This afternoon I volunteered at the local field office in South St. Louis for Barack Obama. When I got there there was a flurry of activity, and I could tell people were there because they wanted to be. As we waited for others to show up to get started, I saw a pile of boxes; they had just gotten in a huge shipment of yard signs, after being back ordered for weeks. I think I built at least 50 of those in the half hour I worked on them, but then Laura came around with our assignment, “Who wants to knock on doors?” I likely had a look of shock on my face, but still manged to say, “Great!”. After all, even though I hate people coming to my door, and wasn’t looking forward to being on the other side, what place did I have to complain? This is for something much bigger than that. Fortunately the paperwork was really well organized, with the map and route all planned out. I was paired up with another volunteer and we hit the road. The canvasing went really well, most were very polite, regardless if they Obama supports or not (most were). One thing about the neighborhood, it’s only about 15 minutes South of me, but there were absolutely no political signs anywhere, and it wasn’t the kind of neighborhood that wouldn’t allow them, so it was very strange. Most in my area are pretty outgoing about showing their affiliation and staying educated about the days events, I had the feeling things were different which made me all the more retisent to do a good job. We walked the streets for a few hours and got more comfortable with the idea of banging on people’s doors as time went along. I think the fact that our contry is in such a crossroads made it much eaiser for me to participate, and I’m really glad I got to do it. Now it’s time to regroup and map out more time to help out at headquarters. If anyone is hesitant about doing something like this, try it, I don’t think you’ll regret it. Leave a message for me if you have any questions, or search for your local field office and volunteer - we’re 40 days out - it’s time for action.