7:30 am is a time that doesn’t really exist for me. under virtually no circumstances do i ever exist as a conscious, sentient human being at this hour. when i see the number on my alarm clock, waking accidentally or suddenly in the night, i am bewildered that it exists.
7:30 is the new midnight.
somehow (by some miracle of time, space and love) i was get able by 7:30 on saturday to get to new hampshire to canvass for barack obama. it’s something i’ve been meaning to do for a long while, but now that the election is in crunch-time and my time is about to go 130% midterm, i knew that saturday was the last chance to actually contribute.
so i got up, and with nick werle, and jenna silver, some of my glorious housemates, journeyed to new hampshire.
i was hard to shake the fact that just a week ago, i was on the campus of uc berkeley listening to lawrence lessig ruminate on the problems in congress. in berkeley, despite its reputation, there was virtually no political action going on. not that there was on saturday morning at brown either, but at least there were over 150 brown students loading onto vans to help get the vote out for barack in nh.
it was damn cold in the granite state. 28 degrees in fact, when the sun got up, and the vestiges of this deep cold were huge chunks of frost all over the ground. people were passing around cider and donuts (VERY NEW HAMPSHIRE, everytime i come up here in the fall, this is what people are eating) and talking about barack, the newest polls, and the sense of destiny that currenyl marks the obama supporter. this is the whole “oh my god, i think it’s actually going to happen” spirit, that redoubles the efforts of obama supporters, and puts 300 people from connecticut, massachusetts, and rhode island in nashua, nh on a cold saturday morning.
we went out canvassing. i won’t lie about being terribly comfortable with the whole idea (in fact, i was terrified of “bothering” people) but within a few doors, i began to register there was nothing particularly invasive, inappropriate or scary about canvassing. in fact, contrary to popular opinion (or perhaps due to the proximity of the electiob) there was almost no one to convince of voting our way and not the other. people have generally made up their minds by now, so the canvasser’s job at this point is to make sure obama supporters are actually going to vote, and zeroing in on undecided and unknown voters, by eliminating mccain households. it’s a very methodical process.
one lesson i learned from the trip was don’t judge a book by its cover. there was one house, when we were canvassing that had a number of pick-up trucks in the drive way, an american flag out front, an nra sticker on the window of the front door, and a loud barking dog inside. we knocked, because that’s what we’re supposed to do, even though i think we all felt that this would be another “i think you have the wrong house, we don’t support obama here.”
a young woman with a one year old baby answered. she held back a young golden retriever puppy. she smiled at us when we asked about the baby and who the baby was voting for this year. “well, i think she’s just decided the mother answered, and i think she’s going with obama…” we gave her some pamphlets (or “literature” as they are called by the campaign) then continued on. talking with that woman made the entire day worth it.
there was another highlight to be sure. it was john kerry (senator, former presidential nominee john keryy) speaking to the canvassers at a pep rally from the bed of a pick-up truck. i was so close, i could practically have shook his hand. but i took a photo instead, and it came out brilliantly, just like the day i had in new hampshire.