Obama + Florida: Day 1 thru 6
ONLY 5 MANA??!?It's been a whirl wind ever since I stepped onto Florida. My friend Andrew Baxter convinced me that the job market was bad enough that looking for work would produce very little result. And that if I really wanted to make some kind of change in the political sphere with a movie, I'd be better off investing the money I'd spend on production instead on a plane ticket to go to Florida for a month. I'd stay with a host family for free and work every day for a month to kick the Republican party out of office.
I have a feeling if I were born in another decade, I'd be doing the same thing for the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley or going on a Freedom Ride to the South. This is about as revolutionary as this generation is going to get. We're not risking life, limb, or even arrest. We're rooting for a candidate, not changing lives, though that remains to be seen. So here's the beginning of my 36(ish) day journey to hurricane country to change the political playing field.
Day 1 - October 1st:
I get on a plane to Pittsburg at 9am. The flight sucks. My legs are too long. When we arrive, I have a cheesesteak, though I swear I've had better cheesesteaks than at this airport restaurant. 20 minutes later, I board my flight for West Palm Beach, Florida. I'm glad I packed super light: 3 buttonup shirts, 3 tshirts, a couple wifebeaters, a pair of jeans, slacks, basketball shorts, 7 pairs of socks, 7 pairs of undies, and the pair of Sambas that have lasted me through two trips to China and all of my last year of college. I also brought my writing journals to basically fill a duffel bag. Super light. I also shaved my head the previous day. Didn't even bring my hair.
I arrive in Florida to see Andrew Baxter at the luggage claim. The guy is good for being in the East Coast for two plus months doing organizing. He's set me up at this family's house for the next month. The family, two Jewish attorney parents, two girls (9 and 12), a dog and a cat, lets me sleep in the guest bedroom. A FULL SIZE BED? THEY LET ME USE THEIR FRIDGE ALL I WANT?? I'm in heaven. On top of that, Florida is always warm. No wonder the old folks come here.
Day 2 - Oct. 2nd:
I go to work today, waking early to go for a run, take a shower, meet the dog, and go to the Hollywood office. It's Barack Central there. There's a few more days until the Voter Registration deadline, so I get to work inputting data from Early Voting Pledge cards. That's where people pledge to vote from Oct. 20th to Nov. 2nd at special locations. This takes the pressure off voters to make the Election Day "Crunch". Once I'm done with my packet, I volunteered to do some phone banking, making calls to people to make sure they're getting registered and to convince them as much as we can to vote Dem.
Later in the day, I follow Andrew to canvass black neighborhoods and pass out registration forms to get filled out right there. The whole operation is really smooth. We go door to door, convince them that voting (for Obama) is important, make them fill out "Reg" forms, and bring back the forms to be processed. I met two young women watching over a group of young kids playing in the street, they seemed to be no more than 24. I asked them if they were registered.
"I'm not voting."
"Can I ask you why?"
"I'm not voting."
"Why aren't you voting."
"I don't want to."
Her mother even drove by in her car and yelled at her, "You better be votin'."
That kind of brought me down for the rest of the night, but there's nothing I could have done about it. Only later, did it dawn on me that I should have shared why I was volunteering. I should have said:
"I came all the way here from California to volunteer because Obama has a timeline for the Iraq War. I'm not going to stand by and let my cousins and nieces and nephews be tempted to fight in Iraq to pay for their education. I'm trying to look out for my relatives who can't vote yet. You should think about your relatives too."
I come back to my host family and I find the dog ate my toothbrush. But the family actually went out and bought me a new one. They're so nice!
Day 3 - Nov 3:
I've spent all day manning the phones at the office. We got a million calls for "free tickets to Jay-Z's concert". Jay-Z and Wyclef(!) is planning a free concert to everyone who is registered to vote. All you have to do is come to one of our offices tomorrow to get registered and pick up the ticket. I'm pretty annoyed at having to produce the same damn answer over and over, but somebody's gotta do it. High point of the day, a girl named Dara from Piedmont (basically my neighbor) called and said she was flying into the Area to volunteer in about 2 weeks. How cool.
Day 4 - Oct 4:
Today was some sort of "Barack-B-Que" where people could come, have some food, and help us canvass a large area that really needs to be registered. In the end, Dar, the girl who organized it, got sick, and it rained all day. Something like 4 inches of rain. The BBQ didn't happen, and I went back to make more phone calls and sort through filled registration forms. Good news: we gave away all of our tickets to the Jay-Z show, but he's gonna have another show on Monday the 6th! Hova is so tight.
Day 5 - Oct 5:
Everyone is calling for those tickets, and we're giving away tickets for the Monday show. I actually got to help people fill out Reg forms and hand out tix. An official number came out: 2500 new voter registrations came from the first Jay-Z show ALONE. So tight. I spent the rest of the day, sorting thru Reg forms that have been entered into our computer database and ones that need to be. (We're making our own database so make sure that no funny business happens - remember "hanging chads" and recounts?) Today, I stayed up until 4am doing that. Tough, but somebody needs to do it, and the Campaign Staff have too much on their hands. I didn't get to go to the Jay-Z show. I hear it was fucking BOMB. I'll have to wait for tomorrow.
Day 6 - Oct 6:
This morning, I wake early and head to the outdoor amphitheater to help. I'm bringing my camera to catch all the action. Nobody on the campaign is taking pictures. I'll have to remedy that. We usher in about 1000 people, less than we would have wanted, but who's gonna come to a Monday Noon concert? We pass out free water, get more registrations, get a few volunteers signed up, but at 1:15pm, a lady comes out and tells us Jay-Z has "throat problems"...or the flu...or something. "Sorry. Thanks for coming." We immediately hear people say "I hope Obama doesn't go back on his promises like what happened today." Not good at all.
Today's also the last day to get registered to vote, so we're getting a huge flood of registration forms. Why do people procrastinate on something like this?? We're calling people back for all sorts of mistakes on their forms. Some people didn't include their Driver's License number. Some people forgot to check certain boxes. Some people flat out didn't have their signature. Those forms are lost causes. At 8:30pm, we send out our last pile of forms to the Supervisor of Elections Office. It's like finishing a final, I'm so relieved. But even then, people come to our office after 10pm, asking to get registered. So sad.
Andrew brings a friend to the office, Alina. She's a new volunteer from the Bay Area! Yi!! It's gonna be fun. We go to the beach and have some drinks. It feels like I'm done...but there's still so much to do. Next we have to get people to the Early polls. Then we have to get them to send in their Absentee Ballots. Then we have to get EVERYONE to the polls. Then we have to count up all the info we've gathered to check if there's anything funny going on.
Also, the McCain camp is going to start doing negative attacks from here on out.
Can't wait.