Wednesday, October 8, 2008

my first phone bank

Last night I attended a phone bank making calls for the No on 8 campaign, the California measure that would eliminate the right to marry for same-sex couples.

I had never done phone banking before and was terrified. I'm not generally comfortable on the phone anyway, and calling strangers, and particularly strangers who might be hostile to me, vastly raised my anxiety level.

But the night before I had spoken at a community forum discussing Proposition 8. The lead speaker for the No on 8 side shared that her son was fighting in Iraq. It is his mission to defend the constitution against all threats foreign and domestic. He sees Proposition 8 as a threat against the California constitution because it would eliminate a fundamental right for one group of people and treat them unfairly and differently from other citizens. He's voting No on 8. That made me think of all the soldiers over the decades who have fought so hard to defend my liberties. I would not be a good soldier. Thank God I've never been asked to be a soldier. These people have slogged through the desert and faced enemies who would kill them. The least I could do was sit in an air-conditioned room for two hours and make phone calls.

We had a half hour of training. We had an excellent script to read that gives us all the important points to make in the language that has been focused-grouped to be effective. I made 68 dials, actually spoke to 12 people, and 11 told me they would vote no.

I'm going again tonight.

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