Canvassing with My Grandmother in Philly

I've been on the ground in different parts of the Philadelphia area for 3 days now, and I apologize for not blogging earlier.

Day 1
On Saturday morning, I got up early and left my apartment in Northern Virginia at 7 AM to drive up to Philly. I went to Haverford first, to pick up my grandmother, and then we went to the Obama rally in Wynnewood, which is a fairly upper-income, largely white suburb with a lot of Jews. I went to high school in that area, so I know it well, and have been doing a lot of canvassing in that area.

The rally was awesome. Obama came off the train in shades looking totally cool. Most of his stump speech was new, and the best line was when he said "I don't want to have a debate about flag pins, I want to have a debate about healthcare or bringing jobs back to PA". The crowd went wild when he said that.

Afterwards my grandmother and I knocked on doors in Wynnewood for a little while, but we were just going to identified supporters reminding them to vote, though a few people we met were wavering in their support (or had been identified wrong to begin with). Many of the people we talked to had just come from the same rally. It was getting close to Passover and a lot of people were busy getting ready, so it felt like we were just bugging them and preaching to the choir. Eventually we decided to call it a day, since the heat was getting to my grandmother (she is 78 after all, energetic as she might be).

We went back to my grandparents' house, and my grandmother remarked that she never thought there would be an African American candidate with a serious shot at the presidency in her lifetime. My grandmother was there for MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and protested discriminatory housing practices in California when she was my age, so unlike many older women, who want to see a woman president in their lifetime, I think for my grandmother seeing an African American president would be even more of a fulfillment of a dream.

Day 2
On Sunday, I did not get out there until the evening, because we had a Passover Seder at my aunt and uncle's in Elkins Park, PA. Driving there, we drove through Northeast Philly, which is Hillary country, but the ratio of yard signs was not as bad as I expected. In Northeast Philly, we saw 9 Hillary signs and 5 Obama. Once we entered the suburbs (Abington/Cheltenham area), there was a lot more love for Obama...a few Hillary signs but too many Obama signs to count.

After dinner, I took my 17 and 14-year-old cousins to canvass in Cheltenham. We were sent to a fairly well-to-do neighborhood that was surprisingly racially integrated. Lots of love for Obama there, although several African Americans said they were undecided, and one African American couple was for Hillary. This was my cousins' first time doing this and my little cousin Jeffrey was being a little annoying, so we had to cut it short. But we got a reasonably good feeling from that neighborhood.

Day 3
Yesterday I went to South Philly, where a friend and I hung doorhangers in 2 predominantly African American neighborhoods reminding them to vote and containing information about their polling place. We were not knocking on doors, just hanging doorhangers, but from the signs in the windows and the people we talked to in passing, we could tell that there was a lot of love for Obama in that neighborhood.

My experience yesterday was simultaneously depressing and hopeful. Depressing because the neighborhoods we canvassed were obviously pretty poor, and many homes were boarded up. The sidewalks are cracked and full of trash, and a couple young men we talked to offered us drugs. Many people were home in the middle of the day, when I would have thought most people would be at work.

At the same time, we found hope. One only had to walk the streets of that neighborhood to see how much excitement Obama's candidacy had generated. One elderly black woman we talked to beamed with pride, saying "he's my boy". If he gets elected, he may not be able to get enough money appropriated for urban renewal or to improve their schools, but I could tell that he has given them hope just by running for president and getting as far as he has.

I'm going to wrap this up because I am anxious to get back to Philly to help with GOTV, but I wanted to report on my experiences. I will try to see if I can get on the Internet at some point today to update this.

If anyone in PA who's undecided is reading this, please think about how much Obama has inspired poor neighborhoods in South Philly and elsewhere in the city before you make up your mind.

P.S. Just talked to my grandparents, who voted for Obama this morning in Haverford. Today is my grandfather's 79th birthday, and he'd love to see an Obama victory. Yet another reason to make calls or volunteer and help bring it home today!

P.P.S. If you guys rec this diary I will try to get to a computer during the day to post an update on GOTV progress.