[Cross-posted at DailyKos]
For me, It started in 2004. Seeing Barack Obama at the 2004 DNC Convention Speech was magic to me. Not because he was “new” or “fresh” – It was magic to me because he understood my situation. Ever since I was young, my mother had been alienated from her parents. I had witnessed tears and embarrassment, harsh words and violent gestures – all because of partisan politics. I realized at an abnormally young age, the destructiveness of the separation between the “red states and blue states”. For me, in 2004, Barack offered something new.
Thus, in February of 2007, I immediately hopped on board. I wanted to do my part in this historic election. I am only seventeen years old, and I feared that many would not take me seriously or that I would not make a significant difference. But I took a risk, and jumped in to this cause because I believed in it. I believed in the change Barack could bring to America and to my family.
Since February, I have made hundreds of calls to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. I have knocked on hundreds of doors in upstate South Carolina. I have listened to worried mothers and pessimistic college kids. I have had the privilege to shake Barack’s hand and meet personally with his head foreign policy adviser, Dr. Susan Rice. I have attended an infinite number of volunteer trainings, and I have hosted several training sessions of my own. I have organized the youth at my high school getting them involved in phonebanking and canvassing.
Amidst SATs, college applications, interviews, classes, community service, work, and friends, I have made room for Barack’s campaign. I have donated nearly every Saturday since the summer to volunteer in South Carolina.
Then, came the week leading up to January 26th, 2008, the South Carolina primary. It seemed my entire life had been devoted to organizing and volunteering for this day, and it was finally upon me. I was a Runner Poll Checker and a Phone Bank Captain in the Southern half of Union County. On Election Day, never had I encountered more stress: volunteers without direction, voting machine problems, and innumerable complaints all compiled on top of three hours of sleep. When the polls closed that day, and I saw the extraordinary margins we won by, I realized the profound difference that the grassroots makes. In the main precinct (Carlisle, SC) in which I was in charge the final tally was: 192 votes for Obama, 19 for Clinton, 14 for Edwards.
A year ago, I was an ordinary high school student in a small town in North Carolina – passing classes, running in Cross Country meets, and enjoying the weekends with my friends. Since then, everything has changed. I have seen the potential of America. I have seen the most unlikely of supporters come out in support of Barack Obama. I have seen my mother’s family come out in support of Barack – a commonality that has repaired a rift in my extended family.
I like that America.
I am extremely hopeful of the odds that Barack has in winning the Democratic nomination. Never before in recent American history, have high school students devoted so much time to a political campaign. Barack brings out the best in America, and America, it is time.
It is time to restore America back to the most important line in American history: “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union…”