Joe is a government high school teacher at Albia Community High School in Iowa. This past year he tried to get his students more involved by giving out copies of the Constitution to his junior and senior classes. Joe accompanied his students to the local caucuses, where they had elected officials sign their copies of the Constitution.Now that he has made it to Denver as a delegate to the Convention, he's trying to collect as many signatures as he can on his copy of the Constitution to bring back home to his students. Yesterday, he collected Senator Harkin's autograph at the Iowa Delegation breakfast.
Joe has been passionate about politics since he canvassing for Senator Harkin when he was only six years old. He was also an Al Gore delegate at the 2000 Democratic Convention.
As an educator, he has seen the apathy that young people often hold for the political process. But this year, both he and his students have been inspired by Barack's campaign."Four years ago they didn't care," he says. Now, however, Senator Obama has the younger generation "fired up" and Joe is delighted to guide their enthusiasm in a positive direction.Along with helping his students get involved, Joe participated in major grassroots work in the lead-up to the Iowa caucus, making phone calls in the evening and knocking on doors eight hours a day for nearly a month in the dead of winter.
But it will all be worth it for Joe when Senator Obama accepts the nomination this week in Denver.
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