Saturday, November 8, 2008

YES WE CAN


in this time of change and hope, melvin and i have been talking about how we can personally serve, how we can contribute to a more perfect union. we hear from so many of our friends that they want to be working to create change and progress. let's join together to talk about our personal accountability.

this is our blog.

let me (alexis:)) start with my most recent involvement in the movement for change. prior to this momentous election, i found myself in southwest virginia, hoping to help the state turn blue after 44 years of adamantly voting red.



on the morning of tuesday, november 4th, i found myself blanketing a hopelessly conservative region with voting information. if anybody needed to know their voting rights or lacked transportation to their polling place, i could help. after 7 hours of this work, i met a young man named christopher. i knocked on his door and dove into my spiel: "hi, i'm alexis. i'm here from the warner/obama office, checking in to see if you have already voted or need any help getting to your local voting location." chris told me that he was on disability and food stamps, and that he wanted to vote for Obama because he felt he was the candidate who would protect his rights and aid. he continued to say that he was disabled, and didn't see any way to get to the polls.

what struck me was that chris had registered to vote and thought about the issues, and had even chosen a candidate; far more involvement than one might expect of some dude in low-income housing in rural virginia. please friends, remember that i was a democrat canvassing in the capitol of the confederacy; merely finding a democrat was a victory. i drove chris to the polls and stood in the rain for almost an hour while he voted; this may have been the most important 45 minutes of my life. chris came out of the community center where he voted, beaming with his "i voted" sticker, feeling like he was a part of the change.

he was, and we were.