Saturday, September 18, 2010

Letters and happiness




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It's been a great week. I'm getting in a groove. I really love canvassing and now I'm getting the chance to mentor other canvassers because I'm starting training to become a field manager. I've made a commitment to stick with Clean Water Action until Feb. 6 and it feels good not to be thinking about job hunting.

I just feel happy. I don't feel too much like blogging and I guess that's healthy.

Let's see... some highlights from the week:

1. Totally walked through the shrubs of an average-sized lake-front mansion on Grosse Ile this week and found myself on the middle of the lawn of the hugest mansion ever. It had glass windows all around it. Boy, did I feel sneaky. Finally I found a door that was not also a window and knocked. Nobody answered. I really don't think anybody was home. Good thing we canvas with permits. It would have been a little bit embarrassing if I'd encountered security, given that the house is actually heavily gated (I hadn't noticed the gates, of course, since I'd just slipped through an opening in the neighbor's shrubs.

2. Totally bumped into a street sign with the name of this guy who I'm crushing on. Sigh. The small pleasures in life.

3. Got tons of kids and their parents to write letters to President Obama on the topic of significantly raising our miles-per-gallon standards starting in 2017 to decrease our dependency on Foreign Oil. Lots of kids drew pictures on the letters. Some were even related to the topic. We collect the letters at the end of the night. People tape them to their doors. Clean Water Action is hand delivering several thousand letters to President Obama at the end of month.

4. Had a great presentation by Ashley from Cleveland who told us how her organization uses "Good Neighbor Campaigns" to get companies who are major polluters to stop polluting and clean up their acts. Rather than go through the government (since the EPA fines these businesses but doesn't force them to stop polluting), the Cleveland canvas gets people to write letters directly to CEOs of companies and puts pressure on them to become more concerned about toxins and pollution. It's very effective in Ohio.

5. Met Sarah Roberts.

6. Took a little break at an Oak Tree when I was canvassing Saturday afternoon in Saline and met a little gopher-like critter who lives in the tree. Very cute. A little bit shy. I love these little encounters with wildlife.

...........

That's about it. Sorry I just don't feel like writing more this week. I'm busy getting happy.

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