I usually hate diaries that say "please rec this"; it seems like pandering to the audience because you don't have enough substance to get rec'ed [sic?] on your own. (For the grammar Nazi's reading this, should that semi-colon be outside the quotation marks or inside? I debated this for a good 30 seconds. But I digress...) I also, though being relatively new to the game, as you may see by my magic number, hate short diaries that throw out one sentence without some kind of- something- to instigate discussion.
Forgive me please, as I, on two separate counts, become someone I hate.
(PLEASE REC THIS)
I've lived in Texas all but one semester of my 25 years- I cast my futile vote for John Kerry in my first election. (Futile might be too harsh, but we knew Bush was winning Texas). The primaries this year, however, changed everything. For the first time I could not only see my vote actually counting in a way that was more than symbolic, but I could also really make a difference by talking to my neighbors thanks to Senator Obama's (can I call you Barack?) brilliant use of technology as he ran the first ever post-postmodern campaign for office. (I am a writer and literary critic; after the work is done and the (knock on all wood in sight) celebrations are over, expect a diary on the post-postmodernist political movement Obama created and how it (don't jinx it, don't jinx it) helped us in this campaign.) I phonebanked. I stood at the polls. I gave money. It was thrilling, taking hold of a piece of the future and helping make history. I'm a bit addicted.
And now, T-minus five days and counting, I find myself, amidst the country's big change, solipsistically [sic?] making a huge change of my own. I'm moving to New York City for reasons completely unrelated to the coming election. While this transfers my vote (in the future, already voted by mail this year) from a safe-ish (but watch out 2012) Red State to an equally safe Blue State.
The difference is, of course, that Texas is: a) a huge freaking state that is very hard to drive across, and b) almost completely surrounded by relatively safe Red States, save New Mexico, which I am currently about 9 hours from (See Point a)). Now I'm in New York, a state a mere afternoon's driving distance from two of the states that the McCain "campaign" is desperately trying to make swing states- Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. I can get to one of those two states in a mere afternoon, which brings me to my point...
I sold my car today. I am landing in New York City Saturday at 5 pm, getting to my brand new apartment at 7 pm or so, going to sleep, waking up at 10 am, watching my cousin run the NYC Marathon (the Brooklyn stretch) at noon.
I will, one way or another, be on a bus/car/train/walking to Reading, Pennsylvania by 2 pm on Sunday in order to help Barack Obama become the next president of the United States. If I have to pay for a bus ticket, so be it... but... basically I'm suggesting:
Let's make this diary a Motherblog, I believe it's called, for anyone who is travelling to canvas, GOTV, and poll watch in the next few days. I'm a starving writer who is going into debt to move, but I will be there somehow. So, like the good Democrats we are, it's carpool time.
First I'll start out with a plea for myself. Anyone leaving from the NYC area going to Pennsylvania (especially the Reading area) on Sunday or EARLY Monday, I will buy us our roadtrip lunch, pay half the gas, and let you choose the music and how high the heater goes, for use of the backseat that is going anyway. It's our chance to make new friends, save some money, help the environment, and change the world as we know it!
If you are going from any place to any other to GOTV in the next few days, please post a comment that says from where to where, when you're leaving, etc. If you're in my shoes and in need of a ride, post too. If you can provide a night on your couch for volunteers traveling too far too commute, post. If you want to make sandwiches (I'm a big turkey and swiss fan myself) for people and let us spend 30 minutes refreshing in your kitchen, post. Let's use this Netroots thing that we heard was going to ruin the Democratic Party to give the right wing a smackdown that will reverberate for generations! Yes. We. Can.