250,000 People Marching for Peace

As I reflect on a day of "door hanging" one encounter especially stands out.

An elderly woman invited me to sit one the porch and she told me that she had been a lifelong Democrat. She told me that being a Democrat is a state of mind, that Democrats are the ones who care enough to look after others. She said that there are two types of people the ones who are selfish and the ones who will share even when there is little to share. She said that almost all Americans were that way during WWII, and blamed the TV for encouraging people to want so many things that they forget to do what is right. She thanked me for being a Democrat and said that she knew that I must be a good person.

oh deb, that is beautiful. can i share that with people?

It's good to see everyone making a difference today. And i'm glad everyone did their part on this canvassing effort,even dean took part goos photos too.

And i just saw the number as i came in 1 million doors that is impressive. Hopefully they'll be more of this down the road and something tels me i think we have a shot to take back congress and other races in November.

Let's keep the fight going fellow dems.

Sure Jen

Posted by xdebx on April 29, 2006 at 10:26 PM

What a nice story, xdebx. Don't you feel there is a longing for people to come together again in this country?

Even with all the emphasis in the past decade by Republicans to drive a wedge among voters, most people are experiencing a deep yearning to be reunited for the common good. Hard times and big worries do that to a nation. Your new friend remembers it all too well from the past.

Perhaps all we needed to do all along was take the risk and knock on a few doors. I sense something good and honest happened because of it today.

You know the Republicans must have hated seeing Democrats getting close to those they like to manipulate. And they certainly don't like seeing us empowered and enjoying what we are doing.

Because enthusiasm can be contagious. Determination is respected. Honesty is admired. And hope is eternal.

America is made up of a diverse variety of people with the same hopes and dreams. At our core there is the belief that happiness is not measured by the amount of money you have, but by the number of friends you make.

So it's essential that we stay in touch with these new friends we met today and continue to reach out to others. It's not really a hard task. It's a privilege to be invited to someone else's life.

Awesome! I love it.:D

My 70th birthday was on the 29th (my California canvas is scheduled for May 13th so i wasn't playing hookey!) and sister and I were telling my son what it was like during World War II. We turned in our bacon grease, saved newspapers and tin foil so that our little town could "buy" the wing of an airplane, grew a Victory Garden, used rationing stamps for just about everything, including gas, and cut holes in the toes of our shoes when we outgrew them since we could only buy two pairs a year. Our pennies went for stamps which later turned into Victory Bonds. What a comparison with a President who urged people to go shopping as their way to contribute to "his" war effort! And now, instead of leading a real effort to reduce our dependence on oil, we're going to get a $100 rebate because prices are so high. My son echoed the woman whom Peppermint Lizzy met when he said that, on the whole, the Republicans he meets are selfish. The bottom line, for them personally, is all that matters. Democrats are the ones who care about the nation as a whole, and about how things affect their neighbors.

My 70th birthday was on the 29th (my California canvas is scheduled for May 13th so i wasn't playing hookey!) and sister and I were telling my son what it was like during World War II. We turned in our bacon grease, saved newspapers and tin foil so that our little town could "buy" the wing of an airplane, grew a Victory Garden, used rationing stamps for just about everything, including gas, and cut holes in the toes of our shoes when we outgrew them since we could only buy two pairs a year. Our pennies went for stamps which later turned into Victory Bonds. What a comparison with a President who urged people to go shopping as their way to contribute to "his" war effort! And now, instead of leading a real effort to reduce our dependence on oil, we're going to get a $100 rebate because prices are so high. My son echoed the woman whom Peppermint Lizzy met when he said that, on the whole, the Republicans he meets are selfish. The bottom line, for them personally, is all that matters. Democrats are the ones who care about the nation as a whole, and about how things affect their neighbors.

Happy Birthday sharontoji! Great post

By all accounts the meeting I attended on April 29th was a dismal failure. It reflected accurately the inability of the Democratic Party to organize. A total of 3 people showed up to collect the required materials (which did not arrive due to a delay by the DNC)to canvass. The flyers did not arrive to the organizer in time, so we made our way to Kinko's to make copies prior to canvassing. There were no lists of registered democrats to use, wasn't this to have been distributed to all event managers?
While my personal canvassing experience was great I feel that it was overshadowed with the feeling of frustration. Frustration over the fact that we cannot organize events planned far in advance-that the DNC cannot deliver the required materials (or notify event organizers that they will not be delivering them so they can get materials another way). And finally frustration over the fact that only 3 people were canvassing ALL of Orange County, CA. I am afraid this event proved to me that I am more alone in my activism than I thought.
To learn from this event I hope that the DNC will do a better job of letting event organizers know what they will be providing...and what they cannot provide due to lack of funding...but please, do not tell us the excuse is lack of organiztion...we have enough of that already!

Frank Biele

Amen to what Frank Biele said in his above post. No one was assigned responsibility for communicating to participants when promised materials could not be delivered. We had a very successful canvass in Syracuse because we knew who to contact on our own. Our Rochester volunteers were completely abandoned without explanation. It should not be too difficult to honestly tell people when you cannot deliver on your promises. It is inexcusable to not even try.

Unfortunately I have to agree a bit on this. I got my materials fine. The few that I got. But we need to have voter registration lists to get these things to all the registered democrats. Then we need to have the date of the general election on them, so people will no when nut cutting time is. Finally we need to put on a website like www.yourvotematters.org">www.yourvotematters.org so that people who haven't registered will know easily how to.

No don't get me wrong.. This was a great start. Now we need to improve on it. And maintain a good pace all the way through to November 7th. Election day.

I definitely agree about needing to have better communication, although I'm of the opinion that there's always room for that. I'm not sure if a list of registered Democrats was really necessary for this canvass. The purpose of this canvass was to get our message and 6 point plan out to the people. I don't think the goal was to only give this information to Democrats. I think we were supposed to get it out to everyone.

JSCram, I agree. We are trying to reach potential Democratic voters not just those that have been identified. What's wrong with talking to all our neighbors? You might get the vote out with an established list, but it's not the way to build up the party for the future.

I'm sorry that some of you were left hanging. I'm glad you were resourceful enough to go out and canvass anyway.

We made up our own flyers for handouts in the 2004 election. I figured the copying costs were part of my contribution to the party...I've done the same thing for other civic organizatins for which I've done volunteer work.

If a Big,Important Man like Dean can walk door to door why can everyone, the handicap, the working family, walk in the evening,the laid off, the between jobs,workers, even the unemployed, what a good way to make contacts for another job while promoting our Democratic Candidates, and the Retired can drive a few Blocks from their home and pass out flyers and talk that talk. Let us make sure we have enough flyers by making another contribution to the DNC. We are going to win the majority regardless of what the Republicans say. They are scrambling to save their back side but it won't work. The people have had enough, they plan to vote Democratic this election and the 'o8 election.

This was a good thing to do and a good time to do it.

I'd say that the vast majority of people who we ran into were not particularly occupied by thoughts of politics and the election in November. That said, this was an extremely worthwhile thing to do. It also indicates a remarkable change of pace on the part of the National Party and suggests a different emphasis than just asking for money all the time.

I think the process could be improved in a couple of ways.

The pieces of literature that we hand out ought to be something that we can print ourselves -- if need be. Most people don't have access to color printers, or if they have access, it's far more expensive than what they can afford. The DNC made a number of versions of their 'doorhanger'. One version in the future should be 'low-budger' -- something that fits 2-to-a-page, handbill style, and it should look good printed on a B&W printer or photocopier.

The only other thing they have to be aware of is if they're trying to organize anything other than a simple blast of email -- if they're actually organizing something that people like us need to respond to, they have to get it in their heads that people are going to email them and that they have to respond. As a bunch of volunteers we devide the world into two parts: those who respond to their email and those who don't. Since we're kind of busy ourselves we tend to work with the former group.

Anyway, this was early enough in the election cycle to learn from one's mistakes. We agreed to organize other events like this and it was a timely and wonderful debut.

frank,

If you come back, I believe the CA walk has been set for 5/13. Some literature was mailed in anticipation of those who wanted to start on the 29th, but the lists are being done by the State Party for the 13th. that must be why the low turnout, also.

seems like a misunderstanding there.

Great article in today's Washington Post on how the D's are targeting entrenched R's in NE congressional races. It occurs to me that we should be circulating millions of bumper stickers reading: "Support President Bush: Vote Republican."