History

i had a dream you were two towns from me. got to sleep and spent whole night runnin'

Wow. I'm still on cloud 9. The final days in New Mexico were priceless. I spent five days in Silver City. I ate 6 burritos, canvassed up and down dirt roads and got rather intoxicated off white russians at a local bar dressed as Joe the Plumber, just dancing in circles with a plunger. The finals two days in Las Cruces were exhausting. We averaged two hours of sleep a night. Spent our mornings schmoozing with walk-in volunteers and our nights printing an entire forest worth of turf. I probably drank my body weight in Red Bull and needless to say, I enjoyed it all.

On the 3rd a friend and I cruised around Precinct 66, at the foot of the Organ mountains, just getting dirty, and listening to music, taking turns driving and running to doors, making sure to get out every last vote. That night I took a nap, we had a hope circle with flashlights where 100 or so volunteers expressed their joy with the campaign (meanwhile we had 100,000 door knockers to organize, so I wasn't too keen on the sappy moment--but it was nice in hindsight).

Election day was the longest day of my life. We got breakfast at Denny's at 5am then I (fake) smiled for every volunteer that came in last minute. Bri and I escaped and went canvassing one last time where we coined the term "drive and dive" where one of us would literally start driving and the other would dive in the back seat on top of door hangers, my laundry and lawn signs. For two hours of sleep, we were so happy.

Then the states started turning blue. First PA. Then OH. Then Virginia. And he won. Evan, Bri, Lani and I ran to my car to immediately start celebrating. The office was full of people off the streets and by 9pm John McCain was giving his concession speech. We hugged strangers and stood outside. We snuck into the office when everyone left and watched Obama's speech, alone, giggling and ignoring people knocking on the front door. I rode over to the Dem HQs with some random dude, immediately regretted my decision and walked back, talking to Ryan and Aaron and making jokes and consistently saying "Wow." We raced in the parking lot, tried to make prank calls to McCain supporters and drank champagne from Solo cups. The organizers started to drop like flies, across the couches and on their way home. I stayed up, laying on the floor, talking about something nice with wonderful people. Then we found Speed, an old guy from the 60s with a funny nickname, and he lit off three huge fireworks in the parking lot. It was an infinite feeling. Just watching explosions in the sky of blue and purple, while feeling drunk and fulfilled. I sat and talked to a woman from Sierra Leone, then chugged a gallon of water and went home. We slept three in the bed, well two and half 'cause Bri was in the crack. ("it's like Obama's tax plan, you're in the crack, but you still get a blanket!") woke up miraculously not hungover, went to the Bean with Gus one last time and said my goodbyes.

This post is for myself. You definitely had to be there. But I'm sure millions of Americans had equally incredible moments they will remember forever. One man brought us all together. Si se puede.

...and we did. more work lies ahead, but for now, the euphoric ride is unlike anything else.

gus and i at joe biden

Ryan and George on the porch in Silver Cit-ay

The inside of the office--throwback to 1968.

Lani and Bri outside the Cruces office with our fabulous mural

This awesome trailer was on our canvass list

Ryan at a supporter's house, it was a beautiful house with a great view

This is what extreme canvassing looks like

Shauna and the booming t-shirt making business

Gus and Bri out back, looking wonderful

Bri pretending to be Allison

Alli, Hannah and I in the office.

9 days. Well Joe Biden came and went, as did Hillary. And Michelle is apparently en route. The swing states get all the love. I've canvassed my little bum off, my sneakers are about to have a hole in the sole and my t-shirt business is booming. We are getting out the vote and we are in the grind--of a very well-oiled machine.

Get Out the Vote

The last two weeks have flown by. We had an event with Eva Longoria and it rained (?!) It had never rained before and hasn't really since, but there she was, all beautiful and from LA standing in the rain addressing a crowd of students and middle-aged women; it was a "successful" event by all standards.

I then spent the last two days of voter registration in Silver City--a small town with a lot of charm (think N. Hampton or Bellingham). We ran around town "blind knocking" on trailers and making sure everyone inside was registered. We stood outside of Sonic (they do exist!) and registered people as they waited for their tots, then ran through local grocery stores, a movie theater and Wal-Mart (where we registered 4 out of 5 republicans, so we left). We were kindly asked to leave Sonic but registered the entire fish department at Albertsons at 10pm. We registered a guy at a bar after an older hippie cursed him out for not voting. The next day I stood outside of the Post Office in town and registered close to 20 people over the course of 4 hours. I got in a bit of a fight with a man who said Sarah Palin is a "breath of fresh air" and five minutes later the head of the Post Office came out to tell me someone had reported my bias tactics. Now, it's slightly comical. At the time, it was slightly infuriating. It never ceases to suprise me how much people will go through to stop you.

We had about 60 people come from Arizona and Texas this weekend and spent all weekend canvassing trying to get people out to early vote. I spoke to a woman who said "hell no I'm not voting for Obama, he's black." I saw the most amazing sunset at the foot of the Organ mountains while little children played in the dirt road with a lost puppy; I took 3 afternoon naps in my car in the parking lot; I lost my job 'cause the organization left town for a more "needy" area then and tried to make up for it by handmaking t-shirts to sell (I have yet to see any return on them); we got one night off and went to a dive bar and played the jutebox; I walked through a small field where there are literally a million grasshoppers and they just jump all around you in all directions; I had about two Red Bulls per day and ultimately got pretty excited about winning this election.

cruisin'

I've found that there are a few things I disagree with Mr. Obama on, namely he gets a lot of shit down here for supporting a bill to build a fence a few years back. And this gig has told me I definitely don't want to go into politics. ever. but for now, it's interesting and busy and worth something.

i'm heading back to silver land tomorrow and joe biden is coming on friday, i'll get to see how his hair looks in person.

We're going to win

Hannah with all the great people of Las Cruces.

Governor Sebelius

Just being a fan

The act immediately after us in Mesilla Plaza

when there is nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.

It's late here, as per usual. We just watched the VP debates with about 40 community members--and I have to say Sarah Palin did a good job reciting her memorized flash cards of nuclear power houses. Her constant winking at the screen creeped me out a bit--but she's cute so she can wink at whomever she wants. Immediately following the debate, a woman I had met before who had been in Iraq and has suffered from PSD, came into the office, tearing up, more or less in her pajamas and said "What she just said were all lies about Iraq. What can I do?" She's coming to make calls tomorrow evening.

A few days ago we had an event with Governor Sebelius from Kansas--which was apparently a much bigger deal than I realized, as she was on the short list for Obama's running mate. Personally, I enjoyed sneaking away afterward to the local dive bar to have a delicious margarita with the Republicans, who chose to drink instead of listen to the talk. It was a good event; it becomes so much more logistical and less inspiring each time, but nice nonetheless. The following day I had the privilege of going to a pro-gun rally with Governor Richardson. I learned that people here hunt doves and quails. I stopped asking questions after that.

In other, more exciting news, I found a job. I am getting paid to canvas with Progressive Futures here about 20 hours a week. Essentially, I am doing that same thing, it's just lining my pockets in the meantime and I have to wear a different button and t-shirt.

Last night, Allison and I drove to Silver City to spend the night with another group of Field Organizers. Silver City is a paradox here. It's a random hippy-tastic town with Fair Trade coffee and local artists smack dab in the desert. The office there is smaller, but has charm. I think I'll go back there for a little while after this weekend. And it's colder there, so I can wear scarves without looking like a jackass, which is clearly what I am most concerned about at this point.

Eva Longoria is coming this weekend. Don't be too jealous. And the McCain campaign pulled out of Michigan--essentially admitting defeat there. That news, an adorable baby who hung out with Mamas for Obamas, and my 6-pack of Red Bull that was on sale at the local Wal-Mart were the highlights of my day.

We grew up in spite of it.

There are 5 of us sitting in the office listening to Romulus (although, it sounded better at gas works). Yesterday I went canvassing for eight hours. The idea is to try to get 40,000 Obama supporters to vote-by-mail, so they avoid intimidation at the polls and they can vote early, which will give Obama an early lead. The intimidation-at-the-polls thing is real, dozens of Hispanic voters say they didn't get the chance to vote in 2004 even though they were sure they were registered, it's then kind of hard to reengage them in the political process...

There was also a handful of reports of people that came to our office and said they had registered with a man outside of Wal-Mart about 4 months ago and hadn't received their voters card. Come to find out, the man was hired by the Republican Headquarters in town and most likely threw out every registration that had the letter "D" in the choice of party box. And we can't track it, we have no way of knowing how many voters lost their voice 'cause of that man.

Today, a couple of us went to "The Whole Enchilada Festival" where Roberto makes the world's largest enchilada. There were carnival games and large inflatable soldiers and plenty of men in cowboy hats. Tough crowd. I was told I would "burn at the stake" and one said "I wouldn't vote for that man if he was the last man on earth." Good news. I'm not in Seattle anymore, no one walks around with dandelions behind their ears. Except us.

But there is still hope. They must put it in the water down here for us. On a conference call we were told the Native American tribes in the area all endorsed Obama; a Sargent that came said American soldiers in Iraq are donating to Obama's campaign versus McCain's at a rate of 6 to 1; AND we may get Eva Longoria to speak in the area. When I meet her, I'll put in a good word for you.

And in other news, Carrie Underwood is playing a sold out show in Las Cruces on November 3rd. So, do some research, make her support Obama and email request@19entertainment.com telling her to tell the sold out (!?) audience to vote the next day.

I've had too much Red Bull today.

The Uprising

Tonight we saw, The Slacker Uprising, which is Michael Moore's new movie about the youth vote in 2004. It got me fired up. We can't have the republican party take the White House again in January. I know everyone more or less agrees with me, but you have to do something about it.

Make some calls, knock on some doors, talk to everyone you can. It seems difficult at first, but all you have to do is find the Obama headquarters in your city (or another progressive organization if you're not convinced by Obama quite yet) and go in.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/statepages

Or call them, or email and get signed up. Everyone is busy, but on Saturday or Sunday, wake up an hour earlier or skip a happy hour after work; you won't regret it. It only takes a couple of hours. At this point you would only be speaking to registered Democrats whom most likely already support Obama. You don't have to argue with them or work to convince them, you just have to remind them to vote. I promise after three people invite you into their home for a drink or to play with their puppy, you'll be hooked. There are 39 days left to the election, and we cannot lose. Do something in your neighborhood, please.

42 Days Until the Election

Or you can sit on chimneys/Put some fire up your ass/No need to know what you're doing or waiting for/But if anyone should ask/Tell them I've been licking coconut skins/And we've been hanging out/Tell them God just dropped by to forgive our sins/And relieve us our doubt.

Here in Las Cruces, New Mexico, it is hot. That thought probably consumes my brain at least eight hours of the day. There are also far too many chihuahuas that yip, jump at you and try to intimidate with their bulgy eyes; but despite the obnoxious dogs and heat, we are making progress.

I'm still very new to this. The office is full of full-time volunteers that have been here for months, working diligently all day, every day after having left their families in other states, all in the name of Barack Obama. We all sit around this table until painful hours in the morning; reading, entering data, eating fast food and gettin' all fired up. We have to get fired up 'cause Las Cruces county will decide the state of New Mexico, and Al Gore won New Mexico in 2000 by only 366 votes. So every last person matters and that's a pretty good feeling: knowing every door, every vote, every hunted down registration form may impact this.

My supporter housing is perfect, an elderly lady and her golden retriever and I have a comfortable bed for my six hours of sleep and I enjoy her company as much as I hope she enjoys mine. Yesterday I went to a hospice to register a woman to vote, in case she doesn't make it. I stood outside a high school today and hassled 18-year olds. The other day I outran a pit bull and met the nicest old Mexican man with a trucker hat who had never registered to vote. I spoke to an old woman who said she is voting for McCain 'cause he is old, and she is old and likes old people. Every day is a trip. I'm looking for a night job in the meantime, but Denny's wanted a resume, and another job wanted me to wear a black mini-skirt, so in the meantime I have come to love all the food other volunteers bring in for us.

There is a big sign in the office, "On November 5th, will you have done all you could do?" And if it keeps going like this, then I think we can all say yes to that question.

And, right now, Allison is playing the guitar and the office is singing "Let it Be". man oh man.

The office and everyone in their prime