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Inner voice leads Obama supporter to head to Florida
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More from Local NewsLaura Romano has a bit of a hard time putting words to her desire to travel to Florida at her own expense and work for the next six weeks as a volunteer for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. But there was never any doubt in her mind that she would go, from the minute she heard about the "organizing fellowship" program.
"I've never done anything like this before," said the 44-year-old Camarillo native and Ventura resident. "It just felt like something I had to do. It might have been more appropriate when I was 20 years younger, but I want to be a part of history, and this is it."
Romano left home early Friday morning to catch a 9 a.m. flight out of Los Angeles International Airport for Fort Lauderdale. There, she'll spend three days training and will then go to the Tampa area for the next six weeks. Volunteers will be arriving from all over the country, but, Romano said, she's the only one on the list from Ventura County.
"I'm not even sure exactly what I'll be doing, probably helping register people to vote," she said Thursday, as she was making her last-minute preparations for the trip.
She'll stay with a family in Tampa who have volunteered to host her. She's paying for her own plane tickets and her own expenses, at a total cost, she estimates, of $1,500 to $2,000.
Romano said she had the choice of volunteering in about a dozen states, with the swing states of Ohio and Florida considered "high-need." She chose Florida because she lived there for a few years in the early 1990s.
Like most of Obama's supporters, she's donated only in small amounts and hasn't volunteered except for a few evenings of phone calls before some of the Democratic primaries.
Romano manages the Museum of Ventura County's gift shop. She'll be using a few weeks of vacation, and after that, the museum is granting her an unpaid leave, she said.
"I don't have the responsibilities that a lot of folks do — I own a home with my mother, and she'll take care of our pets, and I don't have kids — so I figured this was the right time to do this," Romano said.
Posted by creggsteffler on June 14, 2008 at 4:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How sad. Partisan politics has become some sort of weird religion for many people these days.
Posted by kristinppl on June 16, 2008 at 8:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think its fantastic! Someone has passion for making things change. I'm sick of old men running our country and screwing it up. Obama is a very exciting change for this country.
Posted by creggsteffler on June 17, 2008 at 8:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
kristinppl, if you think the USA is screwed up then you really need to get out more.
Try spending some years living in other countries. That will help you to appreciate how good we Americans have it here.
Posted by kristinppl on June 17, 2008 at 11:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Creggsteffler,
Do you really think the last eight years has been good for our wonderful country? Because I think times are terrible here does not mean I dont love this country. Of course other countries have all sorts of problems but the Bush administration has the rest of the world amazed and our standing had gone down everywhere. Having passion about politics is a good thing maybe you should help the republican party.
Posted by creggsteffler on June 17, 2008 at 11:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
kristinppl, you are only proving my original point.
Your partisan hatred of Bush and Republicans is downright weird. Loving one political party and hating the other is just too simple-minded for me.
It's that level of fanatical "passion about politics" that blinds one to rational thought.
Posted by kristinppl on June 17, 2008 at 4:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It may surprise you I have a number of conservative views. Maybe we will both agree its best to be in the center and use a open mind. Yes its true I dont like Bush like many Republicans now but I try not to just be on one side. I hope you are fair with the other side also. Do you really believe this has been a sucessful administration?
Posted by Pinverarity on June 17, 2008 at 4:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Creggsteffler's comments reveal a near-total lack of knowledge about the political history of the United States, and propound an odd and constricted model of how one ought to think about politics.
First, partisanship, sometimes vicious partisanship, has been part and parcel of American politics since before the founding of the Republic. Richard Rosenfeld's AMERICAN AURORA is an excellent book if you want to get a flavor for the fervor with which our forefathers pursued partisan politics.
Second, politics is not about coldly and rationally choosing among policy alternatives; that activity is called policy analysis or public policy or something of the sort.
Politics is contestation over the central questions of how we are to live together and under what rules. Necessarily, this contestation involves fundamental questions about differing conceptions of justice, freedom, equality, rights, the proper role of the state, etc.
It is wise to distrust people who are *not* passionate about justice, freedom, equality, etc., whatever their views may be. Such people are at a minimum not serious.
To argue, as Craigsteffler wants to, that political passion and rationality are somehow diametrically opposed is assuming facts not in evidence. Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Franklin: all were very, very passionate about their politics, and I would hazard to say that they would count as 'rational' by any rational definition of the concept.
That Obama himself seems (to many Americans, not all of them Democrats) to offer a glimpse of a move _beyond_ the very partisan impasses that Craigsteffler putatively deplores makes Craigsteffler's comments even more puzzling.
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