I skipped the drag show partly because I planned to volunteer at two places in the morning. For several days women from the around the country and around the world had been arriving for the Presbyterian Women gathering, which was starting officially after lunch Saturday. Every three years for the past12 or 15, several thousand women descend on Louisville for a week of activities. All week women have been touring through the Presbyterian Center - just 3-4 blocks from the convention center - where the gathering is being held (and just 3-4 blcoks from Connections) - and many getting their pictures taken in front of the building and around Peace Seeker, the five-year-old Gallapalooza horse in front of our building. The women above were some of the "Global Partner" women on hand for the gathering. I chatted briefly with one of these women, who was from Palestine (at top right, I think). Saturday morning I showed up a little after 8 a.m. It took me a while to find anything to do. By 9 a.m. I was helpfully staffing an information booth with Kay, a woman from our friend Sarah's church. Diana, the woman on the right, was the first person who recruited me to help out. Helping giving arriving conference people - mainly middle-aged women - directions and information reminded me a lot of twice when I've helped Mom who was helping lead two different Florida American Association of University Women state conventions.
Below, Kay and Diana go over some of the information we were supposed to have at our finger tips.
Unzu is another Korean American staffer, who works with Presbyterian Women. We see each other at Asian American events, and she was a client for a study of how much Korean American Presbyterians would accept female elders and pastors. Unzu was helping display a domestic violence exhibit. Below she shows off one of the beautiful totebags gathering goers got - handmade in Peru - eac somewhat different.
Below in the jean skirt is Leslie, a reporter for the independent "Presbyterian Outlook" weekly who sometimes shows up at our church.
Leaving the convention center at 10:30 a.m. I buzzed across the 2nd street bridge to Perfections, a cafe across the river in downtown Jeffersonville (IN), very near where I'd gotten my hair cut the day before. There I was to canvass with the quasi-Obama campaign Organizing for America in support of the president's health care reform principles. You'll recall that twice in the previous month I'd been involved in similar tasks - the first time on the phone, the second time at the New Albany (IN) farmers' market - and found - in person, especially, in downtown New Albany - getting signatures was not easy. Here, I found myself paired with the one other volunteer canvasser - Jeff, who turned out to be the brotherin-law of the principal of Stephanie's elementary school - and the uncle of Abby, who helped recruit me for this, the second Saturday morning volunteer gig.
Two head honchos visited with us. Abby had stopped by earlier with doughnuts. Still there when I stopped by was Dustin, an African American man from Jeff whose house ended up being in my side of the precinct that Tim and I walked. Bethany, a librarian from Corydon in neighboring Harrison County (both she and Dustin apparently veterans of the Obama campaign), stayed the whole time and snared some signatures in the cafe and on the phone later. They gave Tim and I one precinct, giving me the odd-numbered sides of streets and Tim the even-numbered sides. We walked the first block together. But Tim turned out be particularly adept at listening and I outpaced (as he apparently got pulled into some people's houses to listen to their health care/health insurance stories). It turns out that this was the most Democratic precinct in the most Democratic town in Clark or Floyd county. So this was much easier than me circling downtown New Albany two weeks earlier on my own asking peopld cold. And we were just knocking on doors of Democratic and independent voters. We were fine to ask people we saw on the street - of if someone new had moved in - and I got several people to sign who were not on my lists. Still, I got about 10 signatures in 1 3/4 hours or so of canvassing (Tim and I walked through town to get to the precinct, which killed some time - although it made for activity points). There were a few African Americans on the route - including several cross-racial couples - and some older whites. Most people - if I found them at home and got them to answer the door - were somewhat friendly - whether or not I signed them up (or they signed themselves if I didn't have their names). No Obama death threats - although I did hear a disturbing story where a man said his friend who works for United Parcel Service in Louisville said that the friend's union was telling people that UPS was laying people off - apparently this was the UPS line - primarily because of Obama tax hikes. It was nice to talk with more supporters - even though walking through town and going to all of these "no home" houses was expensive time-wise. I got the feeling that - once you finally reached people - it was easier to have a conversation with people in person than on the phone (of course, this was even easier in this somewhat urban neighborhood, where the houses weren't that far apart and people weren't locked up in their suburban houses.) In general, things haven't looked good lately, since a week ago I got a daily e-mail message from the "Columbus Dispatch" with news that President Obama's approval rating has sunk to 49% - under 50% for the first time in a big state (and one he won last year - albeit one with high unemployment) - and follow-up stories in the NYTimes about how Obama - having lost Republican voters early on - is now losing independent voters - as unemployment continues to stay high and some of the GOP attacks on Obama as socialist, big government, high-tax, and high-deficit begin to take their toll.
Below- once we got out there - was one of the people Tim spoke with far a long time. I talked with several couples where one person signed but not the other. I was particularly happy when women bucked their husband and signed.
Abby tells me we had a target of 1,000 signatures for Southern Indiana - partly to present to Congressman Hill - one of the Blue Dog moderate and conservative Democratic Congressman currently slowing down the bill - hopefully, to improve it - not just to derail it. Hill and fellow Blue Dog Dem Allen Boyd - my rep from North Florida - voted for the climate change bill - and there may not be that many more votes like this they can take. The Republicans don't yet publicly have someone lined up to take Hill on, but I'm sure it will be close again. We'll be out of town this weekend - and the deadline is next Sunday - but Tuesday I'll stop by to make a few more calls or canvassing (which Saturday I liked - even though I've though I'm disadvantaged - esp. in Southern IN - because I don't sound Asian, but I do look Asian - and even though by the time I left Perfections after turning in my stuff and completing some paperwork (with the second shift not showing up yet) I had a migraine headache (and - after stopping at church to change the Guatemala prayer bulletin board - I went home and ate lunch and took a two-hour nap.
-- Perry
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