October 25th2008 Oakland Rising Educates Communities about Key Propositions
Today I joined the Oakland Rising Coalition www.oaklandrising.org, which consists of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, The East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Just Cause Oakland, and Urban Habitat, for a Precinct Walk to educate community members about Propositions 6 and 9 on costly prison expansions, as well as Measure VV on keeping transit affordable for youth, seniors, and people with disabilities.
We were trained by an energetic young man named Kijani who did a great job of getting us ready to go out and educate community members on the ballot measures. I was paired with him on the role play and he complimented me on being “a quick study” which I found inordinately gratifying. J I’m so easy. Footage of our training (specifically a role play between Vivian and Abel) can be found on the WOCU You Tube Channel.
For canvassing I was paired with Vivian of APEN and we were given our marching orders to visit 200+ voters in the surrounding community. Vivian unwisely entrusted me with navigating with the map, but we somehow made it through our list.
Early on one sad observation that jumped out of us was the succession of foreclosed homes on the streets we were canvassing. There was one short dead-end block where out of the 9 homes on the block, 6 were foreclosed. I also grimly noted two homes where there were notices on the door from the water company informing residents of the number to call to get their water reconnected. I was later told by one of the Just Cause advocates that the banks are actually working with the utility companies and the cut off of utilities is one of the tactics used to get people out of their homes when they are being foreclosed.
The first home I visited, I was a bit intimidated going up the walk because there was music playing and much revelry going on in side. I felt quite intimidated about interrupting to talk about propositions! Anyway I knocked on the door nonetheless and a young man came to the door. He was all tatted up with a variety of tattoos all over his arms, neck, and bare chest. Distracting to say the least! So I launched into my impassioned talk about the Propositions and he was very engaged in the discussion, and then some of the other young men started to crowd in the doorway. He ardently agreed to vote no on Props 6 and 9 and yes on Measure VV. I asked him to make sure everyone else in the household did the same. Much to my delight, as I walked away I heard the young gentleman giving his own twist in explaining the Propositions to the other occupants of the house. I honestly thought I was going to start weeping (yes, I’m an easy touch) at the power of grassroots approaches to spreading the word and educating folks about the policies that will affected communities. I looked at that young man and thought about how many in our society fear would fear him or at least dismiss him as not having anything to contribute and then listened to his passion as he was empowered with information to share with his peers. So inspiring.
At another home we visited there was a young man who stated that he was not eligible to vote because he was “a felon” but he stated that he was 8 month clean and would have his charges discharged in 80 days. Meanwhile he wanted to volunteer as he was very inspired by the content of Propositions 6 and 9 and wanted to use his comparative advantage in being able to reach the ex-offender population in a way that works effectively with them and educate his peers to make policies and society works better for them. This fellow’s sister, who is a registered voter, asked me if I had any more of my “I’m a Woman of Color and I VOTE” buttons. I said no, but gave her mind. She was excited and proudly stated that she would wear it every day so that the people at work and on the BART (public transportation system in Oakland and San Francisco) can see it.
An elderly woman actually approached me in a low income apartment complex and asked what I was doing. When I explained about the propositions she launched into a passionate monologue about how they are taking the money to build bigger prisons and put “our babies in there and never let them out” when what they need to be doing is giving kids a better education so they have the opportunities they need to keep them out of trouble.
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