I hate making telephone calls. The thought of picking up the phone and speaking to someone, especially someone I don't know terrifies me.* (It makes ordering a pizza a true ordeal.) So, when I tell you that I called 40 strangers today to encourage them to vote for Barack Obama, you need to understand that, while it may not be a lot in the grand scheme of things, it was a really big deal for me.
I went to barackobama.com, signed up, and a list of 40 people from the Cincinnati area appeared on my computer. I fired up Skype and started dialing. The first person I spoke with - my first political call ever - was an 89 year old lady who hung up on me. I figured that it must be better than that, and kept going.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) I only ended up speaking to about 5 people, and left messages for everyone else. As I said, it wasn't much, but I feel really good about doing something over and above voting. If Obama loses tomorrow I wouldn't have believed it was my fault, but I would have been upset that there was something I could have done and didn't.
I'm glad I did it.
*Just for the record - work phone calls don't count. I can call parishes all over the place without hesitation and talk with rectors and lay people alike. I guess that when it's part of my job it's different.
I went to barackobama.com, signed up, and a list of 40 people from the Cincinnati area appeared on my computer. I fired up Skype and started dialing. The first person I spoke with - my first political call ever - was an 89 year old lady who hung up on me. I figured that it must be better than that, and kept going.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) I only ended up speaking to about 5 people, and left messages for everyone else. As I said, it wasn't much, but I feel really good about doing something over and above voting. If Obama loses tomorrow I wouldn't have believed it was my fault, but I would have been upset that there was something I could have done and didn't.
I'm glad I did it.
*Just for the record - work phone calls don't count. I can call parishes all over the place without hesitation and talk with rectors and lay people alike. I guess that when it's part of my job it's different.
