Change We Need (To Work For)

"Hello, my name is Scotty and I am a volunteer for Barack Obama's campaign for change..."

This Sunday afternoon, I forsook watching the Buffalo Bills game--not that I missed much apparently--to volunteer two hours to make phone calls on behalf of the Obama/Biden ticket. After avoiding (or just flat out ignoring) the inquiries for help the past week, I finally answered the call and made my way into the city shortly before noon to do my Democratic duty and work the phones in an effort to get the (Democrat) vote out.

Honestly, if I woke up Wednesday morning and McPalin was the president elect and I hadn't done more than donate money, wear a pin and place bumper stickers on my car, the depression I would surely feel anyway would be laced with guilt. Though the outcome of who will receive New York's electoral votes was never really been in question, for some states it is still remains to be determined how the chips will fall.

Given what I had heard in the news of late regarding the "tightening" of the race in Pennsylvania, I had assumed I would be calling there,. Instead, I was given a printout of registered voters from a number of voting districts in the state of Florida. The overall experience of being "part of the process" was a fascinating one and for a few hours I really felt part of a larger purpose, along with the thirty or so other folks from a variety of genders, ages and demographics. We each sat out our table, stool or folding chair in a building that was bare bones (and if I recall correctly a former bar I had been to in my youth), each of feverishly dialing our cell phones and spreading the word... or more often then not, leaving a message.

Each of the past two presidential elections, I have become incrementally more "involved" and this time I feel more "all in"... I guess with my own perception that the stakes are high (higher than ever I can recall), it feels to good to have done more than I had in the past... of course, either way, for all of us the real work begins November 4.