It's 6 am on a Saturday, and I just woke up my 12 year-old son to get up and get ready. And, I'm smiling with pride as my tween who has definitely reached the point where nature has him wanting to sleep until noon on weekends, reacted with:
"Uh? Oh, right. Come on, Mom. Today's the day!"
What is he so excited about? Halloween trick or treating? His birthday? Christmas? -- Nope.
We are scheduled to be out the door at 7 am in order to drive over the Ohio River from KY to Cincinnati for GOTV work all weekend for Obama!
As I'm taking these few moments for checking polls, the news, COFFEE, and this diary, he's out in the garage cleaning out the van, because we, "might GET to drive people to early voting, Mom! And, I gotta get my stuff out of their way."
And, I'm smiling some more because this candidate has not only inspired him to become actively involved as a future citizen (more on this point later), but also this campaign has inspired him to look beyond himself to think of other's needs and comfort. For example, last night, he packaged the candy we hadn't handed out into little goodie packages "in case we ran into kids" or "people in lines" who might like them.
From the sound of crashes and thumps coming from the garage, I can tell that the balls and bats in our van are being replaced with the cases of small water bottles we bought for volunteers or voters in lines. The two loaves of banana bread and plates of brownies are ready to go for the Team Obama volunteers. (Banana bread was my idea; the brownies were his. Well, maybe he's not ENTIRELY altruistic, yet. :))
But beyond sharing what I hope is an inspirational scene of a young person being ALL FIRED UP and getting READY TO GO, I also want to share that this young person is not yet an American citizen. He will be one, this Summer, but he isn't one at this point.
We adopted our son from an Eastern European country when he was two, so he is an immigrant. As our son, he has the right to become a naturalized citizen, but we decided to leave the option open to him. We wanted to respect his right to his birth country citizenship, and leave it up to him wether or not he remained a permanent resident of the United States or chose to become a citizen. He has made his decision, and this summer, he will be proudly helping us fill out the required legal forms and will attend his naturalization ceremony.
Having been born a citizen with the right to vote when I reached the age of 18, I always appreciated my right to vote, but in all honesty, I did not really see it as the wonderful right, with attached civic responsibilities, that it is, until I caught a glimpse of the "whole thing" through my son's eyes. You see, he did a research project on his birth country for school, this year, and learned some sad realities about Romania's recent history. He learned about the political situation that led to him being abandoned at birth and left alone and neglected in a deplorable orphanage. He learned about how both adults and even he as an infant and toddler suffered in a country where citizens could not freely vote into office good people -- people like Barack Obama.
Oops, that crash didn't sound good, so I'd better run. Besides, time is flying, and we still need to gas up the van, grab a rare treat of McDonald's breakfast sandwiches, and hit the road.
So, if you'd planned to surf the web, today, or poll watch the day away, I would like to encourage you to get up, get out, and get involved with GOTV activities instead.
As my son said, "Come on! Today's the day!"
If you don't know what you could do, or are worried about just showing up at a volunteer center with a bunch of strangers, I promise that you'll just be joining people like my son and I. Who knows, maybe you'll be in time for a slice of banana bread!
To find a location to help out, you can use the Obama Volunteer site. it's easy. You just enter your zip code and you can find a place to go. And yes, you can just bring a charged cell phone and comfy shoes, and a smiling person will welcome you and find something for you to do!
Have to run ... he's back inside and sighing at me with exasperation for being on-line, AGAIN. Here's the link to find something to do:
Volunteer for GOTV!
And happy GOTV to all of you! YES, WE CAN!