It was the first Farmers Market Obama table for this year and started off as an overcast, drizzling 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 (which has a been a feature from last year) was updated and visible. Here's this week's ever growing sad news:
Weekly War ScorecardCost of Iraq Occupation:(running total):
$512,640,602,264 (over half a trillion dollars/ $4,000 a second)
American Deaths:4,039
American Wounded:29,780
Iraqi Body Count:1,199,782
As of April 19, 2007 at 12:00AM
Sources:
www.iraqbodycount.net
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths....
www.defenselink.mil
www.antiwar.com/casualties
www.costofwar.com
I had a minute to take this photo before a new line formed.Getting ready for the new season of the Obama table has been something I've been wanting to do since signing up for the spot to set up last January. I was convinced then that Obama would be our nominee and it certainly appears that Barack Obama will be the nominee.
As the days ticked down to today's first Farmers Market this season, it was such a relief that today finally arrived. Granted, the morning started off with very overcast conditions and some drizzling. If you've ever dome anything dealing with grassroots work, rain is not the best weather. Fortunately, as myself and four volunteers set up the table, the rain stopped and soon the sun was beaming down.
The people who volunteered and worked with me are diehard Obama fans who had been in Iowa last January in the -15 degree snowbound weather trudging miles of sidewalks helping to get out the vote and organizing the efforts to caucus. By the way, as one who was there, the perception that it was "MoveOn radicals" that filled the caucuses like mad zombies is completely (dare I say) a "misstatement". Iowans (some who stopped by the table today) who participated are generally salt-of-the Earth, no-nonsense, hard-working folks that want change. These same volunteers had also worked as volunteers in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin...all out there in the dead of winter where 100 inches of snow had fallen and temperatures were considered a heat wave if it hit 15 degrees. So you can imagine what a sunny day in the 60s was like...not only for the volunteers but all those who were out to enjoy the day and celebrate spring's new face.
It was incredibly busy as soon as we were set up at 8am all the way up to around noon, where we we had a fantastic day. After giving away 150 bumperstickers and buttons, dozens of stickers, rally signs, literature and 100 new names signed up on the email list, we had the "good problem" of running out of everything we had. Having done all this with the mission that "we are the cavalry", people understood that we were out there on our own time and our own dime. But there is no price to replace getting the message of Barack Obama out there.
It is the mission of the Obama table at this point to assume that Barack is the nominee and we need to beat John McCain. Sure, there was some discussions with some people about the recent debate and speculation about Pennsylvania's primary on Tuesday (where I think Obama will win), but the whole vibe was to be positive.
Here's another photo of a few of thousands who stopped by.So many people who stopped by to sign up or grab a couple bumperstickers or a button were just so happy to see us out there. People were so friendly and positive and what was amazing were children who were so happy to get a sticker put on them. I talked with several Iraq War veterans that were so happy to get a bumpersticker or button or both in many cases. One vet gave me a big bear hug and I could see tears in his eyes. I teared up too. Then again, it's easy with someone like Barack as the candidate for many people.
No one Republican or other supporter of any other candidate came by with some retort and comment. It could have been that there seemed to always be a line of five to ten people coming up to the table. There were some former Clinton supporters and a couple Republicans who were for Obama who wanted to put a sticker on and walk around the crowd.
What is always fascinating is running into people from around the World who stop by. There were some people from Japan that wanted buttons and I had a great conversation with a woman from Denmark who told me that everyone she knows there wants Obama to be president.
As the day's worth of tabling ended, someone approached me about how to set up a grassroots table and what needs to be done to get it going. She was from Fond du Lac, a town about an hour from Madison, and was going to set up a table at their Farmers Market. She also is setting up a web site called "Welcome Wagon", which she wants to use to get Hillary Clinton supporters a friendly welcome and support for what they'd like to learn about the Obama campaign. I thought that was such an excellent idea! I'll be sending her a support package and have some tips on how to get it all started.
It was such a positive day and next week is going to be even more crowded. So many are fired up and ready to go!
Stay tuned or drop on by!
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