Of their many programs, I was especially enthused to learn of their Young Women’s Leadership (a.k.a “Yellow”) program which engages high school students in civic participation. As they are looking for a project for 2009, it was suggested that they may be able to work with WOCU on a violence against women and/or HIV&AIDS related initiative, which was exciting. Learn more about their programs by listening to the interview where their programs are described on the WOCU You Tube Channel.

I interviewed Tanzila Ahmed and Usma Men about their own motivation for being involved in this work as well as their overviews of the work of OCAPICA including information on their outreach materials and methods, as well data that they have collected and analyzed on the effectiveness of their approach.  I was also fortunate to be able to observe OCAPICA’s multilingual phone banking. As a clear illustration of the importance of the work of OCAPICA, while I was there one of the high school student volunteers from Vietnam was on the phone for a long time with an 83 year old gentleman who had a mailer on voting in front of him and didn’t know what to do with it. He said it was telling him to pay $30 to vote.  Tanzila helped out with the student’s conversation and they determined that it was likely that the document wasn’t his mail-in ballot as he seemed to think and instead was likely a utility bill with a courtesy reminder to vote enclosed. So they helped him through actually determining how to get his ballot and vote.  Footage of the interviews as well as the exchange with the elderly voter can be found on the WOCU You Tube Channel.

Re the subject line of this post, one of the innovative programs of OCAPICA is their MOTIVATE Program with youth. Through this program they had a contest to design a t-shirt for their campaign. One creative Vietnamese youth came up with a design that had a bear going to a polling station with her/his ballot in hand. As the official turned her/him away, they showed the bear going off in the distance and then showed a person walking up. The slogan on the shirt is “Bears Can’t Vote, But You Should!” and it’s written in English and Vietnamese. When I was there the shipment of t-shirts arrived to the excitement of all who were present. You can see the t-shirt in the footage on the You Tube Channel.

After my time at OCAPICA, I went to a late dinner with Jasmine Burnett of the Black AIDS Institute. In an interview she shared her perspectives on issues that are important to her as a woman of color, as well as on the importance of civic participation. Her interview is posted on the You Tube Channel.

Ana also shared with me about a canvassing project they do on the weekends which focuses on engaging non-voting youth both so that they influence their family members to vote, as well as to appeal to them early so that they subsequently become voting community members.  More on this can be found on the WOCU You Tube Channel.

I realized today that I should set aside my fears that I’m developing narcolepsy and come to terms with the fact that I returned from Guatemala sick and besides that I’m a bit exhausted from the intensity of being on the road. J So I’m taking it a bit easy on myself. J

Volunteer Directing Ohio Residents to Early Absentee Voting

Ohio–that red state, blue state, who knew state–was another intense battleground visited on our GOTV tour.  We saw a lot of Get Out the Vote activities in Columbus and talked with several local activists.  It was one of those places in the U.S. that I had never ever been to, and just sort of imagined as a vast prairie in between the two coasts.  As ignorant as it sounds, I was surprised to see real legitimate buildings and a downtown area bustling with people.  Well maybe “bustling” is an exaggeration, but I did see a few pedestrians here and there. 

Anyway.

During our roughly 25 hours in town, we caught a lot of action.  First, we hit up the Early Absentee Polling Place taking place at Veterans Memorial Auditorium downtown on Broad St.  There were plenty of campaigners outside in the parking lot, and during the hour we spent there we spoke with several women of color who were showing up early to get their vote in. 

One woman wanted to vote early as she knew she would be on vacation on Nov. 4th.  Others showed up to make sure that their vote counted. 

Here are some highlights from the conversations we had with women of color who showed up to vote early:

A Registered Republican Woman Speaks on the Use of Tokenism and on the Economy

Hadn’t Voted in 11 Years and is Now Voting Because she Feels Empowered to Speak Out and Also Wants to Set an Example for Her Daughters

Political Activist Voices her View that “Women of Color Were Scapegoated in these Elections.”

In addition to engaging women at the polling place, Torkwase and I interviewed three local women health professionals working toward health care of communities of color in Columbus.  Angela Billingslead and Dana Scarlett of Project HIP spoke with us about the need for increased funding of HIV prevention programs in the United States and for the need for in-your-face prevention messages. Having recently returned from Botswana and South Africa where prevention campaign messages were ubiquitous, Ms. Billingslead expressed that it is a shame that in the US, the campaign message is nowhere to be found.

Ms. Scarlett, who has been HIV positive for 20 years, and finds it empowering to work in the field and encourages others with HIV to overcome STIGMA, and to come out with her status.  She voiced that she grew up with hustlers, pimps, and drug addicts and does not regret it, because the exposure to that side of life is invaluable to understanding what scores of others are experiencing around the country.  Politicians never come into certain communities, she explained, and have no idea what the other side is facing.  This is why they need to hear our voices!!!

Another incredible woman interviewed was Suban Egal, a Somali-American woman who works with Tuberculosis patients within the local Department of Health, and views health as a human right.  She helped to shed some light on the Somali immigrant community in the Columbus, the second-largest Somali population in the US.  And also told us about her active role in encouraging Somali-Americans who are citizens to become civically involved.  Her exasperation with the common view held by many Somalis that they are “just lucky to be here” motivated her to urge members of the community to register to vote, every evening of Ramadan at her local mosque.  Even though some felt the mosque wasn’t the proper forum for such secular discourse, she was determined to encourage other Somali Americans to exercise their political voice.   

Also, DEMONSTRATING OUR PHENOMENALLY GOOD FORTUNE, we happend to catch a campaign rally, and got to see presidential hopeful Barack Obama, speak in front of a crowd of hundreds in the middle of the workday, in Genoa park.  It was exciting, to say the least, to see him in person. 

One thing that’s important to note, that a work colleague of mine brought to my attention, is that NO CAMPAIGN PARAPHERNALIA IS ALLOWED AT POLLING PLACES IN MANY STATES.  Please keep that in mind!  Keep your Sarah Palin and Joe Biden T-shirts at home people, or else you will risk being disenfranchised.  With the pins you can just take them off before you vote–with T-shirts you face the catch 22 of disenfranchisement on one hand, indecent exposure on the other.  Not a good situation. 

Driving along Interstate 70, away from the city, I noticed an almost even mix of lawn signs boasting support for the democratic president/vp team and the republican candidates.  Although a lot of citizens came out in support of Obama a Friday afternoon, there seemed to be a pretty thick tension in between the two sides. 

I was a little unsettled as I left the state though.  As I crossed a railroad track close to the Ohio/Michigan border, I saw that someone had scribbled a disturbing message in HUGE LETTERS on one of the train cars: “ISLAM SUCKS.” 

Yikes.

While the debates themselves have had a record number of viewers, many of us can’t wait to see how Saturday night live has used the previous week’s debates and presidential and vice presidential interviews with the press as fodder.

In the spirit of laughing so that we don’t cry, check out the latest SNL spoofs of the recent debates:

Sarah Palin And Hillary Clinton

Sara Palin and Joe Biden

Check out the Sara Palin & Joe Biden debate featuring Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill here.

In preparation for the upcoming 2008 Presidential election a collective of AIDS activists and people living with HIV and AIDS gathered in Oxford, Mississippi just days before the first presidential debate to identify and create a national plan and strategy for ending AIDS and supporting folks living with HIV/AIDs.

“Nothing for us, without us,” they declared.

Caravans from around the country traveled to Mississippi to demand that the next president, Obama or McCain be accountable and develop a national plan to end the HIV & AIDS epidemic.

Scenes From The Day

With activities including media trainings, rallies in the Oxford Town Square, town hall meetings, and affinity sessions focusing on the various groups impacted by HIV/AIDS – the LGBT community, senior citizens, African American women, the Latina community, etc. the intent of the meetings were to flesh out, identify, and mobilize the AIDS community, its allies, and advocates.

For more information on the Campaign To End AIDS, check out the official website here.