eleven days later: thanks and stories

Hi everyone,

I've been meaning to write this for some days now, well, i guess about ten days, but haven't really known what to say. I mean, what is there to say? We just witnessed, and participated in, and helped bring about the historic election of Barack Obama. He's going to be our President. I'm still rather speechless.

(ohhhh, but now that I've finished this, I see that I wasn't speechless at all...sorry it's so long!--Ok, there's three parts: 1) words of thanks, 2) a request for stories about your election day experience and a telling of my experience from that day, and 3) stories from election day from other volunteers...)

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I want to thank you all for everything that you did--for supporting and encouraging me, volunteering, financially supporting the campaign, talking about politics with friends and family when it was uncomfortable to do so, praying...all of these actions made a difference. And thank you especially to Tom, Judi and Diego Ditzler, who housed and fed us those last ten days of the campaign, to Carol, Anne's mom, who flew up to Wisconsin to surprise Anne on her 40th birthday and who then flew back to Florida and campaigned her heart out, and to David and Sarah for making that surprise visit possible. It was a wonderful ten days, and we were so happy to share it with family, especially family who could put up with our incessant campaign talk.

I wanted to share with you one of the emails I got--this from Jeanne Heifetz, a great volunteer organizer from Brooklyn who I met on one of my trips to Philly. Jeanne went to PA every weekend, for months, and trained and encouraged probably hundreds of volunteers to keep coming back. She collected a bunch of stories that people shared with her about their election night experiences, and circulated them--please take a minute to read them, below (make sure you read the last one, written by someone traveling to Thailand on Election Day, especially). They capture, for me, both the quotidian and the global zeitgeist, and I was moved to tears more than once reading them.

I'd love to hear from you all about how you feel about the election now--what you experienced election night, how you felt these last few months.

One thing is clear: I wasn't the only one who was emotionally exhausted by the drama and the trauma of the McCain campaign. I think we were all collectively holding our breath, and when it looked certain that Obama would win...we all began to exhale. So now that we're breathing again, send me your stories, and I'll compile them to share with the group.

Here's what my Election Day was like:

I spent Election Day organizing volunteers in Menasha, Wisconsin, out of a space at the United Steelworkers office. We awoke at 4 in the morning, got to the office by 5 am, expecting a rush of 6 am volunteers who'd been scheduled and confirmed--we had to blanket all of our neighborhoods with literature (doorhangers) that gave the voting location. But only one person showed at 6, and we started worrying, hard. We juggled tasks, and reset expectations for the day--we had wanted to canvass all our neighborhoods at least twice, but then we thought we should focus on getting all of the done at least once, and see if we could do more. But happily, things picked up between seven and eight, and we had many teams out there in the field, running from door to door, dropping off literature and racing on to the next house.

The hours flew, and I took a break around 11 am to center myself...and took a look at some of the blog postings...the conservative pro-Obama blogger Andrew Sullivan was posting emails he was receiving from people around the country who wrote in with their voting experiences, and some of the stories brought me to tears. Some were about long lines, others captured the experience of immigrant and second-generation voters, others depicted the excitement and energy in the polling places, and others were about first time voters. Reading them, quickly, one after another, gave me goosebumps...there I was sitting in a parking lot in small-town Wisconsin, in unseasonably warm weather, and all across the country people were standing up and making their voices heard. I was crying a little when a man named Terry, who'd gone out canvassing that morning, came over and started talking to me--he was with the union, and we talked about Labor, the Democratic party, identity politics and the environment, and what an opportunity this is, now, to come together and get right with one another. I am amazed at how many wonderful conversations, deep conversations, I had with people throughout my ten days in Wisconsin--people opened up to one another, spoke about their motivation for getting involved, and banded together to reach our goals.

We'd covered all the turf by 12, and were on to a second round of canvassing, identifying who had already voted and who might need a ride to the polls. At the same time, we had some folks in the office who were making phone calls to other lists of prospective supporters, and making sure they knew all the details about where to vote. The day just flew by, all the turf got covered again...and late in the day we got a few extra super-volunteers (actually, pro organizers) from the Fond du Lac office, because they were above targets there. So they swooped in around 6 pm and ran out with neighborhood maps and voter lists within minutes, with fire in the belly, to try to reach those last voters who hadn't yet made it to the polls.

At around 7:30, half an hour before the polls closed, we were getting ready to go hand out water and cookies in case there were lines at the polls...and then the report came in...someone had driven to all the polls and there weren't any lines anywhere.

We sat there, taking in this news. What did it mean? After a second, we realized that it could only mean two things--either people stayed home and didn't turn out in the numbers we expected, or...we had organized the stuffing out of the area, and people had voted earlier in the week and earlier in the day. We'd have to wait until the state was called to find out which it was.

And then, while Anne was still coming back from the field with Roger, a 40-something Iraq war vet who was one of our most solid volunteers, the clock struck 8 pm, and the polls closed. And immediately, the networks called Wisconsin for Obama! It was thrilling. Even more thrilling was the analysis that followed, with maps that showed that Wisconsin was almost completely "blue" in 2008, after being almost completely "red" in 2004. We turned our little county blue, by approximately 10,000 votes, which was great! Kerry and Gore won Wisconsin by less than one percent each, and WI was won by Obama by around 13 percent. Woot!

Anne and I got back to her brother's house, and I literally walked in the door and burst into tears. All the emotion and happiness and exhaustion kind of jumped out of my face and I knew that I was d-u-n done. Anne and her brother Tommy went down to the victory party in Oshkosh, and though I would have loved to go, and though I missed saying goodbye to our kickass team: intern Peter and deputy organizer Danielle, Charis an experienced hand who'd come to help GTD in the last few days, and our fearless leader, our organizer, Les...I had to just curl up on the couch and cry for a little while. (And the tears kept coming, off and on, over the next couple of days!)

And then all of a sudden it was 10 pm and they called it for Obama! I just couldn't believe, after the last two election nights, that we knew it, it was over, and we won. I was just overwhelmed, and watched all the news crews trying to capture this moment with footage of Jesse Jackson, crying, of students at Spellman College, crying, of joyous jubilation in Ebenezer Baptist Church...And it hit me: I had been so engaged with Obama's campaign, his ideas, the new politics he espouses, the larger grassroots organizing movement, the massive numbers of volunteers and donors...that I had not really focused for some time on the fact that Obama is African-American. I mean, I knew it, of course, and I was afraid of some of the racism that played out during the campaign, but I was invested in his candidacy for so many additional reasons beyond the opportunity to change history and the chance to symbolically right our wrongs.

So I have to admit that the election night coverage was at first a bit strange to me, because it focused almost exclusively on the racial aspect of Obama's election...I was caught up in other aspects of his candidacy and his message--his attempt to dismantle the whole red state/blue state dichotomy, his attempt to articulate a larger, broader, better vision of America, his goal of a civil politics, his attempt to include more people at every stage of the campaign, including his victory speech--to build a real grassroots organization that mobilized literally millions of volunteers--the way his candidacy captured the yearning of our country to move beyond the hyperpartisan Rovian crap of the last years...I felt like the election was our country gearing up to collectively claim that this better America is who we are, who we want to be. But of course, our racial history is part of the America we wish we weren't, the America we're ashamed of, it is so deep, it is our American story.... On election night, I saw how so many people were relieved and were rejoicing that Americans could and did elect an African American, and I realized anew how much collective sadness and guilt and discomfort white Americans carry around with them, and how much the racial aspect of Obama's election meant to them, as well. Just a few days after the election, Anne and I went to her church in Harlem, where we heard from some of the parishioners about what the election meant to them--one elderly woman, who'd grown up in Mississippi, talked about how she had to trace her feet on pieces of paper to get new shoes, since she wasn't allowed in the store. And I was struck yet again with how much this election means, that there's a surfeit of meaning--that we bring to this moment our individual and collective histories, our individual and collective aspirations for America, and that it's all too big for words. My heart overflows with love for this country, which is a feeling I don't think I've ever had before. I'm proud that we have changed enough to elect an African-American to the Presidency, and I'm proud that American citizens are (re)awakening to democracy, to our power to choose and make the world we want to live in. As Congressman John Lewis stated during the Democratic National Convention, "Democracy is not a state, it is an act, it is actions." It does, indeed, feel like a new day, and one with a plenitude of actions before us.

At any rate, it has been an historic time, and one that I feel so blessed to have been part of. Looking at the headlines from across the country and the world is just overwhelming. Now comes the task of governing, and it's not going to be easy. The cynics and the wingnuts alike will make this complex situation even more difficult. And people are wondering: how do we keep this organization alive, this grassroots energy? I'm open to ideas, and I'll circulate what I learn with all of you.

One thing you can do, right now, is submit your ideas and suggestions to the Obama transition team at www.change.gov

You can also give a shout-out to Howard Dean, who first promoted the 50-state strategy. Obama has decided to update the weekly Presidential radio address by putting it on YouTube and radio, which should be interesting. Do you have other ideas about how Obama can continue to be in conversation with the larger public? Do you want to start a local meet-up group to get involved in your community? Share your ideas and let's see what we can build.

With love,
Erin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jeanne Heifetz <jeanne@brooklynforbarack.org>
Date: Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 3:53 PM
Subject: Just When I Thought I'd Stopped Crying

Dear Volunteers,

I've been compiling all of your thoughts and suggestions about how we go forward, and will send out an email about them soon, but in the meantime, so many of you have sent your stories of the last few days that I wanted to share them all. So grab your box of Kleenex.

Jeanne

* * *

We arrived back in Fort Greene just after Florida was called and our block just erupted. There was this one livery car that some drunk white guy got on top of and began dancing on. People tried to pull him off when they realized the driver was beginning to get upset and because there was a huge dent in the roof. The guy finally jumped off and everyone piled into the car to bang the roof back up while the driver watched stunned. The white guy came back just as the final dent was popped out and the livery driver went up to him and....

hugged him.

We went to bed at 3 with the windows open so that we could fall asleep to that joyful noise.

* * *

Some excerpts from a wonderful canvassing diary (full diary here)

We were maybe 50 strong, all psyched about canvassing in behalf of Obama. By canvassing we mean, of course, trying to persuade dozens of strangers in Wilkes-Barre of the importance of voting for Obama. It's chutzpah to do this I thought, and so out of character for me, I thought, but we were a busload of chutzpah, prepped for knocking on dozens of strangers' doors that gray and damp day to persuade, listen, engage our neighbors. What was it that emboldened us to do this? It was our fervent enthusiastic support for Obama, of course. But what it also signified was that we felt some kinship with our "fellow Americans" (a phrase I realize that's been co-opted by the Republican campaign) but here it was , proof that we were all neighbors, able to tap on each others' doors and say, 'hey, I live in the next door state, and I gotto talk to you. I'm in trouble! And I think you're in trouble too!'

We had traveled far, given up a day, endured nasty, rainy weather, and in the process, we believe we added two votes for Obama, But aside from this small accomplishment, we established something far more intangible – I believe for all of us -- about being American, and what our citizenship is really about. We really are all in it together. And we can knock on our neighbor's door in an emergency.

* * *

After Barack Obama spoke and Joe Biden greeted him on the stage, many of us were moved to tears. Our new leaders would transcend racial and generational boundaries that seemed impenetrable over the last eight years. We emerged out into the street, feeling invigorated enough to walk our way back across town. I have never, in my life, felt this kind of excitement. People were out driving in their cars and proudly honking their horns in honor of the victory. African-Americans hollered to me, a Jewish woman, that we did it. I held up signs and they held out their hands. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the night for me was when I noticed two white, male students walking down the sidewalk with the American flag draped across their shoulders. We have given them the country we told them they should believe in. We are The United States of America.

* * *

Last night at the Cleveland victory party, the crowd was as mixed in every way as any you could imagine. "Welcome to the real America!" called out the MC, & that summed up the night.

* * *

I was a child in the late 60s and early 70s.

I didn't quite understand politics or world affairs yet but I felt the turmoil of those times -- the war, the street riots, the assassinations, the young people trying to change things. But most of all, I also felt their dreams and their hopes -- of stopping the killing of war, of putting an end to the hatred of racial divide, of stemming the rise of a political system that was us against them -- and, more importantly, of creating a truly inclusive society, a better America for all the people and a braver, newer world.

Somehow, it never happened; the people gave up or were thwarted, the dream was deferred and that hope faded away.

Lately, I have felt that same hope in regards to this election, for this presidential candidate, and because of the many people I have met, talked to, debated with, and worked beside in this giant, united effort to eliminate those same problems and to realize a shared dream and a common hope for this society, this country and this world.

Yesterday, somehow, it did happen; the people came together and persevered, the dream was revitalized and that child's hope I felt all those years ago shone bright again, right on the other side of a door that has now swung open just a little wider.

* * *

Last night, right after the election was called, folks took to screaming and shouting and celebrating on my Brooklyn street. I leaned out my window watching, smiling, and crying. there's one person in particular I cannot get out of my mind. he was a young black man, running and jumping, crying out again and again: "MY vote counted! it was MY vote! MY vote counted! it was MY vote!"

* * *

Everyone I know offered what they could, from money to prayers to time, and it worked! Today, I am proud to be an American in the widest and most complex and wonderful sense of the term. Something shifted in me and us. This country is ours again. Even I am a patriot. We have yet to know all the ways that we will be grow, stretch, and learn over the next few years, but I feel faith and trust in the choice we made together -- a delicious feeling after 8 years in the darkest political wilderness.

* * *

Yesterday I was walking home with my 4-year-old who was having one of those public temper tantrums that make people stare at you like you've got 3 heads (this in Park Slope; you'd think everyone would've been in my shoes) and these kinds of meltdowns usually aggravate me beyond words, but I was pushing her stroller as she howled and thinking "Obama is president" and then I just smiled and smiled and smiled.

* * *

From an email sent out Tuesday morning:

We will be celebrating not just for ourselves, but for the generations to come as well as those who came before us, for those known and unknown without whom an Obama would never have been possible. His ascendancy will not solve the deep rooted problems of our day; racism won't be gone, the criminal injustice system will still exist tomorrow, innocent people will still be killed by our government, the parasitic military-industrial complex will still be feeding, the poor and less wealthy will still be disenfranchised, gays and lesbians, workers and minorities blatantly harassed and denied civil rights and women will still be the largest discriminated and abused group for years to come. However this does feel like the last few strokes to reach the surface, after we have all collectively been drowning, sinking in despair without air, not just for the last 8 years, but for over 30 years when Reaganomics first started unraveling the gains made here in the 60's and 70's. We have to hold our breaths just a little bit longer, we can see the sun-light flickering on the surface, and then, when we reach the surface (TONIGHT!), we can draw fresh air and start moving forward again.

* * *

Here are a few of my campaign memories:

• An elderly African-American woman, on hearing that I was going to Pennsylvania for Obama each weekend, took my hand in hers and called me "sister."
• While canvassing with a partner in the suburbs near Bethlehem, three White kids jumping on a trampoline saw our Obama gear and started chanting "O-bam-a," timing it so that the syllables coincided with the top of their jumps (when we could see them over the fence). It turned out that their mom was an Obama supporter.
• Calling to get directions after getting lost on the way back from seeing a polling place close as a poll watcher and hearing an excited 18-year-old say "Did you hear that we won Pennsylvania?!"

* * *

I wept as I walked out of the polls on Tuesday, not to mention during his acceptance speech. Tuesday morning after voting I boarded a train up to Boston to be with my grandmother who unfortunately suffered a massive stroke late Sunday night. She's 95 and been very happy and positive until this particular reality of being 95 violently arrived. She's now paralyzed on her right side and without the capacity to speak but able to acknowledge some of what we are saying. I showed her the newspaper Wednesday morning and spoke to her. The smiling half of her face does still glow. Last week, when she could still walk, she voted early for Obama in MA. Here with her now, despite her condition, we are all overjoyed about the election, overjoyed about Barack Obama.

* * *

Change has come. Yesterday, as I campaigned in Philadelphia for Barack Obama, I had the honor and joy of a special experience. In a small concrete island at an intersection in South West Philadelphia in the rain, a group of children held up signs and cheered for Barack Obama. Adults joined them and someone pulled their car over and played Sam Cooke's "Change Gon' Come" on their stereo. Passing cars honked, passersby smiled, my heart expanded and tears came to my eyes.

This is a moment in history when the Universe has shifted, making transformational change possible, and it is happening right before our eyes. Hope was stronger than fear. Calls for community were stronger than calls for division. Calls to our better selves were answered.

This is an America that I can be proud of.

* * *

When the results were announced I was collapsed on the couch with my friends Keisha and Doug in Philly after a 12 hour day of canvassing around the neighborhoods I'd been in for the past six Sundays working on voter registration and turnout. Keisha, who is African American, is married to my old friend Doug and I'd talked to Keisha over the past few months about what it would mean to raise their biracial daughter Clellan - now 5 months old - in this world. While we waited for the results Keisha talked about her father who was the first black student at an elite white East Coast school and always said 'never in my lifetime;' I talked about my grandparents who had spent summers in the early sixties doing voter registration in the South with Stokely Charmichael. When we heard, we sat stunned, not quite ready to believe. It wasn't until the Yes We Can speech that the tears were shed.

On Tuesday I started canvassing at 8:30 am in neighborhoods of Northwest Philly which have traditional voter turnout rates of 30% at best. During our first shift - from 8:30 to about 11 am, about 75% of the people we spoke to had already voted (many as soon as the poles had opened at 6 am), and the rest were either on their way their or planning to go ceremoniously with family later in the day. By the time we walked around a nearby neighborhood around noon, about 98% had voted, and proudly proclaimed it ("You LATE!" a few said with proud smiles). Having canvassed in the last presidential election it was truly incredible (although not astounding) that the personal drive and broad peer pressure dictated that every single person in these communities voted - early! - not taking any chances.

I only found a few people who were not completely committed to voting, but they all came around and cast their ballots. One 83 year old woman named Miss Harriett was not answering her door, so one of her neighbors took it upon herself to come bang on the door yelling "Miss Harriett! You got to come out and VOTE!" While I was walking her to the polls we ran into another old lady on her way to come and visit Miss Harriett. I assumed she was an old friend. It turned out to be Miss Harriett's step-mother. The conversation quickly turned to funerals, and how expensive they've become, and how expensive even cremation had become - besides food prices, their main issue. They asked me to explain what Mr. Obama's message and platform was all about, and I did in basics, and they started to get excited about voting. It was a sober contrast to the enthusiasm and priorities of the younger generation, but just as important.

There was another woman we came upon at about 7 pm during the last GOTV round in a mixed black and Latino neighborhood spent 20 minutes explaining to us the frantic decision making process which led her to decide on Obama. She also confided in us that her husband, who is actually employed by the McCain campaign, voted for Obama as well!

Tuesday was a buildup of the last month and a half for me. Throughout the day in these mostly black neighborhoods, people who had voted first thing in the morning expressed gratitude that we were out there making sure every single vote was cast - one woman said in reference to the early days of the civil rights movement: "This is how it USED to be." Kids throughout the neighborhood who had expressed disbelief over the past month that this white woman was out there pushing for this black man ("YOU voting for Obama???") recognized me from previous canvassing rounds and treated me like one of the community. I thought about some of the people I'd spoken to over the past several weeks: a man who told us he couldn't vote because he'd originally registered as a Republican because he's got 6 kids over in Iraq and thought the GOP would take better care of them, but then saw that he was wrong and wanted to support Obama but thought he couldn't vote against his party. He cried when we told him that he absolutely could. And the white Jewish woman in NE Philly on my first trip out who started telling us about her distinctly racist upbringing and how she didn't go to her high school prom because she was asked by a Black kid and her father never would have let her go, but how this election campaign had finally forced her to reconsider and move past this racism and embrace the candidate who to her was obviously better suited to the job and better represented her values.

So, to echo John McCain, it was the great privilege of my life to be involved in this incredible election. And as my friend Naya said when I met her for dinner Thursday night: WELCOME TO MY BRAND NEW WORLD!!

* * *

(written on Election Day from a traveler going from Malaysia to Thailand)

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Today, in honor of the election, I am wearing an Obama '08 button on my lapel. If the treatment and reaction throughout my day is any indication of what our world might become....I am overwhelmed with optimism. First, every single place I went, someone noticed the button and called out, "OBAMA!". There were international administrators from across the region at the Hotel. Many of them nodded and smiled, and even the non-Americans who reacted with huge enthusiasm. One man from Australia stopped me to talk politics for 10 minutes. The crew working behind the desk all gave a thumbs up...the taxi driver did not charge me for taking me to the airport.

I must explain that, once at the airport, I am one of very few Americans among Asians from all over this region. I might possibly be the only blond in either airport I have been in so far today, and won't see many if any Americans until Bangkok. I do not speak the language...thank goodness they speak English.

Upon seeing my button, everyone, without exception, smiles. I have received preferential treatment all day long. They didn't make me pay extra for a heavy bag, they treated me in short, like royalty. The stewardess told the pilot, who stood up in the cock pit to give me a thumbs up. Even the immigration official barely looked at my passport. He was much more interested in knowing an Obama supporter and what I thought would happen today.

When I was buying dinner at a very American McDonalds (the only place to get something to eat), the entire crew behind the counter (not one American) came to say kind words to me. The man who exchanged my money asked how I could do anything so far away from the USA. I told him, with some amount of pride, that I had voted by absentee ballot. He took my hand and said, "thank you so much for voting for Mr. Obama." There were actual tears in his eyes.

While waiting at the airport in Kota Kinabalu and girl about 9 years old saw my button. She smiled broadly. I said hello and she asked if I wanted Obama to win because she did and her whole family did and that that morning they said a prayer that he would. I told her that I thought Barack would like that a girl all the way in Kota Kinabalu said a prayer for him. She asked could I tell him that they were praying for him and I said I would send an email to his headquarters. She was so excited that she ran to tell her parents. Her father came over and asked me if I knew Obama. I told him I had seen him speak, but never met him. He said that his whole community was praying for Obama and that he appreciated that I would write an email to tell him. He took my hand and said, we are praying for all of the American people too. This was the second stranger to take my hand today. It was my turn to have tears in my eyes, because this man, who I didn't know, was completely sincere. I thanked him. He said, "all of us, together...do you understand?" I said, "All of us together." We parted...smiling!

I write this as I sit in the airport at Kuala Lumpur waiting for hours for the plane. The women who guard the doors have on Muslim headdresses, orange pants outfits and lime green jerseys. They are shy and reserved, yet they give me the thumbs up, and quietly whisper, "Obama" as I walk by. There are Thai and Chinese, and Indonesians and Indians surrounding me...The languages, dress, foods are all interesting. And sitting right next to me is a Buddhist monk, in just his orangish/yellow robes and shaved head. He smiles broadly when I look at him. He says frankly, "I like Obama."

The man behind the counter is Malaysian. He asks if I voted and when I confirm I have he laughs really loud and says something to the other official sitting next to him. This man laughs too. They both look at me intently. The one, fighting to find the right english begins, "This is (something in Malay). I smile saying I don't understand. He looks at his colleague and rattles something in Malay...The man says just a minute. He gets out a book. It is an english translation book. He says something to the man and hands him the book...pointing to a line on the page. The 1st man turns back to me and says..."this is fan/tas/a/tic...fan-tas-aahhh-tic...how do you say?" I tell him, yes, he is right "Fantastic". They laugh again at their attempts. I laugh too. He stamps everything forcefully, "wham! wham! wham!" And then he says something none of these officials ever take time to say, "We hope you will come back and visit our country!" "Of course, I say, of course." I don't quite know how to explain the full meaning of his invitation. Americans haven't been at the top of the list for quite awhile and traveling around, it isn't hard to sense.

Our leaders reflect who we are as a country/nation. I have always been proud of my family and Oregon. I have not always been proud of our leaders and the choices they make. Today I am proud...I am proud of our country and I was tearful watching a top French official trying to explain to the BBC reporter why the whole world is watching this election and praying that Obama will become our president.

Well, thank you for letting me share. Tomorrow at 7am we head to the American Embassy gathering to watch the election results come in. We are attending with world leaders and diplomats. We are to dress "smart casual". It should be quite the experience...one I hope brings new hope to our country and the world.