I flew in to Denver from Seattle on Wednesday to do my part for 6 days to GOTV in this swing state in this critical area. I've been knocking doors for 40 years. What happened at the end of the day in Denver today has never happened to me before.
What happened is why I'm in it and in Denver and what I'd like to prevent and stop. I just can't believe what I heard. And I'm angry and heartbroken that anything like this could happen.
Follow me below the fold to hear the story, or if you are not so inclined, please just help out in the next two days to GOTV so maybe, just maybe, less of this sort to thing ever happens again
Like I said in the intro, am here from Seattle in Denver, CO to help turn out the vote in the Denver metro to swing this state from purple to blue. Been knocking doors and working the walk lists for OBA.
Today at about 4pm I picked up another walk list to finish the day. About 60 or so doors to knock. Now if you don't know, the Denver metro is a FUN place to canvas, and the OBA staff is well organized and highly energized.
So I'm knocking and I'm near the end of my list. One more apartment building to hit with 5 targets.
I hit the first 3, and 2 of them were home. Young mid twenty somethings who had not early voted and appreciated my providing info on where to vote and to make a solid plan for voting on Tuesday.
The 4th of 5 is up on the 3rd floor in this 3 story walk up. The target is a woman and identified as Vote By Mail (VBM). You probably know that my job is to get her to commit to filling out her ballot and drop it in a 24 hour drop box... Let's call her "Jill" (not her real name).
I knock on the door and introduce myself as Mike a volunteer for the Obama campaign. Surprisingly Jill, a white woman who looks to be in her 50s, asks me to come in. I do.
I notice immediately that Jill seems a tad emotional. She tells me that she voted for Obama in 2008 and intended to vote for him in 2012, but that she's a Christian and 2 weeks ago her church told her not to vote for Obama.
She told me that her church told her she could not vote for Obama because he is for abortion and he is for the gays. She said she didn't know what to do, or how to vote.
She asked me to sit down on the sofa and she sat down next to me.
I told her
Jill, let me give you some information and let's cover this one at a time. Let me first talk to you about President Obama and his decision and his position on marriage equality, what you call the gay issue. Jill, President Obama made a decision as president about a year or so ago that his administration would no longer support the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [snip] And subsequent to that decision a Federal Court ruled DOMA to be unconstitutionally discriminatory. Also, the President now supports Marriage Equality in states like mine, Washington, where we have an initiative on the ballot.
Jill, President Obama is not for abortion. You may have heard that some Republicans running for Congress have said that they believe the government has the right to tell a woman who has been raped that she must carry that pregnancy to term. Jill, the President believes that the government does not have the right to tell a woman what to do or not to do with her own body. And Jill, one of the reasons I flew here is because I don't believe a gray faced man with a 2 dollar haircut has any business telling a woman what to do with her body. (h/t Tina Fey).
At this point Jill tells me "I was raped. When I was younger I was raped. What I did was wrong. I learned this at my church. My church told me that Obama is for abortion and with the gays because he is a Muslim and wants to destroy our country."
Jill's eyes were full of tears and the emotion on her face was so very sad.
I told Jill that the judge of what is right and wrong is God. That we are taught that our God is a loving and forgiving God. That she need not worry about what she did after that terrible crime.
I told her that President Obama was not a Muslim set upon destroying our nation with abortion and gay lifestyles. I told her more.
I then proceeded to try and wrap this visit up. I told her that she needed to vote and that if she thought about it and if she prayed upon it, she would come to the right decision. I asked her if she knew where to drop her ballot once she filled it out.
At that point she told me she did not have it. She had thrown the ballot away. She did not trust she would make the right decision in the eyes of her church. She asked me if there was some way she still could vote. I told her. She sobbed.
I gave her a hug. I told her that it was alright. I told her she was a good person, and that she was very kind to have invited me in to talk with me about such a personal issue.
Friends, my eyes are tearing as I type this. I cannot understand why her church told her the lies they did and thus put her in such pain over a civic duty.
I am heart broken. "Jill" is not going to go to the polling place on Tuesday. She can't stand to bear the pain because her church has told her her choice of a vote is not Christian.
PLEASE, don't sit back and do nothing these next two days. Do a little something, anything you can. The "Jill"s of our country very badly need our help. It can't wait.
10:28 PM PT: All, thank you for reading and commenting.
Some have asked for the name of the church. My friend here asked the same. Look, I did not and do not want to know. I'm not violent, but I don't need a focus for the rage I felt.
Some have asked why I went in. Because she looked and sounded like she needed someone to talk to ... badly. I've no regrets. I can take care of myself.
Some discussion about the law .... I get it, but I was not am not concerned about the IRS rule. I'm concerned about people (and women specifically) who are carelessly treated like shit by others for some political or religious gain.
Again, thanks for reading. Thanks for the rec list.
Please get out there and do just a little something in the next 2 days.
Working together we will make progress. Progress is made by moving FORWARD.
Yes We Can Together.
