happy (belated) birthday!

yesterday was the shared birthday of Barack Obama and Governor Ted Strickland.

here in licking county, i "celebrated" by calling local voters to determine their voting plans for the upcoming election. a whole lot of people weren't home or had disconnected numbers. a few people told me they didn't feel comfortable telling me their voting preferences. several felt like they were between a rock and a hard place because they liked neither candidate. quite a few told me that they were either voting for john mccain or not to call back because the person i was trying to reach was a strict republican or that they "didn't agree with mr. obama" right before they hung up without saying goodnight (a couple of those callers were nice and didn't hang up until i told them that i appreciated their time). and then a precious handful told me they were planning on voting for Senator Obama. they weren't available to help volunteer because of lack of time and busy schedules, but i told them that their vote was good enough.

i wanted to help in this election because, for once in my short voting life, i believe in a candidate. i believe in their message. i believe that they might actually do what they say they're going to do.

and this candidate happens to be a polarizing figure (almost, and maybe even more so, than Hillary - to my complete surprise). there are those that believe he's a muslim, despite evidence to the contrary. there are those that believe he's a socialist who wouldn't much less vote for a democrat in the first place. and there are those that hate him because he's black, and i really can't do anything for those people.

but my thought was maybe i can do something to convince someone that Barack Obama is worthy of the hope. and worthy of their vote.

we'll see.