adventures in canvassing

I didn't do nearly as much as I intended over the past months, but win or lose, I couldn't let this election go by without doing something. Over the past 2 days, I found myself going door to door in some of the poorest parts of the city, making sure people got out to vote.

You really can't go wrong out there when you're walking around wearing Obama buttons and carrying around a stack of VOTE OBAMA! door hangers. At worst, I got an occasional look, before people realized what we were there for. At best, people actually cheered when they saw what we were doing. Yesterday my canvassing buddy got a hug from a man he'd been talking with. Considering he was here from NYC, that midwest friendliness took him by surprise. My 7th grader was off school today, so I took him along to help. He'll always remember his little part in this election, and probably the "you keep up the good work, little man!!" comments as well. It was great weather today, certainly worked in our favor. All afternoon we passed people on their way over to the polls.

My two favorite encounters were with probably the oldest person I talked to, and the youngest. Today we were targeting newly registered voters, or those who don't vote regularly, but vote Democratic when they do. We had ages on our lists, so I know one man I talked with was 78 years old. He told me he couldn't vote because the only ID he has is his grocery store card, but he did thank me for stopping because he "sure had enjoyed all the company this week." LOL!

Later we ran into a barefoot little boy, maybe 5 if that. He came up to us as we were walking along, so I asked him if he had voted yet. He gave me a serious look, shook his head, and said "No but my daddy voted for BARACK OBAMA!" For that, I had to peel my Obama sticker off my shirt and put it on his, then he asked for one of the door hangers too, so we gave him one. He politely said "thank you" and ran home with his stuff.

Thank God it worked out already in Ohio. It's sure a relief to know this early. And thank God it looks like this country has another chance. It's all over now but the speeches.