oh yeah.. OBAMA WON!

Surprisingly, I'm just now getting around to blogging about OBAMA! woo hoo! It was an intense weekend leading up to last Tuesday. I was at headquarters all day doing data entry, organizing volunteers, etc. But to sum up what I've been feeling, here's an excerpt of an email I sent a friend:

From my friend:
Hey Brandi, I continue to be impressed with your organization of Perry County. Four years ago it went for Bush (Can hardly say it) by 7 votes and this time it went for Obama by 2000 or so. Super effort. Thanks for making our country better.

My response:
It wasn't too hard for Perry Co. to vote Democrat. The past few elections the Democrats swept all the races. But you're right, Bush won four years ago and I don't know how! I can't find a soul that voted for the man ;) Seems like a lot of the people here are Democrat on a local level, but align more with Republicans on the national level. Guns, ProLife, Religion, etc.

We worked hard this election year. Starting way back in the primary. A small group of about 7 people organized for Obama. We were up against our county dem chair (who publicly supported Hillary) and a big undercurrent of 'good ole' boy' politics when one big guy in charge says to support Clinton, everyone else followed suit. We obviously didn't win the primary, but we had a good showing in numbers. We started campaigning again in August and by September I was out 2 or 3 times a week knocking on doors. My two boys with me the entire way. Cole (5yrs) loved it. He kept his own clip board and would record the Obama supporters for us. We got a record number to early vote and to vote on election day. It was a wonderful success! Our local dem leaders heads were spinning at our undying tenacity for Obama.

The main issues here were race and ignorance. Some people still believed he was muslim, or he's going to take their guns, or "he's too slick". Some said they weren't voting for a N**** and shut the door. We did our best to inform them of facts, but some people just won't open their minds. I would point to my boys and tell them our country needs a change, and Barack Obama is that change. This is for their future.

Thats why it was so important for me to have them along for the ride. It's a historical moment in American history and they can share a piece of it. Hopefully Cole remembers it when he gets older. On election night I called Cole before his bedtime and told him of our victory. I said "Cole, Obama won! WE won! All that hard work and knocking on doors paid off! We have elected a great president!" and he says "we don't have to knock on doors anymore??" I laughed and said "No, we don't have to do that for a while" and he asked "So what are we going to do now?" It's a simple question for him, but to me, it really struck me. He was ready to do more. And I felt like he learned an important message along the way, he learned to be a community organizer. A community activist. Volunteerism. Which is probably worth as much to me as Obama winning!