Walking Ohio for Obama
Mary Ellen is my Obamentor and encouraged my involvement with the Ohio canvassing. Here is her perspective on the trip:
Guest Post by Mary Ellen Blanchard
Walking Ohio for Obama
First of all, kudos to the amazing Kat Benedetti-Fisher of Rochester Women for Obama, who does all of the hard work arranging these WEEKLY trips to Ohio. She is nothing short of amazing. As far as I know, no one had any troubles with the travel or the outstanding free housing. Our house was lovely and our hostess was so welcoming.
What did we learn about Ohio/Obama? MANY people are undecided, which is hard for me to understand considering Ohio has lost 250,000 jobs in the past seven years. We talked to one man who lost his house construction company; and to his friend, who lost his house inspection business. One of them has gone back to school to become a school teacher. The other gave us his card and asked to be called to help with the campaign.
Akron has many disgruntled Hillary supporters who are now undecided. One woman told us that she could not bring herself to putting up an Obama sign, but she is not going to “cut herself off at the knees” and vote for anyone but Obama. We found it helpful to say that she is our state senator and we are very lucky to have her in Washington. One supporter told me that she is so angry about the “raw deal” that Hillary got that she may not even vote. I reminded her that a vote for McCain or no vote would be against everything Hillary fought for in her campaign. She had to concede on that point. Don’t think I convinced her, though.
The best talk we had was with a single, white mom and her African-American son. We were making our way back to the car when they drove by, slowed down, and called us over to the car. She asked if we were walking the neighborhood for Obama. She wanted to ask questions about Dreams From My Father to see if we knew anything about the alleged “disturbing things he said” in it. She said her sister told her that she read on the Internet that Obama said if the US were attacked again, he would “stand with [his] Muslim brothers.” I told her that was definitely NOT in the book and that I had taught the book in a class of mine. She said she had ordered the books from the library and planned to read them both. I shared some examples from the book of Barack’s adolescent experiences and she said her own son could probably relate to that. I encouraged him to read the book as well. She is a nice woman, looks like life has been tough on her and she is a fighter. She moved to Akron, rents this house in a very run down neighborhood so her son can go to a better school. I gently said that she has a lot in common with Barack Obama’s background. She agreed. That may be a vote we scored and maybe, just maybe, she’ll straighten out her sister. I hope she’s a fast reader.
The best part of the trip was to see my 24 year old daughter get her activist feet wet. She is a natural at the door and people easily took to her. She has that wonderful Snow White look that makes it harder to be rude to her!
Those are my highlights, but let me make a plea to all who read this: IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH THE PRESENT SITUATION IN THIS COUNTRY, GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND HELP WITH THIS CAMPAIGN. Go to: rochesterforobama.com and find out one of the many ways you can help. You can even be of great use without ever leaving your house and contacting swing state voters from your phone and computer. You can write a few personal postcards to voters in Ohio. You can buy 4 Rochester postcards at Wegmans for $1.00. There is NO reason not to get active and help in the way that your schedule allows. We are ALL very busy with our lives, but if we want to continue to live them in this nation, we had better do something to put us back on a saner path.
Obama ‘08, our only hope.
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