ON THE GROUND

One of the most amazing aspects of Campaign '08 was reaching out to Americans and making them aware of what Barack stands for.  I had never been involved in a campaign until this year, although I had given money, so this was quite a departure.   My friend Brooks and I canvassed in NE Portland, the most racially diverse part of the city and state and a neighborhood in transition. This was in September when Oregon was still in single digits.  

I knocked on a door, and an elderly African-American man answered.  He said he planned to vote for Obama.  There were a few small kids in the living room watching cartoons.  The man said he had a few questions for us, and he asked us to step outside.  First, he wanted to know whether felons were banned from voting.  While we were uncertain, we told him it would be no problem (every vote counts!).  Next, in the most serious tone one could imagine, he asked me if I thought that whites in Portland would riot if Obama won.  Mind you, Portland is one of the whitest but also most liberal cities in the country.  I jokingly told him that whites and folks like me in liberal Portland (and across many parts of the country) would riot if Obama lost!  He smiled and with that we registered him to vote.