Air conditioner-less and ACORN-enhanced, the Charlotte week kicked off to a phenomenal start. Early Monday morning, America and I arrived …to the parking lot. At the time, we had no keys, thus no way into the building, which we share with ACORN…but more on that later. However, we set our goals and discussed future plans in the glorious sunshine and moments later we achieved entry. Success! Well, briefly.
Fast-forward to Tuesday. America, Robert and I had the pleasure of dining with Rod and Femme, organizers of Generation Engage, a non-profit dedicated to civic participation amongst 16-30- year-olds. The food was wonderful, and the conversation was enlightening as we learned about Gen Engage and their contributions to the political realm, like virtual town hall meetings and Hip Hop Politics. Unfortunately, the day went south from there. Upon arriving back at our illustrious ACORN office space, we learned the air conditioner was on the fritz (on the bright side, we sweated off the five pounds of lunch we had just consumed), Awesome! Despite the logistical crisis, we prepared ourselves for the first evening of phonebanking. America and I each settled into swivel chairs and office phones to spread the message of Voter-Owned Elections and recruit interested citizens to our cause. The first hour passed quickly as we garnered more “yes’s” than “no’s,” and added to our VOE petition.
However, about halfway through, America and I noticed the people on the phone lists seemed progressively less-thrilled to hear from us, before we had even said anything. It occurred to us, after someone slammed down the receiver asking if we were affiliated with the Chicago office (Democracy NORTH CAROLINA- not so much)to realize with today’s modern day Caller ID services our phone calls were screened as ACORN. For those who are unaware of ACORN’s reputation, frankly, it’s bad; Enron bad, head-shaving Britney bad. So after attempting several more calls, one threatening police action, one denying any truth-telling on my part when I tried to explain the office-sharing situation, and several merely irate citizens, we tried to use our own technological defense: *67. However, due to the charge, we only used it for 10 minutes or so. The moral of the story: get an unlimited cell phone plan.
When all was said and done, America and I managed to ease more the 20 over to the side of democracy and election reform. All in all, despite the overall excess of hot air (between no AC and ACORN haters), we learned a lot about phonebanking. Getting someone to listen is tough, recruiting someone to your cause is harder, but with determination and a worthwhile issue, it is not impossible.
The rest of the week got progressively more story-worthy, but America can convey our sentiments on those days much more epically (see her blog for details).
Sarah
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