as hot as last time we went canvassing because finding addresses in St. Clair is a task unto itself, but we set out in great spirits, going to register voters. Two of us took one area, three took another, and I don't know how many had the third one, but we had a lot of fun and laughter, a bit of frustration and a fruitful afternoon.
We came to one house that looked as if it was straight out of the movie Psycho and neither I nor my teammate really wanted to knock on the door, but after a few minutes of laughter, I braved it. Fortunately, there was no-one in. Things could only get better after that. And they did.
We met some fascinating people but the best moment was when we were talking to a young couple who were enthusiastic about Obama but who had not registered to vote. We were just signing them up when one of the other Obama teams turned up in a vehicle plastered with Obama stickers and magnets. These young people's eyes widened. "They're EVERYWHERE", the guy said, adding that this was one of the most exciting things in a long time.
One young woman shared how she and her husband are very worried about their future. It was obvious from their home that they didn't have a lot of money, and with three children, every penny counts, but they are concerned that he may lose his job as part of the Chryslerlay-offs. She hoped, she told me, that Obama can do something to help keep jobs in this country. Another woman, a black lady, told me how excited she was that an African American stood a chance of becoming President. "That would send a powerful message to my son, that he can be anything he wants to be." She went on to tell me about some of the prejudices she had suffered in her life, but how she now had hope that racism was on the decline. A man said he was leaning towards Obama, but was concerned about his name. I asked him which of the names bothered him. He finally decided it was Obama that sounded odd, so I told him to put an apostrophe in it. He cracked up at the notion of O'Bama and said, "I'll probably vote for him, just for you." But what is exciting to me is that all these people were new voters, most of whom had never registered to vote in their lives. And they seemed to grateful, in this poor area of town, that someone had bothered to call on them. It feels good to be bringing people into the political process, and even better to be doing it for Obama, and even better still to be doing it for people who are most often ignored, neglected, forgotten.
Anyway, after a fruitful day, we returned to HQ and stayed a while to get the office ready for phone-banking, which will start tomorrow from that office, then came home tired but happy that we'd been able to make a contribution.
Comments are closed for this post.
