Well okay. It's been a long time, I've been sick, dealt with the death of a friend, and have been awfully busy at work. But I don't like to make excuses.
First off, I'd like to just put something in here for Simon, wherever he is, that he was an incredible human being who brightened the life of everyone lucky enough to be around him, and he will be sorely missed. It is rare to find a person so wonderful as he was and we were all robbed of such an incredible being.
Now a lot has happened since I last wrote - I'm sure most of you have been following the presidential primaries. So let's start there.
For starters, I was in New Hampshire the weekend before the Primary to get a "sense of what it felt like on the ground". I think most of you know that I've been a Kerry person since last year (though I briefly tried out the Dean hat - didn't do much for me), so my friends at Kerry NY said, "Why don't you go to New Hampshire with us?" And I said, "Hmmm. Okay." I had a blast. We left New York City at 5am to head for Keene, NH. Luckily, I found an old friend, Jarrod, on the bus. Jarrod and I go way back to the McCall campaign and we were both relieved that there was at least one familiar face on the bus of about 30.
After we finally left NYC, we stopped in McDonalds to grab some food - and meet some of the folks we were travelling with. The morning was left to sleep and before I knew it, we were in New Hampshire. We were lost, but we were there.
We arrived in Keene to freezing weather. The campaign staff was extremely welcoming and inviting, the food was warm, and we were finally about to work together. I should also add that the campaign staff was extremely jazzed to have us there - and there was an influx of volunteers from Massachusetts - nothing like Yankees and Red Sox working together - I can only say that by the end of the weekend, there was a lot of mutual respect around the room, a sense of coming together, but I'm sure that if we saw each other in Fenway or Yankees Stadium, we'd probably punch each other in the neck and then buy each other a beer. That's the way it goes.
Jarrod and I took a stab at the visibility part of the afternoon, standing in freezing weather holding signs to passing cars, urging them to honk. After doing this two or three times with nice breaks in between, we decided to try our hand at the phones. After being extremely disturbed by calling a list of UNREGISTERED VOTERS (you read that right - they really don't like to be called - AT ALL) and spilling a hot cup of coffee on myself (I should mention that this is at about 3pm), I was eager and ready to stand outside again.
We didn't get a chance to do visibility again that day because we were called back to the other campaign building (there were two for the weekend, the normal HQs were waaay too small for 200 volunteers) to do some pamphlet stuff and writing postcards, which we eagerly did. We got to hang out with more NYC folks from the bus that way, too. After a day of not knowing where we'd be laying our sleepy heads, we discovered that we were soon to be shipped to the local YMCA after dinner for us to put our things in the gym we'd be sleeping in. We had heard that we would be in the gymnastics room on cushy floor, but nothing prepared us for what we were about to encounter.
It's not that exciting. Really. Well, it kind of is. The floor wasn't just cushy, it was the spring pad kind that you can jump on like a trampoline. There were cushy mats all over the place, rings, uneven parallel bars, balance beams - you name it, they had it - cushy ramps, hollowed out cushy tubes you could roll in, huge things for us to play with. After being on a bus for five hours, working in the freezing cold all day, dealing with people who hate politics, I must say this room was like a dream come true. After bouncing around and playing for about twenty minutes, we decided it was time to hit the bar.
Before I go further, I should say that we hit the bar sometime between 7:30 and 8. And when I say hit the bar, we HIT the bar. We traveled down the road to a bar where the Keene Kerry staff hang out all the time (the owner is a huge Kerry supporter). When about 20 of us walked in all together, the people in the bar were like, "Wha the hell...?" At which point, I noticed some of the Keene staff in a corner, looking very excited that we had come there, and declared, "New York has arrived."
We quickly took over the bar. Drafts were $1 and then $3. Whaaa? Needless to say, I ended up double fisting for half of the night, we took over the jukebox and played YMCA and tried to play "New York, New York" before the DJ went on (never heard it, tear), ruled the pool table for about three hours, and then the dance floor. At around 12:30, I decided it was time to go home since we were getting kicked out of the Y at 7am. I didn't notice how cold it was on the way back (funny how alcohol does that) but did notice the frozen vomit on the sidewalk. You know it's cold when...
I should also mention that I decided to sleep in the big round cushy thing next to the uneven parallel bars. It was fabulous.
The next morning, Kenny G (our busdriver - er, motercoach operator) drove us to the Best Western where we had a buffet-style breakfast for $2.19. Wha happened? It was a good start to a day full of poster making and editorial letter writing, more of the same from the day before, canvassing, etc. We had a good time, got to hang out more, and then left for New York around 3ish.
Kenny G got us home by 7. Speeding much?
The good thing was that it was awesome being on the ground and feeling the energy and the turning point. I also got to meet some great people. You don't spend five hours on a bus, freeze your asses off together, get wasted together, and sleep in the gym room of the YMCA without making some friends. I'm happy to say that some of us have seen each other a number of times since then, mostly at Kerry events, but I think making friends is always positive, don't you?
And I don't like to toot my own horn, but in this one case I don't think I can help it. 'Cause I had predicted this time last year that Kerry would be the nominee to beat. And after New Hampshire, I said to people around me that he'd get a big bounce, but the way to make sure that he'd survive the primaries and be in a strong position to beat Bush would be for him to get more than 40% of the votes in the states he carries this week and continue to gain percentages as the states hold primaries. I thought in my head then that the Republicans would start to get scared if they saw his solid support. And what happened last night? Check this out (I'm only looking at the 5 out of the 7 that Kerry carried - no pun intended - which in itself is a huge achievement):
Arizona (97% reporting results by county voter survey results)
Kerry: 95,055 43%
Clark: 59,712 27%
Dean: 31,007 14%
Edwards: 15,498 7%
Lieberman: 14,656 7%
Kucinich: 3,628 2%
Sharpton: 1,100 0%
Delaware (100% reporting results by county voter survey results)
Kerry 16,729 50%
Lieberman 3,683 11%
Edwards 3,657 11%
Dean 3,439 10%
Clark 3,145 10%
Sharpton 1,885 6%
Kucinich 343 1%
Missouri (100% reporting results by county voter survey results)
Kerry 211,737 51%
Edwards 103,198 25%
Dean 36,305 9%
Clark 18,328 4%
Lieberman 14,726 4%
Sharpton 14,312 3%
Gephardt 8,306 2%
Kucinich 4,876 1%
Uncommitted 4,316 1%
New Mexico (96% reporting)
Kerry 40,347 42%
Clark 19,632 21%
Dean 15,660 16%
Edwards 10,815 11%
Kucinich 5,166 5%
Lieberman 2,488 3%
Uncommitted 460 1%
North Dakota (100% reporting)
Kerry 5,316 50%
Clark 2,502 24%
Dean 1,231 12%
Edwards 1,025 10%
Kucinich 308 3%
Lieberman 98 1%
Sharpton 28 0%
Over 40% and to 50% in these states - a really great sign. What was that about a Dean/Clark ticket? Puhleese. I rolled my eyes then and I pshaw out loud now. How about Kerry/Edwards? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Oh, and let me address Mindy (didn't get her last name, though I know she had three names) who was on the Bill Maher show last night - she is a strategist for the Republican party and advises the Bush/Cheney campaign:
When the panel discussed the war and Bill Maher argued that we should be spending the money on other things instead of a war we didn't need to fight, a country we didn't need to invade, she said (and was talked over, though I caught it), "A country we didn't need to invade? Ask New Yorkers how they feel about that."
I'm a New Yorker, goddammit. One that was at FDNY Headquarters on 9/11 and nothing in my mind will ever erase hearing the firemen over the walkie-talkies when the buildings went down. I didn't want this war with Iraq, I never want anyone to ever have to deal with what we went through on that day (and don't tell me that what happened here doesn't happen - it happens every day around the world, maybe not in terms of sheer numbers of human loss, but it happens). The facts of the matter are that the President wanted to invade Iraq the minute he "became President" and found a convenient time to do it and drummed the right sympathy after lying to the American public and going to war without an international coalition as if he had a mandate. What was it that Al Sharpton said at the last debate that was pure brilliance? Oh yes, it went something like this:
"Mr. Sharpton, the president doesn't seem to believe we need a permission slip to invade other countries. What do you think?" -Tom Brokaw
"He also doesn't think he needs votes to be president." -Al Sharpton
So this New Yorker will tell you that I didn't want war and I know 200,000+ New Yorkers who agree (see February 2003 anti-war march and subsequent marches after that). And as a New Yorker, I believe I have a right to ask the president a few questions:
1. Where is the money you promised New York after the terror attacks of September 11th? I mean, if you're going to use us as propaganda to invade other countries and for your $99 million re-election campaign, I think it's only fair to ask where the money was you pledged to us in the aftermath of the war. Come on, it shouldn't be too hard. I mean, if you're going to give all of your corporate friends big tax breaks, give the richest Americans all of our budget surplus, ask Congress for $87 billion (which we STILL don't know the break down for), and surprise everyone with a Medicare bill that doesn't really help Americans get health care but really allows the big drug companies and HMO's to continue screwing our seniors, I'm sure you can find some of the money somewhere, can't you? Or did you include that in the $500 billion deficit you now project? WHY THE HELL DO AMERICANS TRUST THIS MAN?!!!
2. And one, big, but pressing question that is on the minds of all New Yorkers - the ones that you invoke when you want to fight a war or get your big-time donors to fundraise on:
WHERE THE HELL IS OSAMA BIN LADEN?
We can put a man on the moon, two rovers on Mars, find Saddam in a hole in the ground, but we can't find the man actually responsible for the attacks of September 11th, a man who carries his dialysis machine as he goes from cave to cave?! If we spent half the time we did on trying to find Saddam or half the money we've spent on the second invasion of Iraq, we might actually have found that bastard. Explain to me why this is okay!
Please god, please. Let's not elect him in 2004, either. Please.