Well, today was certainly interesting! Got up, showered, got geared up to make a batch of soap, then trotted myself off to the next town. The town I live in isn't really a political black hole; the college has student organizations, but I haven't seen much evidence of any politicking except for signs on people's lawns or in their windows. That means that the regional headquarters is in the next town, and that's where things are happening.
I discussed it with mom yesterday, then called dad and discussed it with him, too. Both of them thought it was a good idea, but I grouched at dad and said, "And why aren't you doing something, too?" His excuse is that he doesn't want to be stuck doing phone-duty. I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to be stuck on phone-duty, either! Turned out there was enough to do that didn't involve people, and that was exactly what I was fortunate enough to do.
It turned out, furthermore, that the directeur regional was a former classmate. I didn't know him except by name while we were in college, and was astonished he even remembered me.
"What would you like to do?" he asked.
"Something that doesn't involve people," I answered. "I can do paperwork if there's any that needs doing."
Paperwork wasn't exactly what I ended up doing, but it did involve an awful lot of paper. I was given the task of cutting turf in one of the voting precincts in the next county. This was done with the aim of making things easier for the people who are canvassing on foot; lots of paper involved here, since the lists of voters have to be printed out along with little maps of each chunk of the precinct. So, for three hours, barring about a 20 minute interval during which the printer decided to be extremely uncooperative. By that point, we were about ready to throw it out the door and let passing traffic destroy it; luckily there was an old inkjet printer in the back, and that, while awfully slow, did get things done.
So.. get out there and do something, dammit!
2 comments:
I won't say that I'll definitely go volunteer for the man's campaign because I never seem to actually manage to be brave enough for that, but I am doing an awful lot of educating with my family, friends and neighbors (who should be used to this by now, since this is at least the 3rd presidential election, and 7th overall that I've been heavily involved with making sure everyone I know gets themselves to the polls and is informed when they get there). And I got my brother an absentee ballot because I knew he'd never remember to go online and order one himself. Now I'm just waiting for the Supervisor of Elections for the county to release the sample ballots for the general election and I'll start researching candidates and issues...
This is pretty much the first election I've gotten seriously involved with. I remember being outraged during the last two, but I didn't go beyond that. This time, though, it's pretty much a pot-boiling-over reflex.
Good for you, though! The point is that you're doing *something*, and you certainly are. :)
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