I've been canvassing each week for Obama, and yesterday the campaign sent us farther afield to a more rural area. I write this to convey an image I will probably never forget, the shadow of a woman's face in a darkened room, blurred by the screen in her trailer door. She is one of the people whose lives we're working to change, but she probably has no idea that government could ever help her.
It took several minutes for her to answer our knock on her trailer door, which she never opened but stood far enough away from for the screen to hide her face. We told her we were there on behalf of the Obama-Biden campaign, but it was clear right away that our standard script wouldn't be effective here. Suspecting that she may not be registered to vote, we explained that she could register the same day she voted here in NH (where we can't register voters on site). "Well I work all night and all morning, and I think I'll be too tired to go out when I get home," she said, and something about her words or her grammar hinted that she did not have much education.
Searching for a way to connect to her, I blathered away about a "middle class tax cut," and she just stared back at us. Maybe she was thinking that she was a long way from "middle" class. So we encouraged her to vote, made a note for the campaign to provide a ride on election day, and trudged on to our next house. "I shouldn't have used the word 'class', " I said as we walked away. "Yeah. Tax cut for working families is probably better," said my teammate, though I doubt this woman had a family. We probably should have said something about health care. But really what we were feeling was how much she needed help, and how we didn't know what to say to reach her with the campaign message. I realize now what we should have said: something about hope.
I've found that the most convincing rhetoric as you canvass is just your own truth about why you support Barack Obama. It's different in each conversation. Each contact makes the urgency of this campaign so much more personal. I can tell you all kinds of reasons why I have been inspired by hope - hope that we will have national pride again, hope that we can turn our country around and our economy around, but that dark shadow of a woman alone in her trailer won't leave my mind because I wish I had thought to tell her about how voting for Obama could bring hope to her life. As I trudge through the streets next week she will be in the back of my mind. Maybe I'll find a better way to say, "this campaign is about you" to each person who opens a door to me (or even who doesn't).