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The election (Quelcan d'autre?)
Nov. 2nd, 2004 08:22 pmI had the harsh realization this morning that in my life time, the only democrat I've ever seen win the White House was Bill Clinton. I'm preparing myself for defeat, because if I don't it will be bad.
So today I volenteered for the Kerry campaign in north Minneapolis from 2 to 6:30. Mostly I went from door to door and checked that all of the eligible adults in the household had voted. North Mineapolis is a heavily democratic area, largely African American and immigrant, which generally has low voter turnout. I volenteered in North Minneapolis on Sunday, which was one of those things I'd be recording on livejournal if I had internet access in my apartment (I'm in my local internet cafe on the keyboard of death right now). Sunday was more of an experience: I was in an area with a high immigrant population and I gained access into some Somali households, possibly because I'm not the most intimidating individual, possibly because I had something on my head (a hat!). I also saw a Haitian home with a vodoo shrine, and visited a lot of homes of immigrants from ecuatorial regions where the house was heated up to 70 or 80 degrees. But if Sunday was an experience, I feel like I had more of an effect today. I arranged for three people who had gone to the polls earlier and been turned away to get a voucher--not the slip of paper sort of voucher, but the person who lives in the neighborhood vouching for someone's residence in the neighborhood sort of voucher. But the best part of the experience was how warm and welcoming almost everyone whose door I knocked on was... North Minneapolis is definitely a Kerry stronghold.
So today I volenteered for the Kerry campaign in north Minneapolis from 2 to 6:30. Mostly I went from door to door and checked that all of the eligible adults in the household had voted. North Mineapolis is a heavily democratic area, largely African American and immigrant, which generally has low voter turnout. I volenteered in North Minneapolis on Sunday, which was one of those things I'd be recording on livejournal if I had internet access in my apartment (I'm in my local internet cafe on the keyboard of death right now). Sunday was more of an experience: I was in an area with a high immigrant population and I gained access into some Somali households, possibly because I'm not the most intimidating individual, possibly because I had something on my head (a hat!). I also saw a Haitian home with a vodoo shrine, and visited a lot of homes of immigrants from ecuatorial regions where the house was heated up to 70 or 80 degrees. But if Sunday was an experience, I feel like I had more of an effect today. I arranged for three people who had gone to the polls earlier and been turned away to get a voucher--not the slip of paper sort of voucher, but the person who lives in the neighborhood vouching for someone's residence in the neighborhood sort of voucher. But the best part of the experience was how warm and welcoming almost everyone whose door I knocked on was... North Minneapolis is definitely a Kerry stronghold.
