I've never been an activist, political or otherwise, but there are some occasions when I do get inspired to get involved. In the political arena that happened more than 20 years ago when I volunteered for the Mondale/Ferraro campaign. I spent hours at local campaign headquarters stuffing envelopes, answering phones, and making calls. I attended rallies and went to parties on election night. I even got to drive one of the vans in Ferraro's motorcade when she came to the state (now THAT was fun!).
This year I am so appalled at the misguidedness of the populace who seem to want to vote for someone with whom they have something in common rather than someone who can lead that I am willing to step outside my comfort zone. It's time to put my time and effort where my belief system is.
Fortunately this is an election where Ken and I are in step, so when I received an email from MoveOn.org looking for hosts for an Obama calling party, we decided to give it a try.
Last night was "the event," and five people we'd never met before arrived to make calls to 30 people (each) in a battleground state to encourage them to volunteer for Obama in their local area. MoveOn did a great job organizing and planning this, and they provided everything we needed to get the job done (including a script, and an efficient way to report our results).
It's been hard to find a way to make a difference in this election, especially when door-to-door and phone calling techniques don't float our boat. But this was something we could do, we got our fire stoked, and the house got cleaned.
For everyone out there who wants to make an impact, I want to encourage you to make an effort to do ONE THING. It may make all the difference in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment