Senator Barack Obama is such a leader and he has inspired me and every member of my family. We are like everyone else and certainly cannot afford to take time off work or give money and time to a political campaign, but what choice do we have? This election will change our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren. If Obama and Biden win, that change will be good. If they do not, the future will be bleak.
After her trip to Ohio last week as a volunteer to register voters, our daughter wrote us an email. Ohio is a battleground state and as during the past two elections many voters have been disenfranchised, my daughter's group was one of many who sought to prevent a repeat.
She's a young mom and had never been away overnight from her 5-year-old or husband, but her passion is possibly even greater than mine and she has the political chops to really be effective. Here is part of her story about that experience. I hope it inspires you as it did us:
Dear Friends and Family,Did I mention how proud I am of her? Yeah, I guess I did already, so I'll repeat her words. Volunteer. Donate. Be the Change! And if I get two people to vote and you get two people to vote and they get two people to vote... this world will be a safer, better place.
As some of you know, I recently took a little detour from my cushy government perch to fly to central Ohio, land of the Buckeye, for a little old-fashioned community organizing (the kind with actual responsibilities). The journey reminded me how important it is to occasionally strike out without plans or expectations, open to whatever it is you don't know you'll experience.
It's easy for me to say that now, but you should know that as late as the moment the plane was taxi-ing to the runway, I was having second thoughts. I was sure, positive, in fact, that I was doomed to die on one of the four planes to or from Columbus as God's punishment for voluntarily leaving my child to knock on doors for a few days. My only comfort (as I sniffled silently into the scratchy airplane pillow) was that at least her father could tell her I had died doing battle for Senator Barack Obama.
We all came to Ohio at the urging of one incredible organizer, my friend and personal hero. We all hoped to affect the outcome of an election outside of Portland's warm liberal embrace. We made thousands of contacts, knocked on thousands of doors, and together registered roughly 1000 active voters.
The conversations we had were complex and uplifting, simple and troubling. "Team Oregon," as the organizations came to call our loosely assembled herd of cats, was composed of fifteen of the most incredible women one could ever hope to meet and/or be marooned with in a mid-size, mid-western city. I could send a few dozen emails about the conversations and long car rides I had with them, but suffice for now to say that what we shared together was as sacred as it gets.
No human being can talk to as many people as we did last week without leaving as a fundamentally different person, more firmly anchored to the ground, more sure of universal rights and universal truth. The conditions we saw in our neighborhoods (and believe me, they are OUR neighborhoods now) were nothing short of heartbreaking.
Sprawling, nearly abandoned housing projects, strings of boarded up windows, foreclosure signs and utility shut-off notices. And yet, in between the empty spaces, in the darkest, most unlikely places, the human spirit persisted - and when it registered to vote, this year, this time, it would shine.
At a McDonald's, the young woman behind the counter quietly pointed to my "Vote Today" shirt and asked, "So, how do I vote today?" I registered her on a break. At one door, a Somali woman answered. She looked at my shirt and clipboard, then excitedly unleashed a string of words, only one of which I understood: "Obama!"
At another door, two small faces and their four small feet scampered up the stairs to fetch their mother. Mother pointed to her absentee ballot, asking, "what does it say there?" She invited me inside and we went through the ballot together. I read the names aloud. She patted my arm and told me to fill in the circle next to every Democrat.
Cars careened off the street and up to the curb when the drivers saw our clipboards, "Hey! You registering people to vote?" "Yes, I am." "Can you register me to vote?" "Yes, we can." The children we saw reminded me of my daughter. Cavorting around in parking lots and at the door they were often the most helpful. "She's home, she's not, go over there, no one lives there". Happily, all the children volunteered that they were voting for Barack Obama this year.
There was hope in the saddest eyes. Real hope. Life-changing hope. Quiet, steely determination to erase a lifetime of disappointments this time, this year. I pity the fool who stands in the way of my faces, my people, our people. There is no more important mission in our lives between now and November 4th than to make sure each of us has done everything we can to double down on that hope.
This is it. This is our last chance. Go find the hope where you live. Listen to the five year old who screams "OBAMA" from the top of his lungs as you pass by. Fill your heart with the hope and pain I saw in Ohio, that exists all over this beautiful, imperfect country of ours, and charge bravely forth with everything you've got.
This is our time. The people who need change the most have nothing left to lose.
Volunteer. Donate. Be the Change.
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Comments: 32
over here in the UK we are going through our
own leader crisis.
Whoever wins, there will be a great responsibility on
him to make some vast changes and I hope it will
be Obama, because I want to see history made.
The other neighborhoods I walked through, and talked to were more transient folks. A lot of them recently relocated their families to a "lesser house" or smaller apartment because one person of the couple lost their jobs--usually I heard that it was "My job went to India. My job went to Mexico." Or because both had lost their "good paying" jobs, and had to take on more hours for less money jobs.
I'd like to take photographs of the buildings that are being demolished because the jobs are not housed there any longer. People do not light up the office windows at 7 am...and manufacturing plant's huge parking lots are empty.
One example: The huge Ford plant on Lindbergh Blvd. (named after Charles Lindbergh) is being torn down, mountains of brick are sitting in the parking lot. Weeds are growing up. It used to be a great sight. Those jobs are now in Mexico.
The neighborhoods that were closest to the plant, which housed the union workers, are looking tattered and depressed. Where once people planted their flowers in the yards, scraped and painted, trimmed trees, had a shiny car or truck in the driveway, mowed and trimmed their lawn--these houses are not looking so good. Kind of neglected...like the people who live in them.
Knocking on some of those doors, I found that they were already registered, both husband and wife--both planned to vote for Obama, and were still loyal to the union. But not to the product--and not to the company that sold them out.
Three of our directors and managers at MY major corporation are in India this week. Wonder why? I don't. They've already told folks that 12 months to 18 months--folks will be calling India for the technical help desk questions, for customer service, for billing and product questions.
I, too, am really, really motivated to make this change. Please tell "Team Oregon" that we're doing this, working toward this, actively seeking This Change that will bring us closer to new possibilities. We will renew ourselves, our economy, and our jobs. We won't ever be the same people. We'll be stronger, more active, more determined, more watchful people. We will again be citizens who form watch groups, monitor congress, attend local town hall meetings.
We'll be there after the election doing all those things. Even after we win in November, we will be rallying to support new legislation, keeping the neighbors informed, and working to make peace happen, jobs happen, pride happen--again.
Blessed be, Elizabeth. I, too, am very proud of your daughter. And mine.
Wilka
Elizabeth - I beg to differ! These times are startling, shocking - but perhaps only really sad for the quickly-being-disillusioned financiers, as their glass houses explode while the sand they were built on is washed away.
Washed away!
Thank God - there are so many who have steadfastly nourished their little home, their little piece of ground, their families, their communities.........These people have built sturdy little houses, TruthLove houses, on rock.
With all the illusory garbage being sloughed off, we'll get a view of the Mountaintop we've not had for quite some time.
And for some of us, the Mountaintop has a name: it's Dynamic Peace. The peaceful harmony of simplicy, of ordinary existence.
Here in Yellow Springs Ohio, a group of us have been working to get a folkschool started. Our first event is Oct. 17-18, a LIVING LOCAL HISTORY FOLKSHOP.
I've emphasized this because we're doing this as in-reach, as nourishment for the SOUL OF OUR COMMUNITY.
In order for harmony to manifest outside oneself, one must order one's energy inside, one must become harmonious in one's own heartmind.
Same for a community.
Same for a nation.
I urge and encourage all true national helpers, whatever their political leanings, to consider the nourishment of their own souls, then their community souls, and then the national soul. We don't have to know what to do, or even how to do it - all we must do is consider it, thereby opening ourselves to guidance from the soul. Following that guidance - the Heart of TruthLove - leads to harmony, to dynamic peace.
Featured in the Triple Name Club.
Great article and your daughter sounds like a real inspiration. As for volunteering I can't do too much of that with my schedule and with my budget I can't donate too much but I can tell you what I have done. I have never voted in my life nor has my finacee. I got myself and Travis registered. Travis' mom also has registered and we are all voting for Obama.
Your daughter is very brave, and a great writer. May she be blessed for her sacrifices.
You can read the majority of these comments and know that Americans are a great people. We deserve a great leader. Please, stick your neck out there in whatever way you can and get as involved as possible in the next few weeks. Our futures, and that of our children and grandchildren and even 'other' peoples' children depend on it.
Lex Luthor, Oct 10, 2008, 8:28am EDT "
Elizabeth, I hope you save all the comments from the monosyllabic dittoheads.
Idiotic remarks, such as this example from a neo-con fascist, will be very entertaining reading in thirty days.
I flew home from the heartland last evening, and was moved by the spontaneous yearnings for political change that I encountered during the long flights.
Perhaps I'll write a short article.
Peter, you should write an article. Your voice is such a powerful one it needs to be heard.
Don... there is so much crap being done in Ohio by the Republican central committee there that I do feel unless we have a landslide? They will do whatever they can to force people to vote on provisional ballots - therefore making it possible to not count them. We know that they are incredibly dirty fighters and don't care if they have to steal the election. Perhaps that is the real difference between the modern day neo-con and the average democrat.
Thanks for sharing this.....excellent story of her experiences in Ohio.
I am an avid Obama supporter and also doing my best here in NY to talk to as many voters as I possibly can and help first time voters register.
Triumph, fair Lizzy! Keep leading our Gather Cast into the Future!
I don't believe he is being honest about who or what he is,
to be fair I don't like McCain either, but I have to say I am going to do my part by NOT voting for Obama, even if it means writing in the name of a Cartoon Character, like Mickey Mouse.
Mooch
Happy Halloween. Hope you have a great weekend.