vote for the one that brings you hope

I have been working out my issues with regards to Shane Claiborne's message concerning Christians rethinking their political allegiances (and patriotism altogether). Several weeks ago, I cast my ballot (absentee, of course) and thought that I would be the only one in my family to do so. I don't know where it was impressed upon me, because it wasn't from my parents, but I have felt that call of civil responsibility for as long as I can remember, and have only missed one election since I've been eligible to vote (I believe so, anyway; my absentee ballot never came when I lived in Indonesia). Well, that assumption was happily proven wrong today, as I realized for the first time ever that my ENTIRE immediate family is now eligible AND registered to vote. This truly is going to be an unprecedented turnout for this election. At least Obama can count on five votes in the state of Texas.

This occasion coincides with a visit I'm on to Elaina in Ohio. I've spent the last 24 hours following her around, asking for tasks to do to help her with her work, entering data into their voter system, and observing the process of the campaign. I've never enjoyed this level of political participation before, even when I interned for Congressman Chet Edwards, but I've enjoyed it. I have to say, however, that I have hardly done ANYTHING compared to what Elaina and all of the other amazingly dedicated organizers working for change are doing on a daily basis-- and I'm exhausted. We've been at it now for 13 hours, and we're still going. There is nothing besides pure, unadulterated trust and faith that could motivate and energize such a large following of dedicated workers. These folks sacrifice sleep, food, clean hair-- to enter more data, make more calls, talk to more volunteers, train more people to knock on ever more doors-- and it is working. Obama's campaign is working from the bottom up-- starting with individuals in the community reaching out to other individuals and then to families, and then to groups of people, creating a massive web of coverage that misses no one but those who want to be missed.

I'm incredibly motivated and consumed by a related sense of hope in the promise of change under a leader who is working for his country the way he encourages his campaigners to work for him. It's about time SOMEONE lost sleep over the mistakes that have been committed in the last eight years. And it's even MORE the time for someone who wants to, and CAN! correct them!

Get out there and vote, folks! Vote for the one who brings you hope for the future.