Photo of the Day

While driving people to the polls today, I decided to visit the Kennedy-King memorial in Indianapolis this afternoon.

It seemed appropriate.

If you’re not familiar with the history of the memorial or the history of MLK and RFK in Indy, consider these words from the plaque on the site:

Kennedy urged the crowd to follow Rev. King’s lead and respond with understanding and prayer. Citing the need to avoid division, hatred, and violence, he called for love, wisdom, compassion, and justice. The speech is credited with keeping Indianapolis calm, while other cities reacted with violence.

It seems to me that President-elect Obama carries on the dreams of RFK and MLK.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud to be an American than I am right now.

35,000 in Indianapolis

What a great morning:

An estimated 35,000 people cheered Sen. Barack Obama on the American Legion mall in Indianapolis today, as he urged them not to wait until Election Day to cast their votes.

“I want everyone who is able and willing to go vote today. If not today, tomorrow,” Obama said.

He expressed optimism that on Nov. 4, Election Day, Democrats would prevail, but he also cautioned that the next 12 days will be tough.

“Change never comes without a fight,” he said.

Some of my pics:

I’m also voting for “that one!”

Evan Bayh actually gave a good speech. For him. He had a little passion and didn’t make me want to hurt myself to make him stop.

I was gald to see that sign. Our thoughts are with Obama and his family.

If Obama wins, one thing we are certain to see more of is Obama kitsch. Most of the merchandise was fun, in a tacky kind of way.

But prepare yourself for a landslide of kitschy Obama items like silly hats, bad t-shirts, and bobble-head Obama dolls.

He still gives one hell of a speech. Hoosiers were fired up and ready to go before the rally today, as many of us think that there is a decent shot that Indiana will vote for Obama.

But the speech fired us up even more.

Let’s go do this!

Overall, beautiful day, beautiful crowd, great speech.

Nightmare. Tragic. Horrific. WTF?

I just saw on the evening news that a friend with whom I’ve worked for 7 years was stabbed in her home this weekend. I’m more than a little bit stunned.

Apparently, an acquaintance of hers from the homeless day shelter where we work found her in her home, knocked on the door and asked for a sandwich. She invited him in and prepared him a sandwich. He asked for a knife to cut the snack and then used the knife to demand money.

Soon after, he started stabbing her because she only had $100 to give him. He stopped stabbing her and left her for dead when she was on the floor playing possum. He her must have heard her the blood gargling in her throat, so he went back to stab her some more.

Fortunately, she seems to have survived and is now in critical condition.

He turned himself in today and is in custody. It’s amazing how crack (my guess) can play such a role in causing this kind of shit.

I break into chills and tears when I imagine the fear, horror and pain she must have felt during those moments. I worry that while the physical pain will heal, the psychological trauma may last a lifetime. I’m enraged that a fucking dick head like that was able to inflict that kind of pain on someone who was trying to help him simply because he wanted some fucking crack.

Motherfucker.

She (for some reason, I feel more comfortable not using her name) is one of the sweetest people I have ever known. She is always willing to go well out of her way to do what she can for our homeless clients. She hasn’t developed the cynicism that most of us working in the field have — it just simply isn’t part of her nature. Her smile and the daily morning chat we have always brightened my day, and I know her warm personality has always been a comfort to people trying to end their homelessness.

Please send some good thoughts her way.

Indianapolis Wins 2012 Super Bowl

Good news for Indianapolis.

Yeah, I’m feeling a little bit of civic pride since Indy will host the Super Bowl. It’ll be good for this kinda dorky city to get national exposure, and it should bring a lot of money to the city.

That’s all great.

But what I find most intriguing about the Super Bowl in Indy is that the city is using this opportunity to try to redevelop the Near East side of the city, which is in dire need of help.

The city’s plan is to build upon efforts already going on in a neighborhood where 36 percent of the households live below the federal poverty level and that was devastated in June 2006 by the killings of seven family members in a home robbery on Hamilton Avenue.

“The plan is to make us a neighborhood of choice rather than a neighborhood of last resort,” said Tracy Heaton, president of the Near Eastside Community Organization.

It (the legacy project) calls for turning around an area twice the size of Fall Creek Place, a redevelopment project in a 17-square-block area near Downtown that transformed a crime-ridden neighborhood into one that attracted $75 million in private investment.

I work on the Near East side of Indy. As a neighborhood, it’s a total fucking nightmare, full of abandoned houses, drugs, and violence. If the project helps to rebuild the area while allowing low-income families to stay in their homes, the Super Bowl might be 100 times better for the city than I thought it would be.

Here’s hoping that the Super Bowl in Indy will mean a lot more than a football game and street parties in the middle of winter.

Yes We Did!

Obama’s huge margin in North Carolina was impressive; those who worked on his campaign there ought to be really proud of what they did.

In Indiana, I think we also should be proud of Obama’s performance, though he came up a couple points short.

From the beginning, I thought that Obama could win in this state pretty easily. It’s in Illinois’ back yard and there never seemed to be a whole lot of love for the Clintons here. Back in February, he had a seven point lead, but 21 percent of those polled were undecided.

Then Rev. Wright came. And then Bittergate. And then Rev. Wright came back. Those mini-scandals didn’t play well among conservative Hoosiers and about a week ago, things were looking bleak for Obama in the Hoosier state – I remember thinking that I would have been happy with a five-point loss.

But then something happened, and I’m not sure what it was. There seemed to be a change in momentum in Obama’s favor, perhaps due to the Wright affair quieting down. Or maybe it was as thousands of volunteers across the state went into action and to pound the pavement,  knock on doors, and call their neighbors. When I canvassed on Saturday, I felt like a shift was taking place.

On Tuesday we voted, and those who were able knocked on more doors, made more calls and drove people to the polls. Indiana voted in unprecedented numbers.

Though the result was a little disappointing, we did what we needed to do and that was to lose by a narrow enough margin that would change the media narrative. And that’s exactly what we did.

Kudos to Obama volunteers and voters in North Carolina! This thing is over.

While We Wait for Lake County Results

I’ll tell you about my experience today while Obamando.

The first part of my day was spent giving rides to people in Marion county. I drove to neighborhoods I didn’t know existed to give three people rides to the polls. It was a blast for me.

In the early afternoon, I ran into my friend Tamaki, a wonderful woman from Japan who I know from my studies at IUPUI. She linked me to a couple of volunteers, one from Cleveland and the other from New York who lives in Indy but will return to NY soon.

We had a great time canvassing a struggling neighborhood in Indy where each voter we met had already voted for Obama.

I REALLY loved Tamaki’s energy and enthusiasm. She has been working hard for Obama because she believes in the promise of this country. It was a delight to canvass with her.

We ended the afternoon with a dinner at Sakura, a Japanese restaurant in Indy that I have always loved, but Tamaki led to to a menu choice that was delicious and very Japanese.

It was a great day.

Even if Obama doesn’t win Indiana, I’m proud of our efforts and volunteers from all over the city, state, and country.

Photo of the Day

21,000 people enduring the rain to rally for Obama in Indianapolis.

21,000

This evening in Indianapolis, 21,000 people filled the American Legion Mall while enduring rain and a late start time to rally for Barack Obama (unfortunately, my camera’s battery died early in the evening so I don’t have any decent photos of my own).  If you’re familiar with Indianapolis, you know that kind of a turnout is unprecedented  for any candidate, much less a Democrat.

When I got to work this morning, I was surprised to learn that most of the office was going to the rally. People were really excited, which is odd, as it’s usually difficult to excite Hoosiers about much of anything. After work, we met for a couple of drinks and headed toward the rally.

When we got to its site of the rally, we had to go to the end of the line. So we walked. And walked. I’m not sure how long the line actually was, since we were lucky to run into some friends on about the 7th block of the line who welcomed us into their section of the line. But even with that advantage, we waited in line for over two hours.

When the rally finally started, Stevie Wonder played a short set of some of his classics and then Barack spoke for about an hour to fire up the crowd. It was pretty much a standard stump speech, but it was stirring.

From the speech:

This campaign is about you. This about your voice, your dreams, your struggles and your aspirations. And when this country is focused on its hopes and its aspirations instead of its fears, then thats when we are going to be able to deliver on change for every American.

Let’s GOTV!

Yes We Can: A Photoblog of Young Obama Supporters Rallying in Indy

I was tired today. I got a late start to canvass for Obama and my feet were hurting after spending all of Saturday canvassing for Obama in a hilly area.

So today, I went to Indy’s Central Township Obama office and spent a couple hours canvassing. It was positive experience, but again, I was tired, so I didn’t spend as much time pounding the pavement as I should have.

But on my way home, on the stairs of the state capitol, I saw dozens of people holding Obama signs. I didn’t know what was going on, so I parked my car and went to join my fellow Obama supporters.

But on my way home, on the stairs of the state capitol, I saw dozens of people holding Obama signs. I didn’t know what was going on, so I parked my car and went to join my fellow Obama supporters.<

It turns out that Students for Obama were rallying in the streets of Indianapolis in support of Barack before the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Indy tonight.

I felt quite fortunate to have been at the right place at the right time.

I had no idea of what was going on, so I stayed to find out.

I was THRILLED to see WOW for Obama (Wiser Older Women). They had a great spirit and were simply lovely.

I was surprised that a few Democratic politicians showed up:

Joe Andrew: Obama’s newest superdelegate who reminded us that we should be welcoming our opponents rather than telling they are wrong.

Max Kennedy, RFK’s son talked about how similar Obama is to Max’s dad.

Former Congressman Andy Jacobs fires up the crowd.

After the speeches, the gospel choir and the drum band started to play again and we started to march toward the convention center while the choir sang.

Of course, when we made it to the Convention Center, Hillary people were there celebrating their candidate. They were quite enthusiastic for Clinton.

The Obama side countered.

It was a great day for me. Now I’m even more excited for Obama’s rally tomorrow night.

We are going to win.

Report from the Ground In Indy

Canvassing in Indianapolis – May 3, 2008

I spent my day canvassing for Barack Obama in Indianapolis.

The area in which I canvassed was pretty affluent, because the Obama office in Washington Township randomly assigned us a map and a list of names of people in an area that was supposed to be pro-Obama., or who were Democrat, at the least The time I spent was better than I thought it would be.

Among the 34 people with whom I and my canvassing partner spoke, 20 were definitely going to vote for Obama, 10 were undecided, and four would not say for whom they are going to vote.

The undecideds really were undecided. They were excited that Indiana is actually playing a role in this process, but they admire Obama and Clinton so much that they remain undecided. Part of me thought that the undecideds were perhaps the best Democrats we met as they loved both candidates way too much.

Overall, it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to pound the pavement for Barack tomorrow. I think we can do this.

Which candidate wins Indiana seems to be very much in the air right now. If you’re pro-Obama and live in this state, please volunteer to help Obama win here. If you live in another state, please call some voters in Indiana.

We need your help