Pombo kills puppies
On Tuesday, I plan to join the majority of my fellow Americans and not vote. While I am registered to vote in Illinois and New York (which I think is illegal), I am currently residing in neither and since all the major races in both districts are firmly colored blue, performing my civic duty for the sake of performing a civic duty isn't enough motivation for me to write in for an absentee ballot.
My nonvoter status, however, did not stop me from trying to get other people to do as I say, not as I do. On Saturday I went with Odette, who works for the Sierra Club, canvassing door-to-door for Jerry McNerney (D), who is running against Richard Pombo (R) in California's 11th district. Pombo is a totally horrible corrupt person who enjoys killing endangered species. He's been in Congress since the massacre of 1994 and the Sierra Club and other legit groups consider him the biggest enemy of the environment in D.C (after Bush, obv). So even though his reelection was orignally supposed to be a cakewalk in this largely Republican district, environmental groups etc. got behind McNerney's campaign (which is totally 'i'm not Pombo'), Pombo got caught up in a few of the scandals spreading around Republicans in Congress like the flu and now the race is basically a toss-up.
This brought me to Pleasanton, CA, a very suburban surburb an hour north of sf. My mini-bus from the city joined about 300 people from throughout the bay area who were all part of some very Wildllife something or other coalition. I was hoping to meet a lot of crazies, but I think environmentalists are actually pretty down to earth and I met some super-cool, friendly people,
AND GUESS WHO ELSE WAS THERE?! Jennifer Garner! While a celebrity sighting was totallly NOT THE REASON I WENT (really!) Bennifer: the way-better sequel was scheduled to speak at the rally before we went door-to-door. However, Ben Affleck (a nonvoting hypocrite, much like yourstruly) was stuck in L.A. with a migraine. So his cool and hot wife Jennifer Garner came alone and was super-adorable and nervous about making a speech, since really Ben's the political one, and one wouldn't normally think to call Jennifer Garner alone for such an occassion. But they should, since she was a smashing success, and was super-adorable and down-to-earth. I was standing really close to her, but we unfortunately didn't get to interact and after her speech she was whisked away.
Anywayyyy... one of the groups part of this coalition were the Humane Society, and they're considered less political than the Sierra Club so when I knocked on doors, I said, "Hi I'm Diana, a volunteer with the Humane Society." This was a good strategy, because, really, who hates the Humane Society? I started visualizing myself as an actual Humane Society volunteer and made sure to be really nice to everyone's pets when they answered the door. One woman in particular I think really liked that, and I feel like I helped convince her to vote for McNerney. So if I convinced or reminded two people to vote for a good candidate in an important race, that totally counteracts my not voting in a not-important race, right?
My nonvoter status, however, did not stop me from trying to get other people to do as I say, not as I do. On Saturday I went with Odette, who works for the Sierra Club, canvassing door-to-door for Jerry McNerney (D), who is running against Richard Pombo (R) in California's 11th district. Pombo is a totally horrible corrupt person who enjoys killing endangered species. He's been in Congress since the massacre of 1994 and the Sierra Club and other legit groups consider him the biggest enemy of the environment in D.C (after Bush, obv). So even though his reelection was orignally supposed to be a cakewalk in this largely Republican district, environmental groups etc. got behind McNerney's campaign (which is totally 'i'm not Pombo'), Pombo got caught up in a few of the scandals spreading around Republicans in Congress like the flu and now the race is basically a toss-up.
This brought me to Pleasanton, CA, a very suburban surburb an hour north of sf. My mini-bus from the city joined about 300 people from throughout the bay area who were all part of some very Wildllife something or other coalition. I was hoping to meet a lot of crazies, but I think environmentalists are actually pretty down to earth and I met some super-cool, friendly people,
AND GUESS WHO ELSE WAS THERE?! Jennifer Garner! While a celebrity sighting was totallly NOT THE REASON I WENT (really!) Bennifer: the way-better sequel was scheduled to speak at the rally before we went door-to-door. However, Ben Affleck (a nonvoting hypocrite, much like yourstruly) was stuck in L.A. with a migraine. So his cool and hot wife Jennifer Garner came alone and was super-adorable and nervous about making a speech, since really Ben's the political one, and one wouldn't normally think to call Jennifer Garner alone for such an occassion. But they should, since she was a smashing success, and was super-adorable and down-to-earth. I was standing really close to her, but we unfortunately didn't get to interact and after her speech she was whisked away.
Anywayyyy... one of the groups part of this coalition were the Humane Society, and they're considered less political than the Sierra Club so when I knocked on doors, I said, "Hi I'm Diana, a volunteer with the Humane Society." This was a good strategy, because, really, who hates the Humane Society? I started visualizing myself as an actual Humane Society volunteer and made sure to be really nice to everyone's pets when they answered the door. One woman in particular I think really liked that, and I feel like I helped convince her to vote for McNerney. So if I convinced or reminded two people to vote for a good candidate in an important race, that totally counteracts my not voting in a not-important race, right?
posted by diana at 7:19 PM
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