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I wish I had more time to describe the day in more detail, but I'll give you the rundown. This Sunday, I decided that I didn't want to just sit around and wait to see what happened, so I headed to downtown Winston-Salem to the Obama Campaign For Change office to see what I could do. I got matched with a nice guy named Scott, and we headed over to a Satellite office in a primarily African American area.
We were warmly greeted and given canvassing packets - just sheets with names, addresses, and checkboxes indicating whether the person had already voted, supported McCain, or needed a ride, etc. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the canvassing was actually a lot of fun. Since every door I knocked on was at the home of an African American registered Democrat, my job was just to make sure they were going to vote - no persuasion necessary.
Awesomely enough, not only were they enthusiastic, but a good number had already voted early. This gives me alot of confidence that my area might turn blue this year, even if NC itself doesn't quite make it. I was greeted warily at first by some people who would only barely crack their doors until I told them what I was doing. Then, almost always, they would grin, get very happy, and swing the door open to greet me. One family invited me in, but I declined since I had other homes to go to. Another lady showed me the American flag napkins she was using to cut out letters that would spell 'OBAMA' for her celebration party.
After finishing the first packet in the afternoon, we went back to the office to get another and have some lunch. They served us Bojangles fried chicken and sweet tea, which I needed very badly, and we ran out to finish 2 more packets, which we were able to complete just in time for the sun to go down. Overall, it was a very positive and rewarding experience, and it was really nice walking through neighborhoods that I've mainly never even driven through. It gave me a very strong sense of community that I haven't always had in Winston.
Last night I made some reminder calls for about 2.5 hours, and the results were pretty similar to the canvassing. One 92 year old man asked me why I thought it was ok to call people at home, and another man yelled at me, asking why I was calling him "at this time of night." It was 8:20 PM, but I suppose I understand.
Tonight, after work, I'm going to see what I can do downtown until the polls close and we move on to the victory party at The Millennium Center downtown. Looking forward to a great 4 years. I'm still skeptical of government as ever, and I hope I'm not disappointed.
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