Knock knock

I didn’t experience door canvassing until Miami, and even then I barely had a brush with it, so instead I will quote here from Mark’s blog. Mark was canvassing doors in DC, taking off with a van full of canvassers each day and dropping them at key points in the posh suburbs. (He was much more on top of the ball than I was, and wrote about this stuff as it was happening. What an idea.)

Some choice excerpts:

Today happened to be my first day canvassing completely by myself. I went door to door in a neighborhood on the Potomac in Alexandria. I either got a door quickly shut in my face with the words "Wrong house. We're Republican." Or I was offered lemonade, ice-cold water, or leftover lasagna.
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The highlight of the day was a first grader who ran upstairs while I was talking to his father, and came back down with some of the contents of his piggy bank. He wished me luck getting a new president and handed me various coinage. I told him to try and pretend he was 18 this November and sneak in to the polls….

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I met a man today who said he works on the road construction outside of Pennsylvania Ave. Everybody in his union dislikes President Bush, so they've taken an absurd amount of time to complete the roadwork on purpose. In fact, he claims that his unit has "inadvertently" cut off the power and water supplies to the White House while drilling on two separate occasions. I'm not sure if he was lying or not. When he shook my hand, he held it with confidence and looked me in the eyes with promise. He believed in me, which made me believe in him and his word. Even if his words did involve federal sabotage crimes.
I have been practicing my Spanish while going door to door. I have learned that latinos who are in the process of becoming citizens are more excited about their ability to participate in this government than people who actually have a vote. This makes me really optimistic and angry at the same time. I guess I'll write more later once I've had the opportunity to digest the importance of certain macro-political movements.

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I find myself explaining democracy to a lot of small children. A 6 year old boy enthusiastically asked me today if a presidential election involves a swordfight. I regrettfully informed him that it did not. I contemplated explaining the historical significance of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, but I didn't want to get his hopes up.
He didn't think voting sounded very exciting, so I told him that he might be able to punch his ballot with a sword. Any sentence that involves the word "punch" and "sword" tend to ignite interest in hyperactive-agressive 6 year old dudes.
I meet people from both ends of the age spectrum.
Ruth opened the front door, and said through the screened one "I don't know what you're selling, but boy, I'm buying. Look at your smile!". It made me smile bigger, and blush.
She insisted that I must be the same age of her high school graduate grandson, but I informed that I had actually just graduated from college. She thought that I was a boy genius of no more than 18 years of age, like her grandson, and had simply breezed through college in an accelerated program. I had to tell her that I was, in fact, 22. I told her not to be fooled by the smile, and that I shaved that morning, which makes me look more pubescent.
She continued to talk, for nearly 30 mins. about her grandsons, and her knees, and her porch. Eventually, she stopped herself and said, "I guess none of this has anything to do with presidents and whatnot". I told her that it was ok. Eventually she gave a contribution after I told her that the reason I came door to door was to bring politics back to the people and to make sure the government listens to people's needs. If by "people's needs" they mean "80 year old women's physical therapy schedule", then I feel like I've fulfilled my civic duty. I would have rather talked about swordfights though, to be honest.