Thought I would start a second thread of this post from earlier today from doribell. It was a great post which can be read here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Doribell deserves a HAT TIP for sharing with us his story. I thought it would be helpful if we could continue our responses to his original post.
Finish strong folks!
Summary of doribell's diary:
I live in a small town in North Carolina about 20 miles from a Walmart, the hub of that mountain community. Five of us went to Walmart to register people to vote today. I was there approximately 41/2 hours. I had no party affiliation signs and no campaign buttons, shirts or signs for any of the candidates.
Not everyone was sympathetic to our voter registration drive and there was evidence of blatant sexism and racism from strangers. One older gentleman drove by us in a pick-up truck and hollered loudly "F**ckin' Democrats." He knew we were Democrats because Republicans don’t want people to vote. Another man kept crossing in front of us and asking "Who should I vote for?" Every time I would say "We are not here to tell you who to vote for, just to register people to vote." Twenty or so minutes later he was back saying the same thing and I told him the same thing. But before he could leave, the young lady from the Obama Campaign said "I can't tell you who to vote for but if you ask me who I am voting for I can tell you that." He said "O.K. who are you voting for and she said "Obama" and he replied "I would never vote for a woman or a Nigger." They started to get into a discussion and I walked away to continue to my registration drive. In the background, I heard the Obama rep say "He brought people together in Chicago" and he replied something like "If you get him elected do you know what the Niggers' will do to us."
An hour or so later another older gentleman asked her who the Obama rep was voting for and again she said "Obama" and then someone called her away. The man then walked over to me and said "Did that girl say she was voting for a colored man?" I replied "We have no party affiliation in this venue we are only trying to get people registered to vote." He then said he would "never vote for a colored man or a woman."
Overall I had a fulfilling experience which we intend to continue before taking up the Obama campaign in earnest. But the open bigotry and hostility against black people and women was an eye opening experience. Is this 1950 or 2008?