Black Friday was certainly a black day for Governor Walker as the recall drive continued. I along with my 13 year old son met up with 3 other volunteers outside the Bayshore Mal lin the mid afternoon yesterday. Bayshore is located in Milwaukee's north shore suburbs and as their website attests:
Bayshore is located in the most affluent area of Milwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin. The North Shore of Milwaukee’s 100,000 households boast an average income over $100,000. 15 million people visit the center annually.
Of course the Wisconsin GOP cried foul that recall petition gatherers were bothering shoppers, but our experience was anything but.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Follow me below the squiggly orange lines for our experience yesterday.
My son and I arrived shortly after 3 p.m. yesterday as we cleared the last of our Thanksgiving visitors from our home. The mall parking lot, as expected, was nearly full. We were able to find a metered spot not too far away and made our way across the street from the mall on Silver Spring Drive. It was unseasonably warm as well, about 55 degrees which certainly helped. The four of us petition gatherers were on each corner opposite the mall. I'm not sure how true this is, but the rumor is that the mall owns the sidewalk bordering the mall. Either way, we played it safe and remained across the street on the public sidewalk.
I had never met the other 3 volunteers but they were friendly and creative people. On one side they had a person with a large Recall petition sign and on our corner, a man had brought his dog along with a homemade "Recall Petition" shirt on it. We were nothing but friendly to people as they walked by and for the most part it was reciprocated. One couple said they supported Governor Walker, but simply walked past us without any harassing comments or otherwise obnoxious behavior. Even for that couple and the others who weren't interested in signing, we thanked them. Of course, with Silver Spring being a busy street we had our share of 'yahoos' who either honked and gave us the finger or yelled "Walker" as they drove by, but it was few and far between. We got a lot more honks in support and even better we got several drivers to turn down the side street, park, get out of the car and sign the petition.
We had all sorts of people sign our petition. In just over an hour of standing on the corner, we probably got close to 30 signatures. I also have to say that, contrary to reports, the response from the African American community was even more enthusiastic than anyone else. I'd say that at least half my signatures were from African-Americans from Milwaukee. They understood what was at stake and what was needed to get Mr. Walker out of office and from what I could see were totally behind it 100%. I also got a middle aged couple from Scott Walker's hometown of Wauwatosa to sign as well. They were so thankful because they said they had been looking around for petition gatherers the past couple days waiting to sign.
I am off to gather more signatures today. No rest for the weary. I'll see if my 13 year old will join me again as today is not going to be as nice weather wise, rain and falling temps. I believe we are well on our way to getting enough signatures and as much as some people here may be "recall fatigued", I certainly didn't see it yesterday as the enthusiasm to sign was still very high.
9:48 AM PT: UPDATE: Thanks so much! First time on the recommend list. Whatever anyone can do helps so much in the recall. Whether it's signing, volunteering, contributing, it's everyone doing their part.