Door to Door, Back Home in Iowa

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Door to Door, Back Home in Iowa


This post is from Richard Rowe, Internet and Information Services Director for Dean for America.

Clarinda, Iowa--This has been an extraordinary weekend for me in southwestern Iowa, canvassing for Howard Dean. I have been encouraged to blog it (my first). So here goes.

For the first time since I joined the Dean campaign full time last spring at headquarters in Burlington, I volunteered to go to Iowa and do some door-to-door canvassing with a group of other seniors from Massachusetts, Missouri and North Carolina. Being a native of Iowa, I felt I might be able to help out here. To my surprise, when I arrived in Des Moines, I learned that my assignment included Clarinda, a county seat of 5,000, where, when I was a young boy, my father was minister of the Methodist church.

Gray Brooks, who covers this part of Iowa for Dean for America, met us in the Clarinda town square yesterday morning and gave us our canvassing assignments along with some guidance on what we might say. My friend Frankie Lappe and I were given a list of addresses of seniors who were undecided and off we went to go door to door.

It was inspiring to visit in the homes of these Clarindians, to hear their concerns about the direction this country is going and to interest them in supporting Dr. Dean at their caucus in January. We shared with them what the Governor has done in Vermont to improve health care, especially for children and seniors, and his commitment to make sure as president that everyone will have adequate health insurance. We even talked to one Republican in a restaurant who said he is so disturbed about Bush that he may register as a Democrat in order to attend the caucus and support Dean.

Imagine my surprise, when at Ronald Williams' home, upon hearing my name he immediately asked if I was the Reverend Charles Ronald Rowe's son! It's been over fifty years since I have been in Clarinda and he remembered my father clearly--even his middle name. He was overflowing with memories and memorabilia about those years. We could have talked all afternoon long if we had not been on a tight time schedule.

On our way past the Methodist church, we went inside and visited with Keith Wilson, who showed us the plaque with my father's name on it and let me pull on the rope and ring the bell in the church tower as I did as a boy.

Our call list also included the Reverend Walden Paige, the current minister. Reverend Paige invited us to attend church this morning so he could introduce me to the congregation and he gave us an opportunity to speak about Governor Dean with his parishioners at the social hour after services.

The church services this morning were full of remembrances. One couple told me that my father had married them some 60 years ago. Another said my father had baptized him. One remembered playing caroms with my sister and football with my brother and me on the field near our home. Amidst all of this, in an area known to be heavily Republican, we were able to talk about the importance of supporting Governor Dean and I believe we generated some strong interest in the Governor.

This visit makes me more confident than ever that the people of Iowa, at least those we met in southwestern Iowa, are deeply concerned about the direction the Bush administration is taking us and are eager for the strong leadership that Governor Dean will bring to this country as President.



www.blogforamerica.com


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