Blog Center: Yes' Blog - Archived Entry

It's been three weeks since our gargantuan cross country trip registering voters and still, inspiring memories sprout forth in my mind and even in my dreams. I can't help but distill some of the most eye opening and inspiring moments from that trip---with the hope that they will help fuel the fire and energy of the thousands of Americans busting ass to ensure political change in America right now.

This is my most recent surfacing thought: After having just read the newspaper, I can't help but feel uneasy about the press's(and America's) obsession with "The Polls". It can be easy to get lost in whatever everyone else might think, however, a better idea might be to ask ourselves the question: "what do I think?" Well, one of the things I think is that "The Polls" are full of shit.

Why? One reason that comes to mind is a guy I met on our trip named Terrell. I walked up to him in front of his modest table at a craft fair in downtown Philly. "Are you registered to vote?" I asked. Looking disinterested, he replied, "no, I don't vote." He looked like he was in his late 20s; talented at making bean-bag pillows-the kind that go over your eyes-but I couldn't help but wonder if he was even going to be able to cover the costs of running his table at the fair that day. I couldn't help but think that as an independent craftsman, he must be interested in our economy, and hopefully our presidency. I lightly probed further. " So why don't you vote?" I asked.

"My vote doesn't really count anyway." he hesitantly replied. Now, I could assume that if he thought that his vote might count, then he might register and vote. I quickly and kindly went to work: "Did you know that Bush won the last election by only 527 votes in Florida? Did you know that PA is a very important swing state in this election?" I believe that once he had heard part of my opinion on the importance of his vote, coupled with the crazy idea of some passionate, driven, volunteer kid from San Francisco coming to a Philly craft fair to register his ass- empowered him to speak his mind, and express his disdain for Bush with his one vote.

So we talked slowly about politics, and also about how he makes these bean bags by hand, and you can freeze them or microwave them, and how he puts in special herbs too, to release stress. And so at some point, mid-conversation, he said, "I'll register to vote". We flled out the form together, and I vividly remember the look of pride on his face when he stood up and signed that form. He said, "I'll vote... Yeah...I'm going to vote. For the first time". Looking back down at his paper confidently, empowered, "I'm going to vote." he said to himself.

Now that sounds so CHEEZY--and it really was. A peace-loving Driving Votes volunteer and a thug-looking guy at the craft fair, talking politics and herbal bean bag eye therapy. Cheezy, yes. But the kind of ass-kickin cheese that's going to unseat Bush this year.

And The Polls? Now it's moments like this that polls can't measure. We've got passionate people all across America that are registering Democratic voters in areas that these polls don't even know exist. Lower to middle income, working class neighborhoods are going to show at the voting booths this year. I know this because I was there. And I saw so many passionate, driven, everyday people stepping up in their communities to make their voices heard. Many of these people have been volunteering long hours since the beginning of the year and earlier.

So I say screw the polls and their hasty "Howard Dean is the next president!" sensationalism. Yeah, we've got work to do. Great work, Passionate work. And in the next 42 days, when we see the Bush Agenda crumble under its own weight of twisted truths and flat-out lies, it's our hard work--your hard work right now--that will ensure that on Novemebr 3rd, George W. Bush, former president, is the only person who needs a strees-reducing aromatherapy eye pillow to heal his troubled soul.

THE END. (Yes now steps down from the soapbox.)