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All about the ground game now

Energy and anxiety is high and each day although you are tired, your adrenalin keeps you going. Also a great candidate attract great people and I've met some fantastic supporters since arriving here. Whic is not surprising. We've been canvassing, last minute (confirm support, need a ride, volunteer?). Yesterday, Caroline Kennedy sent us off to hang voting information (door hangers). Unfortunately my partner had limited time, so today is the day to complete our task.

I mentioned Caroline K. and with U.S. Senator Bob Casey dropped by the office but so many people showed up that we had to switch to a park nearby.

Will update pictures later.

Right where I wanna be

Had a wonderful day for my drive to Bethlehem, PA. Arrived, dropped by bags off and since the house I'm staying at while here, is located close to the Obama campaign office, I walked. It's an historic area of the city and I took pictures along the way which I'll upload later. The office is right dab smack on Main Street in the historic area.

What can I say, the phrase used by more than one person is managed chaos. But everyone spirits and energy level area high...well mainly the volunteers. The staff are close to looking like deer in your headlights (is that the phrase?). In any event, lots of folks from NY and NJ. Having spent the fours days in the Manchester office leading up to the New Hampshire Primary, I know you must keep bugging the field staff to ensure you are assigned work. My task was pleasant which was to call individuals who had indicated their willingness to travel to PA and help out. The list I had were people in the New York area and a number of them already planned to go to the Philly. Let's just say that I quickly got very territorial that Philly was poaching "our" volunteers. I know, it's all for the same cause but it's interesting how quickly you bond with a particular location, especially when you like the people. Most of the folks I spoked with were nice and "normal" but there was one guy, whose enthusiasm was so strong that I was concern, given this area of PA, that he should go to Philly. He immigrated from Haiti and spoke English with a thick accent. Although I loved and appreciated his emphatic insistence that Obama will/must be the next POTUS, I could imagine him trying to persuade someone who was undecided/didn't want to share their decision, why their only option is to vote for Obama. But luckily, he was unable to travel to this area. Whew...

So the excitement for my first day was Ed Rendell dropping by to give a pep talk and to caution us not to believe polls indicating Obama has double digit lead. Hey, all we need is to win by ONE vote (after all the voter suppression and any other mischief). Apparently the RNC is trying a robocall trick. I picked up an office phone to hear a recorded message, supposedly from Obama HQ stating that this area had too many McCain-Palin signs and not as many Obama sign and that we should place them in strategic locations and not just one sign but two. Not sure of the logic of this unless they just want to steal signs. In any event we didn't follow up on the "suggestions."

I'll end on a fun note and again you will see the pictures but local residents came by the office with their kids dress in halloween customes. The one famil who grabbed everyhones attention were the parents dress as a trea and their little, girl dressed as an apply. She was sooooo adorable. They temporarily stole the show from the Gov.

Well canvassing on Saturday and gear up for Carolyn Kennedy on Sunday.

I voted today

October 27, 2008, I voted today by absentee ballot. I didn’t shed a tear and wondered why. I thought I would feel much more emotional but didn’t. I voted today for a presidential candidate who is of African descent and I think one reason I wasn’t as emotional is that I expected to have that opportunity in my lifetime.

Although I shed no tears filling out my ballot, when I read stories like these…..well just grab the Kleenex box.

From NC early voting stories
. "Most people seem happy, and African-Americans seem downright giddy," she said. "One woman told me she'd gone to her family's ancestral home, collected soil from the ground where her grandparents had walked, and rubbed a little bit of it on her ballot. She wanted them to share in this experience with her."

Why now, why Barack

Came across this statement:

Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked, so Obama could run. Obama is running so our children can fly.

A Tip to the Past

I’d planned to make calls to Wisconsin today but after visiting my uncle in the hospital, I’m not in the mood to talk with anyone. He looks fine, not suffering but he has lung cancer and the doctor told him there isn’t much they can do. I was fine during the visit, wasn’t trying to hold back tears because my cousin (his grand daughter) was in the room and there was stuff to do. Make sure his IV was replaced, catch up a bit with my cousin, then another cousin (his daughter) dropped by on the way back to church for an ushers anniversary, and one then old friends dropped by, Mr. Rose and Mr. Giscombe. They are all now in their eighties. As they are want to do, they reflected some on their early days of knowing each other and some events through the years, as well as, matter of factly discussing the location of their burial plots in the same cemetery.

These friends are all from Jamaica. They arrived in this country in the 40s, worked on farms and tobacco fields, married southern girls from Georgia and put in their 30 plus years at Pratt and Whitney or Chandler Evans, purchased their home in the 60s and fixed them up. The Johnsons (my aunt and uncle), The Giscombes, The Newbys, The Roses, the Hudsons and The Baileys these where the couples/friends/lodge brothers and sisters, the circle of friends. They first met at the housing project Charter Oak Terrace.

But as I was walking to my car, the tears began to fall. Realizing I wont have Uncle around much longer I guess.

I must explain that Uncle is also a surrogate father. You see, when I was 11, the same year I arrived in this country from Jamaica, I went to live with Uncle and his family. Uncle Eric is my mother’s younger brother and during my years before leaving for college, he always made me feel at home. He built a room for his two sons and then re-do “the boys” old room for my cousin (the granddaughter) and me. I know my father sent him money but I doubt Uncle ever asked my father for anything extra. You see, of all his siblings he was the one to count on. To this day, he is the one who would give you a helping hand if he sees you are also trying and sometimes when you are not. His sister lived in England for many years, owned a business, sold her business, retired to Jamaica but took her money in cash. Well guess what…it was stolen. Although Uncle used to remark on the folly of her actions he would try to send her some money and would always give her something when he visited JA.

Although far from a perfect man, husband, father (for uncles he was pretty good), he had a code and quite a logical mind. My father was very emotional when it came to me and it took me a while to realize his bark was worse than his bite. But my uncle dealt with situations during my cousins’ and my years growing up without much yelling. I don’t recall him hitting (not abuse) any of his children. You must understand this was a standard reprimand in West Indian and African American families. I recall some events such as when his college age daughter was working part-time at the Elks club. He didn’t think it was appropriate because of the way he observed the men treating the “bar maid” at the social clubs he was a member. He had no moralistic view of these men’s actions, he just didn’t want his daughter treated in the same manner. But Deb countered it was different at the Elks, so he visited the club to see for himself. It didn’t change his mind and she eventually quit. I recall another incident when he received a letter from the school his granddaughter and I attended. You see, we had a substitute bus driver whom we took a disliking to and decided to give him wrong directions to our school. My aunt was back and forth between railing against the driver (whom we thought made racial remarks) to asking why neither I nor my cousin spoke up to give the correct directions. My uncle, he just said as long as he didn’t receive a letter from our school specifically naming us in any incident he had no issue because he understand group dynamics (those weren’t the word he used but..) and why we may not have felt we could speak up.

I’m going to miss Uncle. I asked him if he voted for Barack. He voted for Clinton he said but he didn’t realize ……….about Barack (he couldn’t recall the last name). But he was disappointed that he didn’t vote for Obama because he could then tell his grandchildren that he voted for the first African American President of the United States. I hope he lives long enough to do just that. But even if he does not make it to November, it’s good to know that he wanted to.

So tomorrow I’ll make some more calls to Wisconsin. Today, my heart and heavy spirit belongs to Uncle.

Canvassing in New Hampshire

We started out from Ct on Friday and the two hour journey to Nashua went fast. Keri and I chatted the time away and as we entered NH and I looked out the window for as state store, I realized we had just missed our exit. But, not a problem, we found our way to the hotel. After a quick rest, I checked my voicemail and a message from a NH campaign staffer suggested we bring our cell phone and charger because we might have a large scale phonebanking session, if the weather is too bad to canvass. After checking in we headed to downtown Nashua looking for food! Nashua has a Vietnamese noodle house, Thai and Indian restaurants, but we decided on Brazilian. The food was pretty good and I loved a wonderful lime drink with a nice kick to it, Calpirinha. It was then onto a chocolate place for some treats and back to the hotel to rest up for the next day.

Canvass Day, May 19th, rain, rain was here to stay. We arrive at the meeting site early and after picking up our information, got right up front to wait for Barack. Oh did I mention the rally was outside? But while waiting, we met some folks from Syracuse (we didn't feel so bad for our drive). One member of the Obama Syracuse group was so enthusiastic about the campaign, she really made the time pass quickly and the next thing we knew, it was time for Barack! It was a bit surreal to see him in person but more so that we were so close to the front and would get a chance to shake his hand. He shoke hands, chatted, joked, gave a special greeting (hey sweetie!) to these two cute little kids and then waved goodbye. I realized after he left that while he was around, I'd forgotten the dreary weather.

I was ready to go knock on some doors! Both Keri and I were happy we that the canvassing would still take place. After some quick instructions, we headed to our turf. Kerrie and I spent some time figuring out how best to attack this and a little bit nervous. I knew the only way to get into your spiel was just to start, we would stumble at first then get into a groove which we did. Most people weren't home/didn't answer the door so the few who did and signed our petition gave us a sense of accomplishment. Of those who came to the door and were not the people on our list and not Republicans, we didn't encounter any hostile people. So at the end of canvassing, we obtained some good information the campaign could use, such as people who've moved, a Republic household, apartments with security entries and people willing to sign the petition.

Keri and I felt a sense of accomplishment!

I wasn't worn out by canvassing. What really tired me out, even though I had a good time, was spending a couple of hours at the NH campaign office talking with other supporters and campaign staff about politics, our experiences, what brought us to the campaign. People of all ages. As I was ready leave, Kerry introduced another campaign staffer and I half jokingly said no I can't talk to you otherwise we would never get out of here. We had a good laugh but I made haste to leave to avoid getting into another conversation.

Great campaign staff. I met Brain Sullivan (pictured above) and Jake in the Keene office and Julia and Julie. Hats off to all of them for their hard work!!