Auntie Pinko - My Own Reply To "Wanting"

[mermaid]

Wanting...I hope you do read this, whoever you are. I wanted to share with you my own personal experience of getting involved. It was the summer of 2004, and I was, at the time, unemployed. I had a temp job lined up, but it had not started yet.

I decided I wanted to use the time to do what I could to help beat George W. Bush. It was my flaming, overwhelming passion to be a part of beating Bush. I'm sure you recognize, and feel, that same burning passion I am talking about.

Here's what I did to get involved. I went to my County's Democratic Party Headquarters, unannounced. I walked right on in, and asked them to put me to work, doing anything in the world they needed. I told them, quote unquote: I want to do anything I can to be a part of beating Bush. If fetching you guys cups of coffee will help beat Bush, then I'm your girl!

And, I quite literally WAS willing to do that...or anything else. So, they put me to work. I stuffed envelopes, put together packets for various activists, I ended up doing block-walking for a couple of local candidates (both of whom eventually won their races against opponents that, at one time, were favored to win) I wound up even becoming Deputized as a Deputy Voter Registrar, and single-handedly going out and registering 174 new voters, just by sitting in front of stores and malls with a clipboard and voter registration cards!

In the six months that led up to the 2004 Presidential election, I became one of the best-known, and most reliable volunteers in the entire county. I spent the night before Early Voting opened (at the time, I was a Texas resident, and Texas allows for early voting) on the University of Texas campus, with a bunch of college students 10 to 15 years younger than myself, making campaign signs...and all of us were just making ourselves useful, passing the night away, the main reason we all were there was because we absolutely could not WAIT to cast our ballots AGAINST Bush!

I ended up on the local news, they had a shot of me going in to vote...I was the third in line (we had drawn numbers) to cast my ballot, and I got exit-polled by the local news station. By this time, I was working at my new job...and a bunch of my co-workers kept coming by to tell me they had seen me on the morning news!

That is where I got in a short four to six months. and it all started with going in to my local Democratic Party office and asking to be put to work. I could do it. You can do it. Anyone can do it. If you've the drive and passion I read in your letter to Auntie Pinko, in a very short time, you will be where you desire to be. All you gotta do is be willing to do the slog work.

Good Luck!!

[Village Idiot]

1. Thanks for the encouraging note.

People have to keep hearing this kind of report to understand that GRASSROOTS SUPPORT WORKS!!!

Keep fighting the Good Fight!!!