Workin' the Phone bank

Phone Bank at Akron Democratic Headquarters

Bert Powers, Phone Bank Coordinator

The phone bank is always waiting for volunteers with time on their hands. Bert is the phone bank coordinator here in the Akron office. I was asking him what attracted him to the Obama campaign. Like many, he mentioned Barack's speech to the 2004 convention that brought down the house. He said that after the primary he was on the bus and as it passed by the campaign office he decided on the spur of the moment to walk in and volunteer. Before he knew it, he was the head coordinator of the phone bank. He trains new volunteers and passes out assignments. When asked what he found most rewarding, he mentioned training new volunteers and meeting new people. He also talked about the very positive environment here in the office. And he said that when he is not here, he feels like he is genuinely missed.

I asked him about his e-mail address that had the words bipolar in it. He is not hesitant to talk about his disability and is a living testament that people with mental illness can have a productive life. He is an incredible advocate for progressive attitudes toward mental illness -- a message reinforced with his contageous joy he brings to each day.

Who Would Have Known?

Max and Matthew Lesko

For those of you who are insomniacs and have spent the late night hours flipping through the cable channels, you may have come across a fellow with a suit covered with question marks selling his book on government programs that YOU might benefit from.





The fellow with the question mark suit was here at headquarters the other night. It turns out that he is the father of Max, the head field coordinater who runs our operation here. Several days ago Max asked his father to come out here from Washington, D.C. and help out.

Canvassing - Saturday and Sunday

Willie working to convert an undecided voter



Willie

On Saturday morning a group of canvassers assembled at a local park in Cuyahoga Falls and went over the procedures for our work that morning. Another old timer, Willie, and I paired up. Willie has lived in Cuyahoga Falls and Akron most of his life. As he worked for the Ohio Trucking Association, we had much in common. In a previous life I ran dump trucks.

Willie was a good introduction into much of the pain Ohio is feeling due to the financial crisis we have been going through. Most of its industry closed a long time ago as jobs were shipped out of country. The housing market has also been hard hit. Just the other day the Akron Beacon Journal reported the tragic story of a distraught 90 year-old widow, Addie Polk, shooting herself because she was unable to face immanent eviction from her home of forty hears. Fortunately, she survived. And by the next day the mortgage company was shamed into cancelling her debt.

It would seem obvious that the financial interests of the people we were talking with should be with the Democrats, but that was sometimes a tough sell. We ran into one Rush Limbaugh Ditto Head who, though recently unemployed insisted that the folks who brought us to this point of ruin were precisely the ones to get us out. Go figure.

By Sunday evening Willie and I had walked 12 hours. At least this is cheaper than joining a gym.