A white guy canvassing for Obama in a black neighborhood

[Liberal_in_LA]

My wife made me canvas for Obama; here's what I learned
This election is not about major policies. It's about hope.
By Jonathan Curley

from the November 3, 2008 edition

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Instead of walking the tree-lined streets near our home, my wife and I were instructed to canvass a housing project. A middle-aged white couple with clipboards could not look more out of place in this predominantly black neighborhood.

We knocked on doors and voices from behind carefully locked doors shouted, "Who is it?"

"We're from the Obama campaign," we'd answer. And just like that doors opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk.

Grandmothers kept one hand on their grandchildren and made sure they had all the information they needed for their son or daughter to vote for the first time.

Young people came to the door rubbing sleep from their eyes to find out where they could vote early, to make sure their vote got counted.

We knocked on every door we could find and checked off every name on our list. We did our job, but Obama may not have been the one who got the most out of the day's work.

I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about what we think of as the "big things."

----------------------------

I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1103/p09s02-coop.html

[frebrd]

1. K&R n/t

[stray cat]

2. Thank you for your work and a wonderful story!

[codjh9]

3. That's awesome. I think this election, and this guy, has the potential to bring at least

75% of this country closer together. (Forget the nut-case 25% or so).

[TahitiNut]

4. It gets hard to read when things go all blurry.

"I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me."
:cry:

[DIKB]

8. It hit me at the start.

"We're from the Obama campaign," we'd answer. And just like that doors opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk" = Instant blurriness.

Distrust to friendliness, THAT is the change he brings, and the hope he gives people.

[MadMaddie]

5. This is awesome! But the most important sentence in the article

is the very last sentence.


<snip>
Jonathan Curley is a banker. He voted for George H.W. Bush twice and George W. Bush once.
<snip>

Change is coming my friends, change is coming.

[The Wielding Truth]

6. This is the Promise Of American Democracy. To promote the

general welfare and equal representation under the law. Who will represent those who need it? Not the selfish rich! American was meant to have a heart.:hi: Thanks for your work.It is our civic duty.:patriot:

[Jade Fox]

7. Lovely

[mamaE]

9. You are what America means to me

Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing! :hug:

[csziggy]

10. Our canvassers are getting the same welcome in the rural black areas

Here in the deep South. We're talking people whose ancestors were slaves and many of which still work for the same plantations where those slaves lived.

I worried about sending our people out at first - but then one black lady told me that we would all be welcomed since we were bringing them a gift. I soon figured out that gift was hope.

[barbtries]

11. after registering people one day

in my racist upscale NC neighborhood, i decided i wanted to go downtown if i ever did it again. yet i found myself canvassing in the same neighborhood, and this time we were directed to people who had already been tagged as leaning obama or at worst undecided. it was a good day.

ps - 3 of the 5 registrations i turned in were republican. when they said that with each one it was a chore to hide my disgust. the other 2 were independents; i never got to register a democrat! at least the 2 independents added, "that doesn't mean we won't vote for your guy."