Obama table in Madison: October 20 Edition

[zulchzulu]

It was an crisp, clear, breezy autumn day with lots of people from all over the globe walking along and choosing from all kinds of locally grown, baked, crafted and political flavors. The Obama table is one feature to many at what the New York Times mentioned "The Dane County Farmers' Market in Wisconsin is now recognized as the largest in the nation, and is still growing." There are two tabling days left for the fall season.

The night before the tabling, I made sure the weekly war scorecard was updated and very visible.

Here's this week's sad news:

Weekly War Scorecard

Cost of Iraq Occupation:
(running total):
$461,782,618,157

American Deaths:
3,834

American Wounded:
28,276

Iraqi Body Count:
1,089,455

As of October 20, 2007 at 12:00AM

Sources:
www.iraqbodycount.net
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
www.defenselink.mil
www.antiwar.com/casualties
www.costofwar.com



With the morning being a bit chilly, there weren't a lot of people walking the Square when I set up. But that made it less frantic than other mornings. People were slowly starting to arrive to do some market shopping and then head over to Camp Randall stadium for a UW Badgers football game. By 10AM, the place was packed.

A couple traveling the country from New Mexico were the first visitors. They both really liked Madison a lot with the large lakes enveloping the city and the ease of getting around. They had voted for Bill Richardson for governor, but were upset by how he stopped the questionable vote counting in 2004. "He's off the list", said both. I remember Greg Palast mentioning something about that almost 7,000 votes in a very anti-Bush district had magically gone to Bush, hence giving him the state in 2004. The visitors signed up and took a bumpersticker to put on their van for the rest of the trip and beyond.

Since Barack Obama had visited this past week, many people came up to the table and asked how it went or how much they liked it. I had videotaped the event from about 20 feet from the stage (using handheld vs. my preferred tripod) and had crunched together a DVD of the event to give to five people who weren't there and really wanted to be.

I gave copies to a woman who lives in a seniors home and would share the DVD, an African-American woman who started crying that she missed it and would show it to her friends, a student who was involved in getting other students to volunteer to go to Iowa, some Obama activists from Iowa and a filmmaker from the UK. I have more copies for later and if anyone wants a free copy, PM me with a request.

I did put a segment of the closing remarks of the event on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YG2Y3Us75Y

There were many people who stopped by from all over the states visiting and in most cases, they are generally white and middle class. This week had many like that, but more and more Latin and African Americans were coming up to the table for information or bumper stickers. Despite what some of the polls say about how minorities are more supportive of Clinton, I have found the case to be the opposite in most cases. People are so happy to see an African American running for President and want to know more about his background. Actually from my standpoint, Obama's race doesn't even come that much into the equation.

The table has Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope displayed for people to peruse through and it's fascinating when people ask about the photos. It opens up discussions about how his black Kenyan father and white American mother have him start his journey in Hawaii and then to Indonesia as a pre-teen. It's a story of living in diverse locations. Many people who are minorities don't know his background and are really happy to find out about it.

One woman, who I gave a copy of the Obama in Madison DVD to, was so upset that she had missed him in town that she started crying. Her daughter and children were with her and they mentioned that she had to teach and couldn't take time off. When I gave her the DVD to keep, she was just joyous. All of them couldn't wait to watch it.

Another woman, originally from Chile, came up to the table with her friends. She was glad to see the Obama table and grabbed some bumper stickers and a button from my secret stash (button collectors always come by that just throw them in a bag). She talked about how great it was to see grassroots people out in the street making politics part of the day. She had lived in Chile when there was martial law and where a dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet had hit her friends and family with death, kidnapping and imprisonment. Still, she and many others would meet secretly to find a way to get their loved ones back or to find a way to help overthrow the government. She was always amazed at just how little most Americans understand how well they have it here and don't participate in democracy. She expressed fear that the same thing that happened in Chile under Pinochet could happen here if people just don't pay attention and let the media and military do what they want.

It was chilling hearing about some of the things that happened to her when she was a child. One Christmas morning, some police knocked the doors down during their gift sharing and took away their father and uncle. The father returned beaten up a week later but the uncle was never found or seen again. I couldn't even imagine living through that memory.

I gave her some Obama literature in Spanish to give to her friends who were citizens but were still learning English better.

During the day, I was able to finally do a lap around the Capitol Square and videotape a lot of the other parts of the Farmers Market to use for a mini-documentary about these tabling days. Portions of the Obama visit in Madison will be nice to use.

When you start your day doing this kind of grassroots work, you just never know what you will hear about by the end of the day. That's when it all makes sense.

Gobama!

[sundancekid]

1. and may I say: THANK YOU - k/r

[nevergiveup]

2. I marvel at your dedication

I am still convinced that Obama will prevail in the end and if he does it will be because of folks like you.

[zulchzulu]

3. Thanks! There are many Obama supporters out there dedicated in the grassroots

I've met many along the way at the table and in Iowa. I also enjoy seeing grassroots supporters out there for other candidates too.

It's all good.

:thumbsup:

[zulchzulu]

4. A photo from last Monday's event in Madison...

In case you missed it...

[flpoljunkie]

5. Great report, as always, and a terrific photo, zulchzulu!