Edwards in Atlanta...

John Edwards came into town yesterday so Deana and I headed up. The weather for those of you who aren't local turned Atlanta into a little winter wonderland. I had invited a few people with my local One Corps Chapter of John Edwards supporters to come carpool up with Deana and I. But they understandably cancelled due to concerns about being stuck in town in bad weather.

I was having a very political day, having just held an organizational meeting to get volunteers organized to start working on voting Lynn Westmoreland out of office with canvassing, phone banking, and house parties. As soon as I found out Edwards was coming I cancelled the canvassing for that day so that I could come out to see Edwards. Tommorrow we take on a congressman who said in response to the Genocide in Darfur that it's time for those people to pull themselves up by their boot straps and take care of their own problems; today we go get some motivation after working hard all morning coming up with a coherent plan. We don't have to do everything in one day! We can have some fun...

The event was scheduled for 2:30 but the good little volunteer I am, I wanted to head up early to see if anything needed to be done before the event. We left about 12:30 in the snow!!




It was so warm we weren't really concerned about the roads having ice till possible late that night. But I wasn't going to let reality stop my little romantic vision of volunteers braving the weather to come out and support their candidate. It was my own little Iowa fairytale.

So we get up there. Leave it to me, we walk in and five minutes later we're upstairs painting signs for the event.



One of the reasons I love Deana so much is the fact that we can go to some kind of event and 9 times at of 10 she ends up working. She's a real trooper when it comes to doing this kind of stuff with me. I try to give her options where she doesn't have to do anything. But I figure its almost like a non-option: So what your telling me is I can sit down here, by myself, in an empty room where they are testing lights and nobodies going to be coming for another hour and half, or go paint signs? Thats a choice?

Anyhow, I of coarse have struggled with any form of drawing/painting/or visual art since way back in kindergarten. But I go at it. I come up with the idea to say "John Edwards can take our country back" since one of my big arguments has been his strong polling data among swing voters and conservatives. He has much better numbers than Clinton or Obama when it comes to the way people view him personally. Especially in a state like GA we need that.

I'm personally involved with a big push locally in Henry County to get the Democrats back on the map. We will be doing real grassroots work this election year with canvassing, phone banking, and house parties. We will stand up for our communities, because someone has to fight for those without health care, good education, or good jobs. But we have a huge challenge before us and if we want to get candidates elected locally we can use all the help we can get.

So as a voter in Henry County... I want a strong top of the ticket name thats going to help inspire voters but not inspire the opposition to come out and vote. Its a basic question of do I want someone on TV talking about social justice or do I want to be able to elect local officials actually working for social justice? I choose the later... which is why Edwards polling numbers tell me he would have a positive impact for us at the polls.

So anyways I think Edwards helps us locally take our country back. So now I start to work... I'm doing great...

Edwards...

can...

take...

our...

and then all of a sudden I get too much on auto pilot. Someone said something that distracted me and I look down to notice that I've written the words

back...

Opps!!

Edwards can take our back! Hmmm. Now i'm really embarrassed... the volunteer lady's hollering out we've got twenty minutes till they need us to clear the room! I think, how can I hide this so that nobody ever notices that I can't paint a sign. I'm back in kindergarten and the cool kids will laugh. So I pull myself out of that and say to myself, self your 27 years old and have an A.A. degree how do we fix this. Then all of a sudden I think of something and ask to everybody: Hey can somebody draw an outline of the country?

So the end product turns out like so...


So I was very happy of my fixed goof! I wanted to find the person who ended up with my sign but the room filled up really well so I never got to get a picture of them with my sign.

But we felt we could go back downstairs, that we had done something to help. Plus I had invited some people who said they might come, we've grown to know a few other core Edwards supporters since way back at the beginning of all this that I hope were going to turn out; so we didn't want to not get to say hello to anyone.

Anyways as we wait I try to keep working the room making sure nobody is bored and that everybody is aware of Edwards One Corps, the DNC's neighborhood leader program, and by the by "do they know someone in Fayette and Henry County?". These are all important questions to ask that I need to know and have info and contacts for them in many cases. Plus you get to meet some wonderful people from all walks of life that truly care about whats going on in the world.

Met a lovely couple who had driven up from Macon, met an Associate Director of the AARP here in GA, had a good conversation with a German journalist who was covering the Edwards campaign who said that Edwards was very popular in Europe. People from all walks of life participate in politics thats why its so important to make sure to take the time to go up and say hello.

Anyhow the event starts...



The best line of the whole event came from Governor Roy Barnes said: "We knew George Bush would screw up the country but we didn't know he could screw up the whole world."






Edwards did great. He hit some of his best material in good stride that lifted the emotions. With any good speaker you can feel the rise and fall of the audience. He talked about fighting for health care for everyone, protecting Unions, ending the tendency in our country to create divisive constructs of your success is my failure. Its a message of economic justice that really melds with my core values. I truly believe that you ask people to work hard, get an education, and be a productive member of the community; and you hold the entire community to be a part of helping to make sure that individuals don't have an unachievable mountain to climb.

Working hard is meaningless if there are no opportunities, and no way to lift yourself out of bad times. Opportunity, and second chances; these things shouldn't be a blessing that only the rich, wealthy, and successful upper-middle class can be able to fall back on. Everyone no matter race, class, gender,genetic disposition, or disability; should be able to work hard, not fall from the unexpected, and be able to move past bad choices or situations they have found themselves in. Our communities should support those efforts.

Thats why I support John Edwards because I think he has an ability to communicate those values to people in a way that a majority of Americans will be able to hear him and respond.

All and all it was a wonderful day. I kept thinking to myself how could it felt to see a leader talking about these issue. Deana must have been thinking the same thing because as we were going home we said to each other out of nowhere: We've got to go see a Republican talk. We both wondered what a Conservative could possiblly be talking about? And I mean that not in jest. Do they mention the millions of Americans in poverty, without health care? Do they talk about the fact that the current administration violates our laws as well as international human rights laws? Do they sprinkle their speech with the wonkish data that brings to life the struggles of Americans, and then talk about their vision for fixing those issues? Do they talk about all of us being in this thing together?

I don't know. But come back soon. We're going to go and listen to a Conservative, and I'll be reporting back to you on what I find out. If anyone knows of events in Atlanta from any of the Republican candidates please let me know.