Pedal to the Metal

I received this email last night:

"The electoral map looked like this:  http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2004/Pres/Maps/Oct09.html

If you believed in the polls and the pundits on this day in 2004, Senator Kerry was on his way to the White House with victories in the battleground states of Ohio, Nevada, and Iowa.  As we all know, he lost all of them and the rest is history.  Tragic history.  So, stop getting excited.

Stay focused and turn off the tv.  Travel to a battleground state, and go knock on some doors.  Plan where you're going to be on Election Day.  Send that Oct 9th link to friends and fam and plan a roadtrip to Ohio or Colorado.  Make some Obama mixtapes for the car.  Don't be obvious and pick Sam Cooke for the first song (but, be sure to include him of course)

26 days. 

-b."

And I got this email:

Finally - I felt like it was difficult to get this started (calling for Barack)... maybe I was being distracted by life and not really trying, but there just was not a clear place where I was looking to get started - finally, I got an invitation to participate this weekend, so Sunday, I signed up for a 4 hour shift with a call bank.  YAY!

Awesome!  It's absolutely hard to get started volunteering.  We all know this.  I know it very well since most of my 16 mentees tell me they are going to do x,y, or z volunteering and they never do.  I have cast every vote I've ever had in a very blue state and until this election, I've never thought outside my own state.  I guess I didn't learn enough from my first presidential election in 2000 to do something in 2004.  Thankfully, my learning curve isn't that flat.  The first couple of calls can be tough.  More than 60% of the callers aren't home (or don't pick up) and you don't have a rhythm down.  But, soon enough, you get that rhythm.  In my office, people ring a bell for every Obama supporter they talk to.  The other day, someone rang the bell like crazy after talking to a woman that said she had 50 friends who were voting Obama.  The energy picks up and you start rolling.  Some people will come in for the half hour they have and others will stay all day.  People come in for their lunch hour and make as many calls as they can.  One high schooler came in the other day and stayed until he had 100 phone calls and was doing his Calculus homework on the side.  Whether you make 10 calls or 100, they all count.

I am going to try to take the advice above.  Don't pay attention to the polls (besides, pundits also predict that underlying racism could hurt Obama by up to 6 points) because no one is a shoe-in for the White House.  Keep working hard.  I just keep telling myself...less than three weeks and I can get more sleep.  I told one of my friends...I'd rather have a crappy three weeks than a crappy four years, so that's why I have Obama's name all over my calendar.  Keep it up team!