...is I actually worked for them when I lived in Denver, 1982-83. Their "help wanted" ad was worded to appeal to "change the world!" liberals like me, so off I went. As it turned out, what they needed were canvassers, people to go door to door to get signatures on something or another but mostly to garner donations. That's one life experience that was certainly interesting but I never wanted to do again.
I can't remember how long I lasted, I want to say around 6 months, through fall and winter. I remember Christmastime, seeing everyone's trees and decorations. It doesn't matter how insincere you are, everyone beams if you compliment them on their lovely tree. It's really a bizarre thing to do, knocking on people's doors each evening, standing around in their living rooms while they get their checkbooks. Those were certainly slightly more innocent times. Can you imagine sending 20-something women out alone at night now, without even a cell phone?
Our workday started around 2, when we'd meet at the office. From there, we'd carpool out to whatever neighborhood we were working in, and find a place to have a late lunch. I ended up dining at a whole range of "all you can eat" buffets I might have otherwise missed. As I recall, our "hit the streets" workday started at 4 or 5, and lasted until 9 or so? Then back to the office to count our take, and compare notes from the day.
I'm not sure how I lasted even as long as I did, but it was mostly the people I worked with. We had fun: at diners, on the streets, at parties, at bars on payday. The office was across the street from Just Another Bar. We called it Just About A Bar, and many a night was spent there shooting pool. I want to say they also had shuffleboard but maybe I've meshed my dive bar memories into one generic tavern. One night I snuck off with my cute-boy-crush, Donny, to have a quiet beer on our own. We chose The New Yorker on Colfax because of its classy flashing neon martini glass and only later found out it was one of the main "pimp and hooker" bars in that area. One of the worst cheap drinking experiences I've had was one Saturday afternoon at Rick and Liz's when we tossed all our money together for a gallon of vodka and mixed it with generic powdered lemonade mix. Conversely the only time I was ever even near the Brown Hotel was when one girl's mom came to town and took us to lunch. She was a state senator somewhere, I think Maine, so what was her 19 year old daughter doing on the other side of the country, tromping door to door?
Towards the end we started taking my car out to the "turf," which became my downfall. Wayne and I would race through our streets as fast as possible, make quota, then head for a bar. When you get to the point you can't face one more door slammed in your face, you're done. It's just a matter of which day you actually walk back and say no more. I have no idea what happened to anyone. I can't remember enough full names to even stalk them via google. When I think back to people in my past, I mostly just hope that some of them remained liberals.
We were fairly removed from the "community organizer" aspect of the organization there. We had a couple of COs, but we didn't see much of them. Rumor was they were paid next to nothing at all. They were involved in fighting utility rate increases, and when we'd canvas in lower income neighborhoods we'd get a lot more support and hear stories about work that had been done to help people organize block watches or get people involved in other ways. As far as I know, Denver wasn't involved in the squatting campaigns at that time. Still, say what you want, there's a certain logic in allowing people who have no homes to live in those that are abandoned anyhow. Remember this was the early 80s, not especially good economic times. I can't help but wonder if we'll see that again sometime soon, middle class people left on the streets by the next Great Depression moving into suburban homes sitting empty because of foreclosure?
ACORN's apparently claimed the people acquiring fraudulent voter registrations weren't paid by the piece? I have no idea how things are done now but I know back then we weren't paid by donation but we did have to make a quota each night. It wasn't an unreasonable amount, and given how many people will just toss money out the door if you knock and give a speech, most nights we all managed to make it. Still if that's still the case, you can bet there were some people sitting in bars, filling out a stack of paperwork to turn in at the end of the day. I don't believe the issues with voter registrations will effect this election all that much one way or another. I suppose it will give some conservatives a scab to pick or a reason to cry in their beers over the next 4 years, when Obama wins this election by a landslide, and they hope to find an excuse.
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