Leave It On The Field

[sandnsea]

In my email, thanks Katherine.

When I was in high school, we had a softball team that, I'll be
honest, wasn't all that talented. But our coach had the
motto, "Leave it all on the field", which meant, every game, play
your heart out, play your guts out, challenge yourself to do your
absolute best. We won a surprising number of games, because when we
played, we didn't play half as hard as we could, or three-quarters as
hard as we could, we pulled out all the stops and poured it on, every
game. And that taught me that, if you really want to win, you have
to play all out.

Politics is often compared to sports, and I think it's for this
reason. What matters, as much as the candidate and staff, is whether
the thousands of volunteers pull out all the stops and do whatever it
takes to win.

Yesterday and today, it has been my great honor to work with a group
of volunteers who have gone all out, when John Kerry appeared here to
end this leg of his Believe in America tour. We started yesterday
afternoon and evening, setting up the venue, lugging police baricades
and tables, and many of us worked through the night putting the stage
together, stringing banners, and setting up barriers. Early this
morning, we were all back, signing up volunteers in the lines,
helping with crowd control., literally running with more barricades,
to help set up another entrance when we realized the crowd was the
largest any of us had ever seen.

We all worked through Kerry's speech, lugging dozens of cases of
water up a hill in the noonday sun to pass them out to the
spectators. And when the rally was finished, and everyone else had
sensibly fled the 90 degree heat to find some air conditioning and a
cold drink, we were still there, picking up garbage, and the hundreds
of water bottles we had passed out so we could recycle them.

It's this kind of commitment, and energy, that will win this
election. We're going to win, not only because we have the best
candidate, not only because we're right on the issues, but because
we're willing to do what it takes to win. We're willing to go
without as much sleep as we'd like, stand out in weather hotter than
we're used to, and challenge ourselves to do things we never thought
we were capable of doing. We're willing to leave it all on the
field. That's what it takes to win.

Katherine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/101Ways

[sandnsea]

1. kick

So nobody wants to get inspired and do the work? They just want to come around here and gripe?

[GalleryGod]

2. Another Kick for a Great On the Spot Report

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[grasswire]

6. all the more reason...

....to be a little unhappy to find out that Kerry is taking three weeks of down time. You've worked your hearts out. I believe the candidate owes volunteers more. A one week break during the convention, I can see. Three weeks? At the very time when momentum is heading in the right direction? I fear for the campaign.

[zuzu98]

9. He's not "taking three weeks of downtime."

First: They just got done with a 15 day, non-stop , coast-to-coast trip -- surely you don't begrudge them a few days to rest & recharge?

Second: He's just cutting back on his public campaign schedule. That doesn't mean that he won't be meeting with his team, holding fundraisers for DNC et al, making new ads, possibly making radio/TV appearances, etc.

[rhite5]

10. I understand it is only a 3-day weekend off, not 3 weeks

[Placebo]

3. I'll do whatever the Kerry campaign wants me to do...

ready and waiting!

not much i can do in chicago though, this city and state are a lock for kerry.

maybe register more voters but kerry is going to win here anyway.

one of my good friends is very close personally to Obama's wife though, I've met both him and his wife and had multiple discussions with them both and they are so caring, intelligent, and refreshing it's great, i volunteer there whenever i can.

[JohnKleeb]

4. you can be of help in a safe state

by working hard for Mr. Obama which I see you're doing, by electing a dem majority to the senate, Kerry will be able to pass his true beliefs with out fear of compromising with a republican senate.

[sandnsea]

5. Thank you

Pop around the internet and find forums in local newspapers and correct errors and post good news stories. There should be a phone call database up soon, then maybe you can help call swing states closer to the election. Make sure if your friends are going to college, they get an abstentee ballot if they need one, or register in a swing state if they can. There's also the Kerry Travellers that will be going to swing states. Usually you don't need much money for that, just some food money. There will be lots to do pretty soon. I'm really excited you are active and concerned. I imagine being around the Obama's is quite a thrill and raises your expectations. You do know you're working with a future President there, right?

[Placebo]

7. OBAMA 4 PRESIDENT

I would certainly love to see him become president of the united states but I try not to let that affect how I act around them as I might get all jittery.

I'll mentally cross that bridge when we come to it. ;)

[sandnsea]

8. And another kick

We're ON THE FIELD. You don't argue with the coach, you don't yell at the other players, you don't throw temper tantrums because they aren't calling the plays you think would win. You GIVE 150% of what you're asked to give, what you're capable of giving. You leave it on the field. That's where we're at right now and that's what we need to do to win.

[faithnotgreed]

11. very well said. thank you so much for all you and others are doing