Motley Moose – Archive

Lately I’ve been following a certain something very closely: the drug war. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico has become one of the deadliest cities in Mexico as the result of drug cartels fighting over territory and fighting with police enforcement. It’s a crazy issue for me because its literally happening at my doorstep [I’ve spent most of my life in El Paso,TX; 5 minutes away from Mexico].

As of today, the violence has let up a bit. But the first 2 months of 2009 were something to really take your breath away. More than a death a day and the acts of violence became more and more barbaric. There were 200 deaths in February alone in Ciudad Juarez.

Recently a friend from D.C. came to visit me, and among the things he wanted to know about was local politics; somehow it led to a discussion on Homeland Security, its impact on local politics, and how the local community felt about the rapid building [and subsequent ugliness] of the Border fence.

But I told him that we couldn’t just talk about it, we had to go see it.

‘Lets make History’ was the theme of the Hillary Clinton rally in Sunland Park, NM. Overall the rally was a success, at least in my opinion. In the Sunland Park community and the surrounding Borderland its easy to feel ignored and this event really made people feel ‘important’. I was impressed that they chose this community but it makes sense. Sunland Park has the second biggest voting block in Dona Ana County behind Las Cruces, and this community went heavily for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primaries.

The night before the rally, we had a gathering of all the volunteers in the Mesilla Plaza to sort out what jobs we were to carry out the next day. It was apparent when we showed up there that the Obama campaign has no shortage of volunteers in Las Cruces. 84 people showed up to help out with the Joe Biden event [not including the 40 people from San Antonio/Central TX who showed up the morning of the event]. Being from the Anthony Office is like being on the D-List, meaning that we were the left over people to which no job was assigned. The Obama Staff decided to make us rejects into line workers. Basically what a Line worker does is collect contact info from the people who attend the rally. While everyone is all irritable and unpleasant in line, we have to coerce them to give us all their personal info and if we need to, bust out with song and dance when the crowd turns ugly.

Before you can hit up NM or CO, every member of Obama Fight Club must attend training.

Obama Fight Club training is not for the faint of heart. Grueling physical fitness is almost never required. Nor is the ability to punch through dry wall [but it comes in handy. seriously. I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked to make holes in dry wall with my fists of fury!?]. In reality OFC training is pretty simple, it’s a two day tour de force of all the possible things that a field organizer might ask you to do, which includes but is not limited to: phone banking, data entry, canvassing, setting up events online, emailing supporters, making copies, putting together packets, and other official campaign shenanigans. As a member of OFC, whenever a field organizer asks you to do something you do it.

Alyssa of Arc

Obama Fight Club training is not for the faint of heart. Grueling physical fitness is almost never required. Nor is the ability to punch through dry wall [but it comes in handy. seriously. I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked to make holes in dry wall with my fists of fury!?]. In reality OFC training is pretty simple, it’s a two day tour de force of all the possible things that a field organizer might ask you to do, which includes but is not limited to: phone banking, data entry, canvassing, setting up events online, emailing supporters, making copies, putting together packets, and other official campaign shenanigans. As a member of OFC, whenever a field organizer asks you to do something you do it [apparently that includes driving the elderly around, just call me morgan freeman in ‘driving miss daisy’].