No on Prop 8
I volunteered for No on 8 tonight, doing phone banking... For those not keeping track, Prop 8 changes the constitution of California to ban same-sex marriage, whereas currently it's legal. There was a poll in early October showing the right-wing buttinskis winning, and the latest poll still has them winning, but it's only 48 to 45. So there is hope, but rather than sitting around hoping wingers stay home, it makes me feel a lot better to do something.
My personal sample size was 50 calls, of which there were 10 people who talked to me long enough to get a sense of where they were at, of which 5 were against and 5 were for. My big triumph was getting in touch with someone in San Jose who also wanted to volunteer... I just read _World War Z_ this weekend, so my thought was that recruiting another volunteer while volunteering was like being a zombie that sucessfully managed to bite someone. :)
I'm worried because in addition to polls and past history, I'm not super-keen on the No on 8 organization. There was only one volunteering thing today in the East Bay, for three hours, and it was so far away from anywhere that we were in danger of getting eaten by mountain lions... Up in the hills of Kensington, that is, about a block from the hill wilderness. Their website has outdated info. When they called me after I plugged in my name, they asked why I was against Prop 8, which struck me as odd, and when I got there, I see it's part of a script. I guess to get people talking so they're more invested? But fuck, I was already signing up to volunteer, sounded like they were checking to see if I was a plant. Anyway, they were big on "stick exactly to the script" and the script was this endless mouthful. Meh! The Obama campaign, the only other place I have volunteered, had much pithier scripts and encouraged you to put them in your own words.
On the other hand, I feel it was a fine way to spend three hours. They stopped calling at 9, which is polite, unlike the Obama people who kept on after 9. The venue, a Unitarian Universalist church, offered food and old lady Unitarians putting the food out. The fact that the UU, from the preacher on down, were actually helping with something useful makes me feel better about the denomination.
There were about 25 people there this evening, from 6:30 to 9:30ish, looked like slightly more women than men, age range 30s to 80s, mostly white with a couple Asians. My gaydar is hopeless, so I don't know how it broke down that way, though it was organized by lesbians. One guy had a "Still Alive" ringtone, so clearly we were Team Awesome.
Phone banking is not that scary. It fulfills that desire that we all have, to go down lists and cross things off and sort them. Action is fun.
Sending money is good, too, though, if you're out of state, or whatever... This really will help all of America, if California gets to keep being free. GLBTAI people will be able to escape to here, to any number of industries or climates. We have nearly 12% of Americans living here. We can be a great big honking example to ease the way for other states. Help us out, here. Even a little bit is cool.
My personal sample size was 50 calls, of which there were 10 people who talked to me long enough to get a sense of where they were at, of which 5 were against and 5 were for. My big triumph was getting in touch with someone in San Jose who also wanted to volunteer... I just read _World War Z_ this weekend, so my thought was that recruiting another volunteer while volunteering was like being a zombie that sucessfully managed to bite someone. :)
I'm worried because in addition to polls and past history, I'm not super-keen on the No on 8 organization. There was only one volunteering thing today in the East Bay, for three hours, and it was so far away from anywhere that we were in danger of getting eaten by mountain lions... Up in the hills of Kensington, that is, about a block from the hill wilderness. Their website has outdated info. When they called me after I plugged in my name, they asked why I was against Prop 8, which struck me as odd, and when I got there, I see it's part of a script. I guess to get people talking so they're more invested? But fuck, I was already signing up to volunteer, sounded like they were checking to see if I was a plant. Anyway, they were big on "stick exactly to the script" and the script was this endless mouthful. Meh! The Obama campaign, the only other place I have volunteered, had much pithier scripts and encouraged you to put them in your own words.
On the other hand, I feel it was a fine way to spend three hours. They stopped calling at 9, which is polite, unlike the Obama people who kept on after 9. The venue, a Unitarian Universalist church, offered food and old lady Unitarians putting the food out. The fact that the UU, from the preacher on down, were actually helping with something useful makes me feel better about the denomination.
There were about 25 people there this evening, from 6:30 to 9:30ish, looked like slightly more women than men, age range 30s to 80s, mostly white with a couple Asians. My gaydar is hopeless, so I don't know how it broke down that way, though it was organized by lesbians. One guy had a "Still Alive" ringtone, so clearly we were Team Awesome.
Phone banking is not that scary. It fulfills that desire that we all have, to go down lists and cross things off and sort them. Action is fun.
Sending money is good, too, though, if you're out of state, or whatever... This really will help all of America, if California gets to keep being free. GLBTAI people will be able to escape to here, to any number of industries or climates. We have nearly 12% of Americans living here. We can be a great big honking example to ease the way for other states. Help us out, here. Even a little bit is cool.