Beth Roberts asked: In 2004, I watched the news media declare Bush the projected winner; again. I knew then it was going to be the longest four years of my life. Two years later, on October 18, 2006, I was flipping through the channels on my television and decided to stop and watch the Oprah Show, which was all ready in progress. Since I started watching sometime after the show began, I had no idea who the man was that Oprah was talking with, or what they had been talking about. However, something about this man fascinated me and I began to listen to what he was saying.
I watched this man, a man who was discussing ideas about his vision for a better America. I was very intrigued with his comments about “beneath the surface, we all have the same hopes and dreams and fears and that the human story is universal.” I also heard him discuss what we needed to instill in our country and in our children was a sense of “are you useful, to others and are you making other people’s lives a little bit better.” Are you Useful? That statement was such a novel idea for me. By the time he said “there’s a wonderful saying that…the most important office in a democracy is the office of citizen;” this man, had my complete attention. I was so captivated by his progressive ideas that a quite unusual thought crossed my mind; “I wish that man would run for President.” I had now idea at the time my wish would set me on a journey less spoken because my support and admiration of this man could cause trouble for me if people were to discover that I was supporting an African-American who may become the President of the United States.
I knew nothing at all about the man I was introduced to for “the very first time” when Oprah was interviewing him about his book. At the time of the interview, I had tuned in too late to know what this man’s name was or the name of the book that I now know was “The Audacity of Hope.” Although I knew nothing about him or his life, I did know one important thing about him; he needed to become “my” President.
Several minutes after I had made my wish for this unknown man to run for President, Oprah spoke up and asked him, “would you run for President?” So, now there were at least two people who wanted him to become President, but one of us had no clue who he was. Although I didn’t know anything about the man, I wondered if he could become President; not because of the color of his skin, but because I was clueless about the political process and if there were any rules and qualifications for a person to become President; other than you had to be a naturally born citizen of the United States.
Time past; and as the months went by, the memory of my introduction to this man faded. So when he announced he would begin a campaign to become the President. I recognized him immediately. I don’t know how I knew it was him, but I knew. I paid close attention and found out his name was Senator
Obama. I don’t think I heard his first name; just “Senator
Obama.” There that man stood; at last I knew his last name and I discovered he was a Democratic Senator from Illinois. Not only did I feel something greater than me had heard my wish; but my journey less spoken had begun and I was committed to make my wish come true!
As soon as I heard his announcement on that cold February day, I began my search for a way to become involved in his political campaign. I need to say that prior to Senator
Obama’s announcement, I had never participated in any political campaign, nor had I ever volunteered or donated to any political party. I had at least voted, but as an “unaffiliated voter,” I was usually voting for the “lesser of two evils,” not “for” a candidate I actually wanted to be President.
My first involvement with Senator
Obama’s campaign was during the Oregon primaries. Now I, a lowly person, scared to talk to strangers, me, did my first ever canvass just prior to the primary elections. It took all the courage I had while sitting in a borrowed car, and I took at least10 minutes convincing myself that I could overcome my fear of talking to strangers for the GREATER GOOD of our Country. The “GREATER GOOD” won out; and I knocked on my first door. I was fortunate that who I spoke with, were kind and respectful, which gave me the courage to knock on that second door.
Since I had my first experience with canvassing, I continued to face my greatest challenge; stepping out of my home, and even more so, talking to complete strangers. I have knocked on hundreds of doors, spoke to over one hundred complete strangers at outdoor community events, and participated in phone banking. Even after having doors slammed in my face and in one instance, being run of a man’s property, I pushed forward with my fear stuck in my back pocket and continued to knock on door after door.
The night of the Primaries I was glued to the TV to see
Obama win the state of Oregon, which for one of the first times, our state mattered to the outcome of an Election. Since the Primaries ended, I became a political junky. I started my personal fund-raising on the
Obama website, continued to canvass and make phone calls. I continued to be committed to our Democratic Candidate. Even through all of the attacks against him, I saw him stay firmly committed to his vision and message that drew me to him in the first place. I was confident that when
Obama was elected, he would begin the healing of our Country, and little did I know at the time, he would become the healer and President of our world.
Soon after the Oregon primaries, we were assigned an area organizer in my small town. We put on an acceptance speech party that turned into a great resource for volunteers. From that time forward, up through Election Day, we were working night and day to get every
Obama vote we could in our “red” rural county.
As much as I could, between watching my grandson so that my daughter could attend college, and taking care of my own special needs son, I was volunteering for the
Obama campaign. As Election Day got closer, I donated more and more hours at the O-office. Since I have bad asthma, once the weather changed, I had become an office “assistant.” I had already participated in canvassing, phone banking, data entry, and preparing canvas packets, but as our pool of volunteers grew, the area organizer became extremely busy. He was either training new volunteers, or when the focus of contacting people would change he would have to re-train volunteers.
It soon became obvious to me that we needed someone to organize the check-in and check-out process and assist volunteers with their paperwork when they returned. I decided that I would just do it. I saw the need, I knew I had the skills, so it was natural for me to just step up and do it. I went about making the whole process more efficient and organized; at the time, I had no idea how important that organization would become until one night, even with three of us in the office, it had been so busy that even with all my organization, I was close to being overwhelmed. In the seven hours that I was there we had only one fifteen minute lull in one of our busiest nights. I can’t even begin to explain how exhausted I was; yet I didn’t let it deter me from showing up the next day and night to do it all over again.
I also assisted in another endeavor that many of us were asked to participate in. We were asked to start submitting “letters to the editor” and “Op-eds” targeting battleground states. Our efforts started with few volunteers, but rapidly grew into a movement. We had much success pub
lishing in those battleground states and I regained my writing skills that I use to have before I had a brain injury. As a result of participating in this, I was able to publish many articles, a couple of columns, and had some success in posting in some Florida online newspapers. This volunteering work played a huge role in my increased self confidence and gave me more than I can ever express.
One night, after a very long day and after everyone had left; our area organizer set down on the table, one of the many cell phones he was messing with, and put it on speaker. At this point my area organizer just turned and looked at me with this sheepish grin, but didn’t say a word. All of the sudden a man started talking and said that
Obama would soon be on the line to speak with us. I think my mouth dropped clear to the floor. I thought to myself “no way.” But within just a few minutes, I heard his voice. As he spoke to the 20,000 listeners around the Country, I could hear in his voice that he was tired. He had just landed and it was about 10pm in the time zone where he was about to give another speech.
There may have been many defining and memorable moments in my life, but, other than the birth of my children and grandchildren, this was one of them. I had not been able to go see him speak when he was in Oregon, but here I was listening to him on a cell phone. His words were supportive of our efforts, and to remind us that we were not to let up with our efforts, not for one minute. Just having the opportunity to hear his voice, filled me with intense joy and it took everything to keep from having tears run down my cheeks. I was on such an emotional high that I didn’t sleep at all that night. Yet, I went right back to the O-office the next day to work another 7 hours.
The evening before the election it was announced that
Obama’s grandmother had passed away. I cried, I sobbed, and cried some more. I wanted her to see her grandson become the 44th President of the United States of America, and she lost her battle with cancer just one day to soon. Then that evening I watched a very moving moment, as
Obama spoke about her, I saw him wipe away his tears; as he wept, I cried. But what stirred inside of me, was how could anyone not see, he was “of the people,” no different than the rest of us, and had wept, not just in front of a large crowd of people who had come to see him, but in front of every viewer watching him on TV. I knew the answer to my rhetorical question, but I asked myself, had anyone ever, I mean ever, seen a President or someone who would become President, weep in front of millions?
The day and evening of Nov. 4th there were many volunteers helping us so much, taking two or three packets at a time, and would return to tell me their most moving moments, which made every day they had volunteered worth their effort. I was fortunate to hear their stories as I continued to work hard in the office on up to election night and the excitement and buzz was increasing every hour. We still had volunteers on the phone and canvassing, up until 30 minutes prior to Oregon’s polls closing. Once again I was manning the office, only this time, I was honored that the area organizer had trusted me enough to give me that responsibility. However, in accepting that responsibility, I had no idea, what that meant for me on election night.
I am probably one of two billion around the world, which actually missed all the fun leading up to the media projecting that
Obama would be our next President of the United States. For Election night, I had been manning the County Democratic Office of all those who were running for positions in my city and county that were already at the Election party, while I was without a television or the Internet. I was unable to leave until someone returned to lock up and relieve me thirty minutes after the polls closed.
It was a long couple of hours for me, with no contact with another human, and without any idea how the election was going. It soon became evident that having the honor of being trusted by the area organizer to “hold down the fort” while he stayed at the elections office to be a “watcher,” would cause me to miss what everyone else, all the volunteers, all of those running for local office were watching at the election party.
In my predicament, I did experience one bit irony that momentarily brightened my night. The phone rang, thinking it was my area organizer, I answered it. However, it was actually a young republican volunteer, doing last minute phone banking. He was as confused as I was about why he called the Country Democratic office to talk to a “republican” about making sure that their “republican” ballot got turned in before the polls closed in fifteen minutes. He really was quite baffled, but I was cordial and said, “I realize that you are just doing your phone banking job, but I don’t think you realized that you have called the County Democratic office,” I heard a awkward laugh from him and I ended the call saying have a good night. I couldn’t hang up the phone fast enough before I fell on the floor and laughed my head off.
Eventually I was relieved of my duty and arrived at what was left of the Election party, just one minute before our President-elect’s acceptance speech. As I watched, I was astonished at the beauty of all the faces that looked upon this man, as their new great hope. I saw tears of joy not only on women and young ones faces, but on the cheeks of grown men who were openly sobbing; a sight I had not seen before. Not only was it the grandest moment of the accumulation of nearly two years of my effort, but it was an amazing, historic event that I was thankful I had been given the opportunity to be a part of.
On my drive home, after his historic speech, I had some time to reflect upon my journey less spoken, and how my journey had come full circle. I started my less spoken journey two-years ago not knowing who this great man was, but having an unspoken wish that someday he could be my President; that night, November 4th, 2008, he became everyone’s President; and while on my journey, I was thoroughly introduced to that man I once knew nothing about. I am so grateful that my unspoken wish from two-years ago has now become our 44th President of the United States of America,
President Barack Obama.
Ashley
