Sovereign Citizens, Sadistic Bigots and Stupendous Surprises*.
*Yes, I was indeed surprised in the Food Giant parking lot, when the dude who emerged from the V-6 Chevy pick-up fitted with a gun rack, plastered w/various negative bumper stickers, wearing shit-kicker boots and a ‘F**k the ACLU T-Shirt’ approached me and said, without a hint of sarc or sneer “Lady, I like your T-Shirt”, a bright green ‘O’Bama’ T-shirt. He then asked where he might volunteer for Barack Obama before the election in 4 days. I love it when that happens. I pinned him as a Ron Paul guy all the way.
I spent five or six days in Western PA, crucial days for me, my campaign life, and I hope for the lives of my grand-niece and granddaughters. Yes, I know that Obama technically lost the PA Primary. But did he? He did far better in the Pittsburgh area than expected, and that would be a crucial area for any Democrat in the general election. The Philly area is a lock for the Democrat any year. In addition, Obama, unintentionally I believe, bankrupted his opponent by out-spending her 4 to 1 and, I guess, making her feel like she had to keep up. Kinda unwise since her reputation preceded her, was trumpeted by the Governor, most state and local Democrats & her whining about Barack and all his money just made everybody take a look at him again. How did Mr. Nobody manage to have more money that the Clintons, anyway? Senator Clinton was getting awfully mocking by that point and it wasn’t wearing well. As a woman, I at least wanted her to not go any smaller than she already had. And the advertising money certainly didn’t matter to the Amish in Lancaster County, who don’t get advertisments of any kind, just unadulterated information, and who voted for Obama by a large majority.
An Amish horse and buggy roll past a polling station in Blue Ball, PA on April 22, 2008.
I just had to go to Western PA. I knew it would matter, I had family there I could visit at last, frequent flier miles to use and, at home, a supportive group of upper-division art students who were ready to carry out their final project on their own. I made my mind up after watching Senator Clinton’s Bosnia lie, her refusal to apologize yet again, her remark aligning her experience w/John McCain’s by dissing Obama’s apparently inconsequential “speech in 2002″, her junk-talk in Ohio, the ‘Shame on you, Barack Obama’ admonition as Gov. Strickland cupped his privates and, just prior to the Ohio Primary the last shoe dropped, the ‘no, I couldn’t vote for someone that devious even if she ran against Dick Cheney’ realization. This realization was simultaneous for many Obama bloggers who weren’t against Hillary until that moment, but who were live blogging while watching the March 2nd ‘60 Minutes’ segment on misconceptions about Obama by rust-belt voters, and the reactions to the obvious information-deficit by Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes, who then informed both Senator Barack Obama and the sadly, passive-aggressively dishonest Senator Hillary Clinton who was seemingly nearly as information deprived about Barack’s religious practices as your average rust-belt High School Grad. (The same Senator Clinton who, by the way, had been at a Christian Prayer Breakfast just that morning with Senator Obama, as she was less regularly than he on Sunday mornings in the Senate).
With a nod to my students, who had canvassed LA with me in February and were busily saving their latte money to send to the Obama campaign, and I took off to the land where the middle-aged woman is gold.
I arrived in East Liberty as instructed, had supporter housing lined-up by Pitt HQ with a wonderful woman in Squirrel Hill who was ready to have a small dinner party with me and her few Obama-supporting friends. Then, my main contact, the young Out of State Volunteer Coordinator Adam changed my location. He sent me to the burbs, following a young woman named Corey. Oh, I could go on about the strategic brilliance of Obama staffing HQs with young, uncommitted-to-careers as recent grads from the nation’s finest universities. You know, those glazed over, Kool-Aid drinkers everyone made fun of ? The ones who had gone to college and seen their ROTC peers sent to Iraq to possibly die, mentally or physically? They smelled the dying seas, an increasingly putrid environment their country saw no need to clean-up, they spotted, if were not born from, a bored and spoon-fed wealthy class, they could see the dearth of fulfilling jobs, they felt the vibe of global disdain for the country they came from. So of course they were the most driven to seek a teacher, a leader who made sense of this country & this world for them. They are labeled ‘elite’ I think, b/c they seek reasons beyond an ancient text of questionable authorship, beyond the nostalgic belief that ‘everything I need to know I learned from a cowboy, a bartender, my dog, or my 3-year old, etc..” to explain the complexities of life’s interwoven problems. Yes, careful consideration and reasoned approaches to solutions, once called “conservative thinking” is now called ‘liberal elitism” - hear William F. Buckley groaning from his grave? “Conservative thinking”, the oxymoron of 2008, has taken the form of over-simplification in easily digestible sound-bites.
So off on the winding roads of Pittsburgh I went, following the chic Corey in her convertible in my rental car. At a stop light, I tapped my iPhone to note we were in a, I don’t know, familiar feeling area. Upon arrival at this little office, not nearly as hip as the one in East Liberty (no phones, no modem, no Obama buttons) I looked out the window and decided to call my sister who lived in the Pittburbs and inform her of my re-location. I had already called her upon arrival and planned to stay with her for a couple of nights, or at least visit her and her family for a meal. ”Wendy,” I said, “I’m in the burbs, maybe a bit closer to you, and looking out the window at a Luciano’s Pizza and a church on a hill?” She said, “I’ll be right there.” Apparently, ‘Luciano’s‘ is the it spot.
Corey (OFA), Elliot, Jerad and Mom at our office
I at Wendy’s house, less than 3 miles away from the office. My other sister drove up from Virginia to assist on the weekend. A reluctant canvasser was she at first. I was scared to death, but someone had to fake it, so I did. Were were to the conservative La Roche College, and I was tackling young African exchange students, assuring them that just b/c they couldn’t vote didn’t mean they couldn’t canvass or call. Pretty soon my sister, my ss, was corralling faculty, and having success as they promised to make phone calls during the last push weekend.
Jill, making those confirmation calls for push weekend.
We even took guff from some students who, with indicative emotion, stated the equivalent of “No Fu*king Way!” I had to summon my ‘inner Obama’ a multitude of times. No, it’s not Kool-Aid. It’s American Pragamatism. The campaign’s message to those of us who represent was, ‘don’t waste your time and energy arguing with a tree-stump when there are undecided voters to speak with. This is a primary election and that adamant Clinton voter might become an Obama voter in November if we win- but not if the Obama canvasser they met last April was a preachy asshole.’ And I felt so much better saying, “believe me, I have nothing to gain by angering you, but I am here from California as an information-based middle-aged woman who knows about implementation and engagement. That is where the difference between these 2 candidates lie. I’ve had it with promises of being taken care of. I’m helping myself by helping Obama. Our problems are huge and none of us can sit around hoping someone will solve them for us.’ Self-reliance is back. Spent my days before and after my sister’s visit doing various things. The most fun was canvassing the neighborhoods with Sara Curl, on my left and your right, in the photo below. Sara had never done this before and had far more stamina than I did. An amazing woman, full of joy and almost breathtaking certainty this would work, that Obama would win. I never saw a hint of worry or doubt from her, and that was inspiring.
Sara and I still email about the compounded kindnesses that we were part of or witness to, and of our luck at sitting right there (below), with Rochelle from Virginia, opposite the TV cameras at just the right spot. They filmed Barack and the trio of middled aged women just beyond him and we were on CSPAN. My peeps were calling me as I drove toward the airport that night as Obama’s speech was on tape-delay while HRC, in Philly, spoke of bombing Iran in front of adoring crowds. Apparently, I was seen nodding and my husband (at home with his lawn sign) said I was saying, “that’s right, that’s right”. That’s right!
Rochelle_VA, Me_CA, Sara_PA : @ 4_21 Obama Rally in VIP seats
PS, did I mention that Michelle clasped my hands? the crowd dispersed, some guy handed me his ‘Teamsters for Obama’ sign, and I looked up to see Mrs. Obama quite accessible. I reached my hand in, I imagined she recognized me from the LA Rally months prior (oh, vanity) but there was nothing insincere in her gaze. Knowing she was already married, I could only say, “Thank you Mrs. Obama.” And she said, “Michelle.” I expected to move on but she reached for my other hand (and she has some warm and soft hands, people) without losing eye contact, so I continued, “I’m here from California to ah…, and these are my friends.” Sara waved, Rochelle had left. Michelle must have been verging on exhaustion +/or tears and let out an anxiety-share sigh of thanks, shook her head in disbelief (as she did in LA at the support) and, solidfying her grasp looked in my eyes with a smile and said, ever so quietly, ‘we’ve got to get this one’. Well, we got it to within 9.8 %. I will never forget those days and the kindness of many but mostly the unspoken bond of ‘getting it’ with Sara, my ss, and Michelle Obama. Oh, and Franco Harris walked me to my car! That’s right.
