Doing the Lord's Work II: Door-to-Door Visitation

This morning I went out to visit voters door-to-door for Donnie Lewis who is running for Oklahoma House District 101.
Donnie Lewis
Donnie has a great campaign narrative. He is 25 year old, an elementary school teacher, and an Iraq War vet. He is running against an incumbent in a conservative district, but it is also populated by Tinker Air Force Base soldiers and workers, so I am really hoping that he can win the election.

Door-to-door campaigning is much more fun for me than phone banking. I really enjoy talking to people. When you see people face to face, they tend to be very polite, even rather happy to seem someone actively involved in campaigning.

I was with my friend, Jesse Isbell, a fellow union member, and the families we visited had union ties. That made it even easier.

Politics can be quite enjoyable if you are willing to take the plunge. We only have 10 days till the election. Many elections are won and lost in the last week, so I encourage you to get off the sidelines and get in the game.

Doing the Lord's Work

Phone Banking
Last night, I did a couple of hours of phone banking for Dana Orwig, who is running for the Oklahoma state legislature. This was a part of the Oklahoma City-American of Federation of Teachers' effort to elect public school friendly legislators. I belong to the OKC-AFT, Local 2309.
Dana Orwig for OK House, District 87
Phone banking is one of the least popular yet most effective forms of volunteer campaigning. What I was doing was calling fellow AFT members to identify them as pro-Dana, negative or undecided. This is one of the easiest forms of phone banking, made all the more easy because Dana has been a very hard working candidate. Many of those I contacted have met Dana personally and plan to vote for her. A couple have been active in her campaign.

Still, you contact the occasional "grump" who doesn't want to talk, or lets you know that it is NOYDB who they are voting for. You wish these folks would give you credit for being an active citizen, but there is nothing you can do about them.

I'm not trying to brag on myself (okay, maybe just a little), but I do wonder why more of us don't do something to show we are serious about this thing we call citizenship.

I don't know how many Americans do volunteer work in campaigns. Someone, somewhere must know the percentage, but I guess that it must be less than 5% who do.

I'm of a religious frame of mind, so when I tell those I am working with that we are "Doing the Lord's work." And by that I mean that anything that we do in the cause of justice for all must be advancing us towards that day when we realize "justice for all" as being something more than words mumbled when we do the Pledge of Allegiance.

With all the campaigns going on, there is far more need than there are workers to do them. So, I'd encourage everyone to "Do the Lord's Work" in whatever capacity suits you.

No matter what you do, You'll feel like you're a "Real American."