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Wow -- my parents GOTV in Missouri
Just got off the phone with my dad, who's in his late fifties. He and my mom went out canvassing in Missouri today -- they have *never* volunteered for a campaign before and my mother is painfully shy. But she knocked on strangers' doors and talked to them! I have never seen her on fire like this!
They knocked on 72 doors in a small Missouri town in the middle of nowhere. They identified many Obama supporters and had productive conversations with undecided voters. They recruited six volunteers for GOTV, some of whom were already at the campaign headquarters when my parents finished up for the day! They are so proud of themselves, and I love to think about the thousands of people like them -- people who have been inspired by this campaign to go beyond anything they ever thought they'd do.
And Dad reminded me that when he was a kid, segregation was the norm. He said what he remembers most is that black kids weren't allowed in the public swimming pool. Part of his hometown in southwest Missouri was called "Nigger Town," and white people didn't go there. Dad said no one even thought about "the n word" being derogatory -- niggers were niggers, that's just the way it was.
Just now he said to me, "To think that in my lifetime it's gone from THAT, from those horrible ingrained attitudes, to this, to being this close to electing a black president -- it just takes your breath away."
Indeed it does.
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Smoking. I salute your parents. Great story.
November 1, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was out today too. A new day is coming. Wonderful to see that you and your parents can enjoy it together. Thrilling to see so many people participating. Young. Old. Black. White. And so on.
Thanks for sharing that.
November 1, 2008 10:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know we will win MO. Man that map is going to look like a blueberry after this race is done with.
November 1, 2008 11:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I went door to door this election for the first time ever at 49 years of age, and I contributed financially for the first time. I've always been aware of the political scene, but I sure felt a need to act this time.
One of my best friends mentioned to me tonight during league bowling that her father, a life long workin' joe democrat, but definitely an Archie Bunker type and no stranger to the word "nigger", mentioned to her that he never thought he'd see a black man elected in his lifetime. He cast his vote for Obama, party before prejudice. What next? I just might crap gold coins tomorrow!
November 2, 2008 12:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
That comment, when read to the finale of Copeland's "Portrait of Lincoln", is something to behold!
November 2, 2008 1:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's almost more than a body can take, Your Eliotness! Copeland! AND Gregory Peck! AND Lincoln!
I have to get this CD to play on Tuesday night!
November 2, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's happening everywhere. I'm 62 and working for the first time to gotv in my conservative, small town in Va. We're either part of the problem or part of the solution. Obama offers new solutions to old problems. One of them -- the racial divide -- will be changed forever when he takes office. We can move from there and solve many more. It's time for a new direction and a new mindset.
November 2, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please give my very best wishes to your parents, Ioric. They are part of the transformation. Tell them that. Tell them by acting they are creating Change. And I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
November 2, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a great story...I am 55 and the last time I did any work was for RFK in 1968....I have met more terrific people and had more fun interacting with them....GA is going blue as well!!!
November 2, 2008 7:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks to you and your parents. My sisters and I are all about their ages, + & - a few years. Our parents are both 83 and were very active in the Civil Rights movement. We grew up immersed in the problem, the history, and the battles being fought.
People like your parents, DTVA, and many others are giving so much to bring the dream we have nurtured for 60 years to life. It needed this final massive effort to happen. We are all pinching ourselves, especially our parents, that we have lived to see it.
I think we will all be very happy that we were a part of this transformation. That we will celebrate a beautiful unity in our diversity.
November 2, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reports like that make me wish I lived in a swtate where there was a chance for Republicans to get elected.
I've been a civil rights activist for 50 years, and been politically active on other issues for 40. I wish this opportunity happened 30-40 years ago -- it would have obviated the entire "Reagan Revolution" era/fraud which is now at dead-ended at: dead.
With this election, which perhaps could not have been without the "Reagan Revolution" era/fraud as contrary backdrop, it appears the vast majority -- over 70 per cent -- of We the people are finally tired of the politics of racism and are about to take that big step across the line into a post-racial world in which reason triumphs over that particular ignorance, that particular hatred.
November 2, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reports like that make me wish I lived in a swtate where there was a chance for Republicans to get elected.
I've been a civil rights activist for 50 years, and been politically active on other issues for 40. I wish this opportunity happened 30-40 years ago -- it would have obviated the entire "Reagan Revolution" era/fraud which is now at dead-ended at: dead.
With this election, which perhaps could not have been without the "Reagan Revolution" era/fraud as contrary backdrop, it appears the vast majority -- over 70 per cent -- of We the people are finally tired of the politics of racism and are about to take that big step across the line into a post-racial world in which reason triumphs over that particular ignorance, that particular hatred.
November 2, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"[L]ate fifties" is not old, child. :)
November 2, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink