Last night I called our 75,000th donor and found out that behind that number there was a ton of substance. I met Rashed, a 28-year-old husband and father from Long Beach, California, who has newfound hope for his daughter because of Barack’s campaign.
I picked up the phone today and called another donor. I don’t go into these conversations expecting much, but each one has pretty much blown me away. For some reason, when people talk about this campaign, they really, truly open up. People don’t usually open up to complete strangers, but that’s what’s happening with this campaign. It’s difficult to describe exactly what it’s like, but something is happening here. It seems like people don’t just believe in Obama, they believe in each other again. After decades of division and dispute, people across this country have begun to trust each other again, and they are dying to start working together again, too. And this campaign really seems to be the vehicle for those desires.Robert L. of Waynesville, North Carolina is one of these people. Originally from Georgia, Robert, a forester, moved to North Carolina to help tackle an environmental crisis in a divided community. Robert explained to me that North Carolina’s forests— which are critical for the survival of rural families, many of whom have had roots in the area for centuries— are dwindling due to a boom in real estate development. Local environmental groups, says Tony, often fail to protect the forests because they can’t communicate with Evangelical leaders in the community, many of whom hold conservative views and generally oppose environmental regulation.“My general perspective as a forester is that there is a lot more that the opposing sides have in common than they have to fight about,” says Robert. “The fighting creates a lot of hazards and a lot of bad things happen to people and the environment because of it.”What Robert sees in Obama is a rare ability to bridge gaps between opposing sides by linking policy choices to spirituality."Obama tries to relate where the other side’s coming from. He tries to find what we’ve got in common," says Robert. "If environmental groups and rural communities could do this, they’d solve a lot of problems."His wife, Mary Alice L., 27, a former teacher and currently a stay-at-home mom, feels the same way about Barack.
I’m a Protestant and I come from a really conservative Evangelical Republican home. There are a lot of folks I grew up with who won’t even think about talking to Democrats. My brother in law is a preacher in Virginia and my dad’s been the headmaster of a Christian school for thirty years. But I got them both to watch Senator Obama’s speech on faith and politics and they were so interested they asked their wives sit down and watch too.
Mary Alice says she’s “trying to encourage them to look beyond abortion” as the driving factor in how they vote.
I personally don’t agree with abortion but my husband and I both think it’s important that the government not force its beliefs on people. I had a sister who got pregnant when she was fifteen and it was awful for her, but it was really important for her to be able to have that choice, rather than have to seek a harmful alternative.
Robert and Mary Alice think Obama is the first Democrat to come along in a while who can speak to complicated issues of faith in a compelling and nuanced way. In a state like North Carolina, they say, this is vital. And so, they gave, and they counted.
You count too.
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