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How I got my job. For the record I'm significantly less idealistic these days. I still stand by what I wrote tho.

1. Everyone has a unique story that brings them to this movement for change. Why are you personally motivated to be involved in this campaign?

When examining my path to Sen. Obama’s campaign I must first examine my path to anyone’s campaign. To this day, a great number of young people simply do not vote. I cannot conceive of missing a single vote for the rest of my life. I view it as my civic duty. I simply know too much of this country’s history to willing give up what so many have sacrificed to give me. While I do not consider myself a particularly religious person, it is easy for me to see the divine in voting. Here is a moment when a citizen takes time out of their busy day, secludes themselves, and picks the person they feel will be able to do our country the most good. In this age of constant ads trying to persuade us, of pollsters and focus groups trying desperately to find out what we truly think, here is a single short moment when our voices matter absolutely. This incredible moment is shared by hundreds of millions within a short time, and as a result our world changes. The election of the office of president is highest form of this great experience, and I believe the reasons for Senator Obama to be its focus are many.
First and foremost is his inspiring rhetoric. My grandfather emigrated from Great Britain in the early fifties and I grew up with his stories. Stories of great leaders such as Churchill, Kennedy and, yes, Reagan who entered power during dark days. I learned how they turned their countries around, often not through any particular policy or action, but through their words. They made people feel good about themselves, gave them back their pride and their hope. Now our own dark days are upon us. We very badly need our own leader to give us back our own hope and empower us to make the changes we need.

While I know it is not our primary focus, the symbolic aspect of Senator Obama’s campaign is also extremely compelling. The most obvious aspect of this is his racial heritage. To focus on that though, is to miss the larger point. Of much greater symbolism is the fact that so many who have long been written off as being too cynical or apathetic to count have stood up and made the election of this improbable figure possible.
Finally, there is my most personal reason. Like the rest of country, I reacted with shock and horror to 9/11. Also like most of the country, I swallowed my doubts about the war and heeded the president’s call to support “the defining struggle of our generation.” My support was stronger than most, I entered army in August of 2003. By December I had received a medical discharge, but not before making a great number of friends. I kept in touch with them. Nearly all them went to Iraq, some of them did not return. Their deaths were a pointless waste, yet Senator Obama seems to be the only person running to realize this before the fact.

2

One of Senator Obama’s first jobs was to organize in the South Side of Chicago and register voters in the community. Please tell us if you have any experience as an organizer – either community organizing or political organizing.
What little experience I have as an organizer has been with this campaign. It began on February 10 2007, with Senator Obama’s announcement speech. With it came the launch of the new website and the my.barackobama.com community. My local group had about 100 supporters, and yet we seemed to be doing nothing. I organized our first event in the basement of the local Unitarian church for the final Sunday in February. Despite the heavy snowstorm on that night about 20 people showed up, some from as far as 30 miles away. It was then I first glimpsed the shining possibilities of this campaign. Unfortunately, with the excitement of the announcement fading, and with little input from Chicago, my group seemed to melt away. A canvassing event 2 weeks later had a grand three volunteers. 2 weeks after that there was only one. The next time I found myself alone. By December my will still not bowed, I bit the bullet. I burned the entirety of my vacation for the years 2006, 2007, 2008 and took the first nine days of January off. I withdrew the 400 hundred bucks I had spent the last few years saving and headed north to New Hampshire.

It was, quite simply, the transformative experience of my life. For a brief and shining moment I had seen what was possible from our country, our community and myself. Upon returning everything seemed drained of color, every task at work increasingly pointless. I had found my calling. If elections and voting were to be my religion, I am to be its missionary. There is simply nothing I would rather do with life than spend it spreading the good news about our right, duty, and privilege to vote.
That is why I need to participate in this fellowship. It is not something I wish I could do, nor something I would like to do, it is something I need to do. The peculiar twists of history has presented us with the greatest possibly my generation has ever known. But it is only that, a possibility. Deep in my heart, I am positive that if I do not spend every waking moment between now and November 4th working to make that possibility a reality I will regret it for the rest of my life. For whatever the outcome of this election I know I will have a least started people down the path to sharing my love of our most sacred institution. And years from now, no matter how insignificant my role may seem to others, I will know all the sacrifices and hardships will have been worth it.

3

If you have been working with the campaign, please describe your activities (types, dates, locations) and what you have learned. If you have not been involved with the campaign yet, please describe why you have decided to get involved now.
I have contributed bits and pieces to the campaign. The majority of my experience comes working in the Dover-Durham area of New Hampshire from January 3-9. I am not sure how I would describe my activities. I suppose it is safe to say for about five and half days I lived the campaign. No, job was too small, no trip too far, no hour too late. I have distinct memories of staying up until 3 AM the night after the Iowa results came in to put up signs along the road. It was below zero, and the wind was blowing fierce. I shared a car with the first of the truly amazing people I met there and time went quickly. By the time I got up at 6:30 to do morning visibility the police had already taken down our, as well as everyone else’s signs. I can say without bitterness or sarcasm it was worth every second.
I learned many things in New Hampshire. Some such as operating a whole day on very little sleep can benefit me the rest of my life. Others, such as dealing with an irate voter mentioning that mine was the 15th political call of the evening are perhaps a bit more specialized. Most of all, I learned the power of an ordinary community when given a slight push. I do believe that Senator Obama is a great man, however in the end he is simply a man. He will no sooner end our healthcare crisis by laying on his hands than suck all of the excess carbon from our air in one great breath. His true power is his ability to act as a catalyst for change, to push people ever so slightly in the direction we need go. No example of this rings more clearly than how I received housing.

When I departed I had almost no plan. I had contacted the campaign, and had been given an office to work out of, but that was really it. I had my car and about a couple hundred bucks. I show up the night of the 3rd and announce to the staff I had no place to stay. This causes momentary panic, but about 20 minutes later they announce they had found housing for me. I was to stay with the family of the office’s most dedicated volunteer, a 16-year-old girl named Meagan. So here I was, this strange man of 22, somewhat scruffy looking from the long road trip, having been in their town less than an hour and this family offers to let me stay not just in their home, not just in their daughter’s room, but in her bed (she slept elsewhere!) for nearly a week simply because we shared a common vision for this country. It was this small selfless act, as well as countless others like it that allowed us to do the impossible. We turned what was once our opponent’s unassailable firewall into a photo finish, thus keeping our collective dreams and our movement alive.