This Country Needs Change: Why I Drove to Nevada to Knock on 51 Doors in 115 Degree Heat

[babylonsister]

This Country Needs Change: Why I Drove to Nevada to Knock on 51 Doors in 115 Degree Heat

By Patricia McBride, AlterNet. Posted October 1, 2008.

I drove to Las Vegas, along with hundreds of other Southern Californians, to help register voters and canvass from door to door.


I hadn't knocked on the door of someone I didn't know since I sold Girl Scout cookies in the sixth grade. Well, actually, there was the historic night 25 years ago that my college roommate and I got hideously lost and spent a snowy night wandering aimlessly around West Nyack, N.Y., before finally knocking on a farmhouse door to ask directions to the Garden State Parkway. But you get the idea. I don't bother strangers. I don't particularly like it when strangers knock on my door. I'm essentially friendly, and I'm pretty smart, but the truth is I'm painfully shy and at heart a very private person. Were it not for the fact that I love my child and that I love my country deeply, and I fear what it has become, I'd really be very content to stay home and live as much like a hermit as possible.

But that simply isn't an option this year. So I've been donating money to the greatest extent I can, volunteering, distributing signs and bumper stickers to anyone who will take them (now the numerous Obama yard signs on the modest lawns in our neighborhood greatly outnumber the FIVE McCain signs on the historic Mansion that dominates the neighborhood), and using Neighbor to Neighbor to recruit more volunteers. But it didn't feel like enough.

So last weekend I drove to Las Vegas, along with hundreds of other Southern Californians, to help register voters and canvass from door to door. It was over 115 degrees in the remote area of northern Clark County that I was assigned to canvass, and there was no shade whatsoever. There were a couple of times I was almost afraid I wouldn't finish. It was awesome.

It was the second-most-wonderful, second-most-rewarding experience I've ever had as a member of a community. Since first place in those categories involved helping save a child's life, second in this case is a really, really amazing experience.

I spoke to people who said they had no idea who the candidates were. I talked to them about Barack Obama and how he was making me proud of my country again. (Michelle, I know you meant "more proud;" I unfortunately haven't been able to have any pride since we invaded Iraq -- love, yes; pride, no.) About how his vision is for all of us to recognize each other as fellow Americans with a stake in the well-being and future of our country, and a responsibility to each other. To move past the hatred and fear of the last eight years. And to make America live up to its promise for all of us, not just the extremely wealthy. Some were impressed, while others explained kindly that with both McCain and Obama it was all just "blah, blah, blah," as one very nice Latino man put it.

He felt that they talk, but who knows what they will really do. He was going to wait until the very end to make up his mind. I respect that, and I told him so -- and I encouraged him and others to go to YouTube and watch the debate they had missed the night before, and to keep really listening to Obama when he speaks, and to see what they thought and who they believed. And I said thanks and smiled, and you know what? Mostly, they smiled, too. They probably shook their heads and forgot about me as soon as I left, but hey, we had a moment. There was the young guy who said he knew absolutely nothing about either candidate and said -- in the friendliest possible manner, while he and his friend were working on his truck -- that he really didn't want to know. He also said I probably could count on his vote. His girlfriend had made him register, and he figured she'd leave him if he didn't vote for Obama like she told him to. I was so sorry she wasn't home -- my list said I was supposed to talk to her, too -- but it looked like the work was well taken care of in that household.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/election08/101028/this_country_needs_change%3A_why_i_drove_to_nevada_to_knock_on_51_doors_in_115_degree_heat/?page=entire

[billyoc]

1. That's hard work, you're making this show, 'sis.

:patriot:

[tom_paine]

2. Speaking as someone who has done a fair amount of canvassing in the past 6 years,

I can say this is what you'd call a FANTASTIC and productive day.

51 doors, especially if a good perecntage of them answer the door, takes the better part of an afternoon. And 115 degree heat?

Good God, warm October days in PA at 80 degress is parching and exhausting enough for that activity.

Want to help? It's easy. (this is to all DUers reading this who are not yet working for the Obama Campaign)

1) Go to: mybarackobama.com

2) Move your mouse-cursor over to the "states" heading and drop down the list of states

3) Click on your state.

4) Look at the list and/or state map (some have them, some don't, but all have lists of campaign
offices), then call the nearest Obama Campaign Office to you.

5) Ask them what needs to be done and when. Then HELP THEM DO IT.

It might be phone-banking or canvassing (for the young and spry of foot) or data entry from previous canvasses. It might be driving, it might be helping set up for an event, it might be anything.

But it needs to get done. And we can help. Given what's going on in this country we SHOULD help, especially DUers, each and every one of us.

[babylonsister]

3. .

[Adsos Letter]

4. Well...

at least it's a dry heat... :)

[babylonsister]

5. Hahahaha!

:rofl::thumbsup: