Do phone calls + signs = votes?

Yesterday I was driving on 291, trying to remember which half of the split I’m supposed to follow to make my way to the road on which Dr. Suess was born.  My phone rang, which is a surprising detail because a. I am typically deaf to cell phone rings and b. when I do hear the ring, I have a 30/70 percent chance of answering it, especially when I don’t recognize the number.  But I was in Springfield and the person whom I was heading to meet has swapped those chances of answering said phone.  So I did… and while it made me choose the wrong side of 91, I’m glad I took that call.

It was an invitation to participate in the Elizabeth Warren campaign, now that they’ve finally set up an office in Worcester.  In case you hadn’t intimated, I’m pretty keen on Ms. Warren.  And I’m keen to make the people in my part of the state catch some of that appreciation.

But here’s the thing… how?

I’m excited to go to this meeting and meet other people who are invested in the community, who want to see this senate victory in November… people who share that common interest in politics on a level I don't find in many of my circles.  I also want to participate in something that I think is very important, so I’m going to take up that invitation.

But this does make me wonder, as I contemplate what I will be asked to do… what will I be asked to do?  If you haven’t figured it out from this blog or any other, I hate cell phones.  I hate talking on phones.  And the only thing I like less than that is talking on the phone to people I don’t know, interrupting them from whatever important or unimportant activity of the day, to read them a script.  The same goes for knocking on people’s doors or standing on a street with a clipboard.  When the weather gets warmer here, I have to play hide and seek every time I leave my office from political activists (with whom I sympathize), but want to steal my time away from lunch or delay my commute home.  I would stand around with a sign and, like a giddy six year-old, solicit a car horn to honk or wave… but the sun makes me a lobster and gives me a headache within an hour.

Maybe I could do one of those things… if I could be convinced it does any good.  I don’t mean to say that in as a whimper of laziness.  Just a question of futility.  In a world of Faux News and Facebook and constant, loud whiny political propaganda machines, what difference does standing with a sign really make now?  How can volunteering my time be most effective in rallying people to vote for Elizabeth Warren?

I know that’s what the meeting is all about tomorrow.  People far more skilled in manipulating other people’s opinions are going to give me a plan.  But… honestly, I don’t want to manipulate anyone.  I know I have strong political opinions.  Much though I may disagree with a lot of people about their opinion, I feel they are entitled to have it and try to defend it.  And much like me, I imagine a phone call to the contrary will only dig in some heels.

It’s about getting information out there. The tools of this world are Facebook and cable news.  But… it’s also, on those rare occasions when people forget those stupid little rectangular blue screens, when we have an actual dialogue about different opinions, about the real facts of the economy, about what we want and who is the best person in Washington to give us a solution to our problems... that the motivation to go vote is electrified… and maybe apathy is dissolved.  Those conversations are profound and should make the details linger longer than an abrupt end to a phone call.  But… I’m not going to have every voter in Central Mass over for dinner to start that discussion.

I guess – I know – the best thing to solve this quandary is to go to that meeting tomorrow.  And to start telling you now, readers, vote for Elizabeth Warren.