The Scottish Saltire

The Scottish Saltire

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Pounding The Pennsylvania Pavement

I had a great day yesterday. I spent 7 hours actively participating in our electoral process. I encourage anyone who truly believes in a candidate (any candidate!) to get involved in the campaign process. It is so empowering to feel like you are contributing more than just a vote to help your candidate win!

Besides being politically satisfying, it was just a beautiful day to be out walking. The tulips are out in force in everyone's yards, kids were outside playing (no school yesterday) and Mount Lebanon neighborhoods are so pretty. I had to smile when I saw 3 little entrepreneurs with a sidewalk lemonade stand. They were also offering freshly popped popcorn for 50 cents. They served my buttery purchase in a homemade paper cone. It was so cute!
A little later, as I walked by a couple of young boys playing catch, who had been watching me hang *stuff* on doors, one of them asked me, " Are like a mailman or something?" Imagine trying to explain canvasing to a 9 year old in 15 words or less.

At another point in time, just as I was feeling pretty cocky and mentally patting myself on the back for being so proactive in my political beliefs, I started up a set of about 6 stone steps to the next house on my list and promptly...... tripped! Fortunately, I caught myself before I knocked out my front teeth but it did serve to put my ego back in check. LOL!

There were campaign yard signs all over the place, but one yard, in particular, made me stop and do a double take. On one side of the yard was a Hilary Clinton sign, and on the other side of the same yard was a Barack Obama sign. I had to laugh, conjuring an imaginary conversation between the two voters in that household: "This is my side of the yard and that is your side." "That's fine with me as long as you keep your crummy sign on your own side!"

I finished my second route and returned to the campaign office just in time to get a seat to hear Sen. Bob Casey Jr. speak to the volunteers. Besides being the junior senator from PA. Sen. Casey is also the son of the 44th governor of Pennsylvania. After he spoke he then introduced former Sen. Harris Wofford. Sen. Wofford was a friend and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King and a part of JFK's presidential campaign and administration.

I snapped a couple of pictures of them individually with my phone as they each spoke and as they were leaving I asked if I could get a picture of them together. Sen Casey suggested that I should be in the picture, too. So we gave my phone to someone else to take the picture and the Senators put me in between them. It's an awful photo. I had been out on the streets all day long and looked pretty ragged and the guy who took it didn't center it very well but I'm keepin' it! I was honored to stand between these two men.

Senator Obama is not expected to win Pennsylvania's primary today but he still leads Senator Clinton in delegates and in the popular vote. If Sen. Clinton wins by less than 5 points there will be increased pressure for her to drop out of the race but if she wins by more than that then today's results will give her campaign renewed vigor. What an exciting time to be politically active!

2 comments:

Nikki said...

How cool that you had such a fun day! Being across the ocean makes me do an antsy-dance whenever I hear news about ze Homeland -- it's surprising how much attention the European media pays to our elections! Everybody over here knows who Obama and Clinton are. Unfortunately, no matter how many discussions we have in English class at the Fachhochschule, they can't vote. :oP Thanks for doing enough work for the both of us!

Amy said...

Blurry, ragged, or ill-composed, that's still an awesome picture :-) Standing between the two towering politicians, you are quite clearly standing proud after a hard day of working for what you believe in. Go go go!