| In 2004 I was moved and inspired by the DNC Keynote speech. In October 2006 I was completely sold when in a matter of days I finished reading The Audacity of Hope. I was there with a $25 donation the night Obama's campaign website went up, and standing under a DFW airport television watching Obama on CNN announce his candidacy for president. I was there in February when we got news that he would be coming to Austin for a rally, was part of the first Obama student organization at The University of Texas, and volunteered for the massive 22,000 person rally at Auditorium Shores, on a rainy Friday afternoon. I shook his hand! By then I had already been promoting The Obama Book Project, a simple grassroots idea of getting people to give away their copies of the book under the condition that it would be passed on, spreading the idea on blogs and getting written about in the SFBO blog. I've watched almost every debate, both Republican and Democrat, given away many copies of both Obama books to family, friends and strangers.
The highlight of the last sixteen months came when a few other Obama student organizers suggested we head to Iowa for the week leading up to the January 3 caucuses. I cancelled a vacation to the Caribbean, and drove from Austin, TX to Des Moines Iowa. We worked out of the Newton, Iowa, office, a strong Edwards county. We were four volunteers from Texas, four from North Carolina, and three from other parts of the country. I walked through freezing temperatures and snow-covered neighborhoods, sat in living rooms talking to caucus goers, saw Obama again when he came to Newton for a town hall meeting, and drove four elder Iowans to the caucus location where they stood in Obama's corner. Along with the ten or so other volunteers and two campaign staffers, we watched Obama's victory speech and were literally jumping in the streets with joy.
I made phone calls from home, attended many debate-watch parties and results-watch parties, and when the campaign came to Austin signed up as a precinct captain and worked with the other four captains in my precinct to deliver it overwhelmingly for Obama. We all went to the Travis County democratic convention.
When the Obama Organizing Fellows Program was announced on the campaign website, I was impressed once again with how well organized and how well run the campaign was. Like many others, I considered whether I could apply. There were a few classes that I needed to take in the summer to receive my graduate degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Luckily, if I took a leave of absence, I would be able to do it and like the vacation that I traded in for going door to door in the snow in Iowa for a historic Obama candidacy, I would not regret.
After tapping out my essays, uploading my resume, picking out my references, I submitted the application. As I wrote in one of the essays:
After launching The Obama Book Project to spread Barack's books as far and wide as possible, I knew that I would follow his every move, talk to everyone I knew about him, go on to volunteer for the campaign and support him in any way possible. The Obama Organizing Fellows is just such an opportunity. I look forward to telling my grandchildren about the work I did for the Obama campaign with pride.
When I got the follow up phone interview, the most unexpected thing happened. A fellow graduate student who had gone off to work for the campaign was in the room with the person interviewing me, and they had worked together! A week of waiting around rewarded me when I got the e-mail inviting me to pick one of the 12 states if I wanted to participate, and I've chosen Missouri.
Frank Costello's diary has the letter and you can donate to him here. The Fellowship is unpaid, so if anyone out there would like to donate a few bucks to this particular Texan fellow heading to Missouri in two weeks to work my heart out for our Democratic nominee, donate via PayPal here:
Support Shareholder's fellowship. I'll use it to pay for gas, food, and all things Obama. If you would like to e-mail me first, a l e x at g m a i l .com
Or visit my Obama fundraising page: Shareholder's personal fundraising page.
And you can support the Obama Organizing Fellows Program here here.
Other Organizing Fellow diaries here.
OBAMA '08! |
