I just got my diary priviledges!
I posted this just a few minutes ago as a comment but thought maybe I could pull it out front, hoping it might benefit someone who is nervous about canvassing, or knowing what to say.
It is not as difficult as you think.
My best advice is to talk about yourself. Open up and tell people why you will be voting for Obama, tell them YOUR story.
About your hardships in life. Your lack of healthcare coverage. Your single-parent status. Your worries for your children...which leads me to my first diary ever.
With the help of my local Obama volunteer coordinator, I did my first canvass this weekend.
I brought along my little boy, who is a huge Obama fan. Given the choice between riding his bike and canvassing, he picked canvassing.
I am very proud. He was the official doorbell-ringer. Like Halloween without the cavities...
I live in a swing state. In an area with more older people than almost anywhere in the country. My biggest obstacle was apathy and I was surprised to hear what they said.
They sat on their porches and said there was no use in voting.
Voting would never change a thing in their lifetime.
They told me this as my 8-year-old son was standing there next to me with his Obama pin proudly on display. His hopes for a good, safe future were deep in his uplifted eyes, as he listened to what these older folks said.
My answer?
Maybe not. But do you have grandchildren like this little guy? What about them? Can you really afford to give up on this country and leave the mess for him to clean up?
I told them that I was not giving up my weekend for me. I was giving it up for my son. I would rather be having a picnic in the park with my him. That my son would rather be riding his bike. But for me and this little boy beside me, there is that much at stake.
We met another young family, gathering 'free' items off someone's porch post-yard sale.
They had obviously fallen on hard times. I was surprised to hear what they said.
They're not voting. No way.
It won't make a difference. They'll steal the election anyway. We voted the last time and they stole it.
My answer?
I asked them if they wanted their little girl to just hand over her lunch money to the playground bully every day and never try to stand up for herself?
I said if we give up, and don't vote and take our country back, we teach our children that being a bully gets you somewhere. Cheating gets you somewhere. Why? It becomes easier for bullies to win because good guys give up.
That we are teaching our children that there is no use in wanting a better life, that it will be stolen from you anyway.
We need to remind the apathetic voters that this is about our children's future - our grandchildren's future. And the children are watching.
Are they really sure they want to trust it to a man with a hair-trigger temper? I don't want a draft for my son.
I don't want a world war for my son. I want the U.S. to regain the respect of the world so my son will never be faced with the dangers we face today.
Do they trust it to a woman without the courage to put her qualifications out there for us to use to make a sound decision for our children?
I asked them if they had no preference for themselves, then to please give their vote to the children.
My son, at 8-years-old, was standing there as a real-life example of why their vote counts. It was difficult for them to turn away and not look at his cute, little, community-organizing face.
And one of the old women we talked to promised my son that she would indeed vote, and she would vote for Obama, because of my son.
The dad in that young family decided he would teach his daughter by example to stand up for what she believes. That he would vote. (But mom is still not voting.)
I think that day, what helped them them was the chance to see the big picture of all that is at stake in this election, not just what is in their own backyards.
But we got two more. That's what's important. And I asked the volunteer office to make sure they call the old woman on election day and see if she needs a ride to the polls.
Keep up the good fight everyone.
And before you go - please do this one thing for my little boy. Take every diary you write today and make it into a letter to the editor - send it to every newspaper you can. I turned this story into a letter to the editor asking people to register to vote TODAY.