Reno for Obama

Last weekend Shawn and I joined with 3 other families and took a road trip to Reno to do some canvasing for Obama. I have never done anything to quite that extent to get involved politically until this point in my life, and I have to say- it felt really great. Usually my approach is simply to read the news and then complain about everything that infuriates me, but clearly there are more effective ways to create change :) I don't know that I converted anyone but I know that 1) it felt good to actually be doing something, and 2) maybe it helped to at least nudge someone in the right direction.

So here we are with our fearless group of patriots!


We stopped mid-way through the day to have lunch at The Spicy Pickle.


And I just loved that our friends involved their kids so much in the experience. I don't think I ever even asked a single question about politics until I was at least 20, maybe later!! Here's Naomi.


It might appear that Sabine and Isabelle are playing an innocent grade school girls game, but really they're pretend shooting each other :)


Anywho, it was a beautiful afternoon.




I was really nervous about this weekend. . . I have been feeling so strongly about this election. I felt very strongly last time as well, but that was out of fear- fear of what ended up happening. This time I feel strongly out of the opposite. I have so much excitement and hope and I just wanted to be able to express that to others in a clear way. It seems that my "belief", so to speak, in Obama is strengthened almost daily, in some way or another. I'm not sure how to explain it. . . . I love my country so fiercely and have just been hugely disappointed by many of it's actions over the past years. They have not made me proud in the least. I have continued to be grateful- I will always be grateful for the immense privilege of living here, but I have not been proud. I have been embarrassed. I have shed many tears over some of my country's poor decisions. When I travel to other countries I am embarrassed to say where I'm from, and I hate that feeling. The thought of Obama being our president gives me so much hope that I can shed those feelings and once again feel good about my heritage. I recognize that some may be sick of that "hope" phrase at this point, or feel that hope is not enough to run a country on. But I have to disagree. Hope makes people want to be better people, and that alone is priceless.

I don't believe that my generation has ever had a MLK or a JFK; we have never had a political leader that has been such an inspiration in leading us to love our country, until now maybe. I think that this is maybe what it should feel like.

I have never been more positive and upbeat and filled with a desire to serve America and make it work. I am so done with leaders who wear their Americanism, and their religion and their patriotism on their sleeve, while doing so very little to live it. As is the case with so many Americans who are disenchanted with their country at this point, I am clinging to this hope. I am ready for change.