Obama table in Madison: November 3 Edition (Last one for 2007)

[zulchzulu]

It was the final outdoor Farmers Market Obama table for this year and was a windy, sunny 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."

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

Here's this week's ever growing sad news:

Weekly War Scorecard

Cost of Iraq Occupation:
(running total):
$465,602,381,589

American Deaths:
3,849

American Wounded:
28,385

Iraqi Body Count:
1,099,372

As of November 3, 2007 at 12:00AM

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



This was the last time I was setting up and taking down the Obama table this year and it frankly was a little emotional to see how time has flown since the first day back in late April when it all started. So many faces, so many discussions, so many reasons for hope and so many reasons wondering why people are so apathetic about democracy.

My usual partner in crime was in Las Vegas for a convention coming up this week and I had warned him about how when he first gets off the plane there, the sound of "ding ding ding ding" coming in all directions from the casinos might drive him nuts unless he takes a journey outside the city to get a break in a couple of days. He's travelled the World and has even climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and is a bit of an "environmentalist", so he had to be warned since he had never been there before. It turned out that he couldn't take a day of the noise and hooked up with someone and did a quick visit to the nearby Grand Canyon! He was back for the conference starting on Sunday.

Anyway, I had to set up alone on this cold morning with a fairly thin crowd at the start. It was in the mid-30s and overcast with some gusts...far from the hot summer days and mild spring mornings that seemed like yesterday.

But true to form with things like this, as I was setting up the ten foot stilts for the Obama sign, some guy who could have passed for Central Casting's "classic moustached obese Republican" and his troubled wife walked right up to me and yelled "I switched parties when I heard Obama wanted the war and now I'm for Ron Paul! Ron! Paul!"

Sheesh, I thought as the guy was standing too close into my space. What hole did this guy crawl out of? I asked him when he switched parties. He stuttered something about 1980 and his wife pulled him away as she saw me towering over him ready to offer to pour some hot coffee over his head if he didn't scram.

"Have a great day!", I smiled at them as they hobbled away.

OK. I was awake and ready now.

One thing that is always interesting about the Farmers Market are some of the regular characters. Within earshot of the table, there is the beautiful singing by a sensuous farmer's daughter as she waits on customers selling infused sea salts, organic pesto and incredible sweet rolls. The woman has such a lilting velvet voice that hopefully will not go unnoticed and appreciated by many.

There's the guy who I've seen doing zen gardening projects in my neighborhood who walks the circle around the political corner of the Square chanting "May there be peace in Nicaragua! May there be peace in Afghanistan! May there be peace in downtown Milwaukee! May there be peace in your heart!" to a crowd that just looks at him like he's a nut. Kids love him. I enjoy his courage.

There's the coffee stands with people with incredible life stories if you talk to them. One woman has been all over Africa in the Peace Corps and is getting residency in Wisconsin to go to the University to learn agricultural science to go back to Africa for. "Last day!" she smiled as I got my heapin' Yergicheffe coffee to warm my bones.

There's Dennis The Button Guy who sells political buttons of all kinds and will gladly give away "Impeach" buttons with fluorescent orange ties to put around your arm. He wants me to help out in a couple protests coming up soon. I'll be there.

One of the Obama table regulars that stopped by today with his Obama hat, button in his wheelchair came by to wish us well since he knew it was the last Farmers Market outside this year. I put a new Obama bumpersticker on the back of his wheelchair for him and gave a few backups for later. What a wise soul he is.

One of the first very enthusiastic Obama supporters came by and said that when she saw him dance on The Ellen Show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cjtRgnj7pA), she decided he was her candidate. She was joking about the dance part! She was visiting from California (Bay area) and wanted to find out about volunteering. She got a button, some bumperstickers, a DVD of the Madison Obama visit I produced and was just thrilled at seeing the possibility of him as president. Her friend also was a big supporter and was going to try to do some work there too.

Another man came up and said that he had never been as excited about a candidate since John Anderson. We talked about that race in 1980 and how the Reagan years seemed almost harmless compared to the Bush years. He was excited about doing some volunteering in Iowa and I gave him info on upcoming car pools there from Madison.

I had some great discussions with a couple Kucinich fans about Obama. We talked about the dissolving middle class, NAFTA, the wars, Iran as a possible new war, health care and gay marriage. I told them that Obama was for reworking NAFTA and for setting up trade deals that take environmental, human rights and working standards that are fair. Obama was against the war from the beginning and wanted timelines to set up to leave. He offered universal health care that could hopefully lead to single payer over time and how the need to get domestic partnerships and civil unions was critical first before gay marriage could be legislated. They grabbed some issue papers and other literature on the issues and said they'd certainly vote for him.

There were some Japanese tourists who had heard of Obama and were very interested in getting buttons and bumperstickers to take back home. Why not... they liked him from what they had heard.

There seemed to be a lot of students for Obama that made a visit to the table as well. One woman even took off her Hillary button on her backpack and replaced it with an Obama button! Her friends cheered! It was hilarious. I took a picture of them for them to share. They posed with a couple Obama rally signs, some bumperstickers and their new buttons pinned on. They were interested in going to help out in Iowa with some of the car pools heading to Dubuque, about 90 miles away.

I met a couple homeless vets who talked to me about how they were sick from the Gulf War in 1991 and wanted to talk about the war in Iraq. One guy had heard that a buddy he served with had died in Tikrit a year ago. They looked sullen, cold and desperate. I gave them the sweet rolls I had bought earlier and a bottle of water I had in a bag. I pointed them to the direction of a shelter that's nearby. That kind of experience always chokes me up... seeing destroyed soldiers left out in the street disoriented and trying to cover themselves from the ever growing winter winds now subtly in the autumn air.

The day was good for people signing up with 75 new people. That made the total signup list to almost 4,000+ people. There were always many that just wanted stickers or info or told me they were already on the Obama site and doing things already.

As the day ended, I let the video camera I had near the table record the last few visitors. All enthusiastic and all hopeful.

It's just both humbling and mind boggling to see and meet people from not only all over the States but the World interested in not just Obama but hoping to see the United States make the correct decision to start this new century off better.

Now I'll be putting together a small documentary about the table and will have it available before Thanksgiving. It will comprise of some interviews I have made over the months, some raw footage, many photos, video from when Barack Obama visited Madison and part of the soundtrack will be this music composition I made from some of Barack's Madison speech. Stay tuned for that.

I'm so inspired by the human spirit that is willing to bring hope to democracy over just thinking it doesn't make a difference to get out in the street and show the World your thoughts. I highly recommend it to all, no matter who you support. It's never too late.

Future events like going to Iowa and elsewhere doing grassroots Obama work are in store now for those following this.

Are you fired up? Ready to go!

Gobama!


Taken in August


Note: before the big sign

[flpoljunkie]

1. Thanks, zulch, for your great work and for your engrossing report. Wow! 4,000+ signed up! Awesome!

[zulchzulu]

2. Thanks for checking it out

I'm stoked to have the video done...it's already 3/4 done.

:thumbsup:

[zulchzulu]

3. I'll have 10 free DVDs to DUers

Once I'm finished doing the documentary, I'll have 10 free DVDs for DU folks to give away. PM me if you're interested.

[AtomicKitten]

4. I'm fired up.

Gobama!

K&R for this and all your hard work on behalf of an extraordinary candidate.

[zulchzulu]

5. Thanks!

I bet you can't wait to see Barack in a week or so...

Gobama indeed!