Canvassing for Lisa Brown
My friend Larry and I are starting our 3rd day of canvassing households in Walla Walla for the Lisa Brown campaign. It is a slow process reaching out to each individual. Lisa is running a little behind the incumbent Cathy Rodgers and she needs a boost. You would think a college town with a large hispanic population would support a Democratic candidate. Let's hope they do.
Yesterday, we joked a little about doing a retro campaign where we get a bull horn and drive through neighborhoods, lawn signs strapped to our car, shouting "Vote for Lisa Brown". We're going to talk to Megan, our campaign coordinator, today.
Yesterday, while canvassing, Larry had walked to the next block to the final two addresses on our Minivan list; number 208 and 218 Carlton street. Minivan is the telephone based software program that gives us the names of the people we are targeting. While he walked ahead I moved our car to the block he’d walked to, parked and got out. Across the street I could see number 208 and 218 but no Larry. I looked at my list of addresses again to be sure I had the right numbers. They were correct. Where was Larry? In two days of canvassing neither of us had been invited into someone's house. Had he been dragged in?
Just a few minutes earlier I watched as Larry knocked on the door of another house just as a large, presumed man, wearing a black mask over his whole head and face came up from the sidewalk, ignored Larry on the porch and walked to the back of the house. The mask had no eye or mouth holes and covered his head entirely so that it looked like a big, black thumb. And just a few minutes before that together we had approached a different house just as a young man and and an older woman came out out. The heavy, thirtyish man had a long, silver, tear-drop shaped, metal stud piercing the center of his lower lip that hung down past his chin. It complemented the multiple studs in his nose, eyebrows and ears. Before I could stop him Larry hailed the guy and asked if he was the listed occupant of the house. With a non-blinking, wide-eyed stare he said he was. Then Larry asked if he was registered to vote and the heavily pierced fellow looked at us as if we had green hair and were floating about five feet off the ground. He answered,
When they were our to earshot, Larry turned to me and said, “Braindead.”
Now Larry was no where in sight. The image of the large, featureless, black masked, thumb-headed man dragging Larry into his cave, worried me. I started across the street to try and find him when the front door of the first house opened and out came Larry smiling and waving good-bye to someone inside. He had been invited in. Three emphysematous, oxygen inhaling residents and two caregivers had all assembled in the living room to listen to the campaign spiel and all were thrilled to be asked to vote for our candidate and promised they would. Great work!
Going door-to-door asking people to vote and trying to convince them to vote for our candidate is how democracy works. I hope we are still a democracy. A recent article in the New York Review of Books reflects this worry and agrees with everything I have been saying in my blog. Take a look at it: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/suffocation-of-democracy/? .
We're off soon for another day of adventure on the streets of Walla Walla. Keep sending money and support to Lisa Brown. We're here until the end of the week trying to swing the city toward the light.
Yesterday, we joked a little about doing a retro campaign where we get a bull horn and drive through neighborhoods, lawn signs strapped to our car, shouting "Vote for Lisa Brown". We're going to talk to Megan, our campaign coordinator, today.
Yesterday, while canvassing, Larry had walked to the next block to the final two addresses on our Minivan list; number 208 and 218 Carlton street. Minivan is the telephone based software program that gives us the names of the people we are targeting. While he walked ahead I moved our car to the block he’d walked to, parked and got out. Across the street I could see number 208 and 218 but no Larry. I looked at my list of addresses again to be sure I had the right numbers. They were correct. Where was Larry? In two days of canvassing neither of us had been invited into someone's house. Had he been dragged in?
Just a few minutes earlier I watched as Larry knocked on the door of another house just as a large, presumed man, wearing a black mask over his whole head and face came up from the sidewalk, ignored Larry on the porch and walked to the back of the house. The mask had no eye or mouth holes and covered his head entirely so that it looked like a big, black thumb. And just a few minutes before that together we had approached a different house just as a young man and and an older woman came out out. The heavy, thirtyish man had a long, silver, tear-drop shaped, metal stud piercing the center of his lower lip that hung down past his chin. It complemented the multiple studs in his nose, eyebrows and ears. Before I could stop him Larry hailed the guy and asked if he was the listed occupant of the house. With a non-blinking, wide-eyed stare he said he was. Then Larry asked if he was registered to vote and the heavily pierced fellow looked at us as if we had green hair and were floating about five feet off the ground. He answered,
“What?”said the elderly woman who then took him by the arm and they walked off.
“Registered to vote. Are you registered to vote?’
“Vote?” he asked, incredulous.
“Let’s go, Roger,”
When they were our to earshot, Larry turned to me and said, “Braindead.”
Now Larry was no where in sight. The image of the large, featureless, black masked, thumb-headed man dragging Larry into his cave, worried me. I started across the street to try and find him when the front door of the first house opened and out came Larry smiling and waving good-bye to someone inside. He had been invited in. Three emphysematous, oxygen inhaling residents and two caregivers had all assembled in the living room to listen to the campaign spiel and all were thrilled to be asked to vote for our candidate and promised they would. Great work!
Going door-to-door asking people to vote and trying to convince them to vote for our candidate is how democracy works. I hope we are still a democracy. A recent article in the New York Review of Books reflects this worry and agrees with everything I have been saying in my blog. Take a look at it: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/suffocation-of-democracy/? .
We're off soon for another day of adventure on the streets of Walla Walla. Keep sending money and support to Lisa Brown. We're here until the end of the week trying to swing the city toward the light.
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