Closerer and Closerer
Today I learned that the entire town of Oxford, Ohio has been canvassed by our efforts as well as presumably most or all of the 14,000 Miami University students here. In Cincinnati, 61,000 households or individuals were canvassed on one day by Obama volunteers. Our goal is one million doors knocked on/voters contacted before Tuesday, a record that has never been set. People are still travelling from out of state to Texas and Ohio. Our three Chicago visitors left today after canvassing efforts in Hamilton, their Prius windows scrawled with "Obama" in soap.
I had a rude awakening to the realities of rural America today. Much of Hamilton is flat, gray, miserable, depressed, poor in ways we do not have in California, and dusty. Food choices are almost entirely limited to fast food. I had my first all-Taco Bell lunch and still feel undernourished and sick. Thank heavens for the yummy club panini sandwich at the non-Starbucks coffee place downtown Oxford.
Our first canvassing assignment was in block-like, brick "apartment" buildings that felt to me more like housing projects but which I'm pretty sure were not. Folks were friendly, though; this feels like the kind of demographic where people live paycheck-to-paycheck and possibly without health insurance. I cannot imagine what young people do for fun here; I saw no bars or bookstores and just one old and lonely movie theater. How depressing. I guess this is the kind of place that has been impacted by the disappearance of manufacturing jobs and the absorption by big agriculture of any community farming.
I had a rude awakening to the realities of rural America today. Much of Hamilton is flat, gray, miserable, depressed, poor in ways we do not have in California, and dusty. Food choices are almost entirely limited to fast food. I had my first all-Taco Bell lunch and still feel undernourished and sick. Thank heavens for the yummy club panini sandwich at the non-Starbucks coffee place downtown Oxford.
Our first canvassing assignment was in block-like, brick "apartment" buildings that felt to me more like housing projects but which I'm pretty sure were not. Folks were friendly, though; this feels like the kind of demographic where people live paycheck-to-paycheck and possibly without health insurance. I cannot imagine what young people do for fun here; I saw no bars or bookstores and just one old and lonely movie theater. How depressing. I guess this is the kind of place that has been impacted by the disappearance of manufacturing jobs and the absorption by big agriculture of any community farming.
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