In my mind I'm goin to Carolina- James Taylor
Can't you see the sunshine
Can't you just feel the moonshine
Maybe just like a friend of mine
It hit me from behind
Yes I'm goin to Carolina in my mind
Dark and silent last night
I think I might have heard the highway calling
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
Signs that might be omens say I going, going
I'm goin to Carolina in my mind
With a holy host of others standing round me
Still I'm on the dark side of the moon
And it seems like it goes on like this forever
You must forgive me
If I'm up and gone to Carolina in my mind
I was excited to finally be doing something concrete for Obama in an early primary state. But at the same time, I also felt torn about leaving Florida and all of the grassroots energy we had been putting into the Tampa Bay area, especially Monday's MLK parade in St. Petersburg.
Since the Florida primary debacle, the Tampa Bay O-Train volunteer group has refocused its attention on the national effort. With that in mind, we sent almost 40 volunteers to South Carolina. Some went for a long weekend and others volunteered for an entire week. We understand that this election is not about Florida anymore. It is now South Carolina's turn. South Carolina's voters are in a position to change the world.
Our particular O-Train caravan drove to Columbia, South Carolina with 9 volunteers in two cars with 2 more volunteers following a few hours later. We only made one food stop. When we stopped to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we didn't realize that it would be our last meal until after 9 pm that night. Good thing I packed some snacks in my O-Train mobile.
We arrived at the Midlands Regional Headquarters around 3pm.
And they immediately put us to work.
Now I must admit that phone banking is my least favorite thing to do, so I jumped at the chance to canvass. It didn't look like Jerel was enjoying phonebanking either,
so I pulled him away from the phone to canvass with me. It was cold but we kept on knocking on doors until headquarters called us back in.
After a very late dinner, we went home to Mike's house. Mike had agreed to house a few volunteers from Tampa. Not only did Mike allow 9 of us to sleep at his place, but he also cooked breakfast for us. It was delicious!
We like Mike!
We reported for duty on Saturday morning at 10 am. Jerel and I were leaving headquarters to finish canvassing the neighborhood that we started the day before when a new volunteer, Mohan, walked in. Having traveled by plane and bus from Princeton University, Mohan was happy to join us. Fellow O-Trainer, Michele also helped us canvass this neighborhood.
Jerel, Mohan, an exhausted Edward and me:
Did I mention that Saturday was cold and rainy all day? Having lived in Pennsylvania most of my life, I knew that wearing plastic bags over my socks would be essential to my success and sure enough, the newspaper bags kept my socks dry. We knocked on doors all day. We only stopped to look for a Starbucks so we could have some hot chocolate and coffee. We couldn't find any Starbucks nearby so we ended up at a local McDonalds. We caused quite a scene at this McDonalds. First of all, Mary behind the counter, talked me into giving her my Obama button. Now I have given away a lot of Barack Obama buttons but this one was special. I had it since February 07 but there was something about Mary at McDonalds. After I gave it to her, she allowed me to video tape her.
We met a lot of Obama supporters at this McDonalds including Miss Cynthia. We were handing out tickets to the Sunday Obama Rally and Miss Cynthia handed us a pen as she invited us to come to her church the next morning. On the pen was a phone number for Shekinah Glory Family Care Ministries. I called and left a message that we wanted to attend their services on Sunday morning. Pastor Margaret Harper called me back Saturday night and gave me directions to their Sunday morning services. She told me that it was a small church that focuses its outreach ministry to single mothers and children.
After our McDonalds break, we knocked on doors in a new neighborhood. We were glad to hear that Obama had a lot of support in this neighborhood. Our favorite Obama supporter was Leon Robinson of Columbia, SC:
We were wet, cold and hungry but Leon got us fired up and ready to canvass some more. We finally joined other volunteers at Damon's for dinner Saturday evening. Jerel had discovered Damon's Friday night and it ended up being our favorite place to unwind. Chandra the bartender took good care of us:
The next morning, Jerel, Mohan and I were driving on the highway to attend church when the tire pressure warning symbol lit up on my dashboard. I admit that I am not very good at monitoring tire pressure but I believe that my brand new car was being a little extreme with its warning. I have only had this car for about 2 weeks so I wasn't sure exactly what the symbol meant. My co-pilot, Jerel, looked it up in the cliffnotes version of the manual. It had the whole color code scare-o-meter just like Homeland Security. Apparently, we were at the "immediately pull over and read owner's manual" alert stage. Knowing that the change in air temperature most likely caused a change in the air pressure in my tires, we stopped at the nearest gas station to add some air.
When Jerel, Mohan and I arrived at the strip mall where this small congregation would be worshipping, we didn't know what to expect. We didn't know how we strangers would be received. As we approached room where the church service was being held, we could hear it rocking with electric piano, drums, guitar, Congo drums and joyful voices. We were led to the second row and watched as a lesson about the Shield of Faith, the Sword of the Spirit, the Breastplate of Righteousness and the Helmet of Salvation was presented to the congregation. To briefly summarize; with prayer and faith, we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from those who would tempt us or do us harm.
They involved the children in the lesson by dressing them in toy armor and then quizzed them by giving away the toy armor set to the child who could name all four. They also had many of the children take turns reading Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.
Pastor Harper
Pastor Harper allowed Jerel to read a letter from Senator Barack Obama outloud to the congregation. Jerel also talked about how Obama was the target of negative and misleading attacks. I thanked them for allowing us to attend their church. I mentioned that although we could have gone to any church in Columbia, we believed that we were meant to meet Miss Cynthia at McDonalds and attend their Sunday worship service.
Jerel and I both had experienced this kind of environment before but Mohan is a Hindu-Indian from England. He kept turning to me and whispering in his British accent “This is amazing. This is brilliant!”
A few minutes later, Jerel, Mohan and I were called to come up front to be Obama’s surrogates for prayer. Pastor Harper said that God wanted them to pray for Obama’s protection. They were going to pray for Obama through us as his surrogates. Jim Reed led the prayer as Jerel, Mohan and I held hands in the front of the room. The entire congregation surrounded us (also holding hands) and prayed for our protection. Tears streamed down my face as I felt all the prayers and energy in the room directed toward Senator Obama and his volunteers. Mohan was right. It was brilliant! This small congregation had opened their arms wide to welcome us and then wrapped them around us to protect us and Obama. I don’t think that the 3 of us will ever forget this experience.
The time at this service flew by so quickly that we had not realized that it was already 2 pm and we were supposed to report at the convention center to volunteer for the Obama rally at 3 pm. Would we make it in time? To be continued...
