Day One: 11/01/06
Just got back from Brookings campaign headquarters, about an hour north of Sioux Falls, where I will be working for the next few days. I went from a busy and packed with volunteers Sioux Falls campaign office to a tiny 2 room office in Brookings where there are 2 field organizers. We are doing volunteer recruitment for the GOTV (Get Out the Vote) efforts for the next couple of days to get people to canvass and phone bank Friday-Tuesday. It seems like they have tons of momentum and energy, amazing to hear the organizers with so much passion and persistence. They are working all day and night to beat this and just from spending a day with them I feel like they definitely have the power to win this. I am excited to see what the next few days will bring and there is a rally tomorrow during lunch here in Sioux Falls to kick off their get out the vote efforts.
 

Day Two: 11/02/06
The energy here is incredible and so inspiring that I don't even feel too exhausted after a 13 hour day on the campaign. Sioux Falls and Brookings are very different cities so it is strange to work in the busy campaign office in Sioux Falls with a good number of volunteers and then make the hour long drive north to Brookings where the 2 organizers are working like crazy to recruit enough volunteers for GOTV efforts. The ride north is so frustrating because all you see are the Vote for Life, “Vote Yes on 6” signs along the highway. It is discouraging because the opposition's signs outnumber ours everywhere. Jamia (Planned Parenthood Federation of America Campus Outreach Manager) and I were talking about how the activism here is so different because we are now the minority and have to be so cautious where back home we don't even have to worry about organizing around this issue. It is amazing how in just a day in a half here I have realized just how much I take for granted living in pro-choice CT. People who are pro-choice here can't be vocal or put up lawn signs for fear of what might happen. Such a different world from what I am used to.

Today there was a rally organized by the Campaign for Healthy Families which was exactly what I needed to get me pumped up and I got to use my big mouth to yell a lot which helps to ease my frustrations. It was awesome, over 100 supporters and great speakers. It's been nice to be in Sioux Falls for some of it because I get to work with the Planned Parenthood of South Dakota Organizer, Esther, who is awesome. I don't know how she does it. The energy at the rally was incredible and it was great to see such a good turnout and people being loud and proud because I was worried that can never happen here. Of course it just wouldn't be a rally without the antis showing up and there were 2 anti-choice men filming the rally and I am sure I will make their website b/c they filmed me on the street corner. They can be so obnoxious here and not even be stopped as they were literally standing with their “Planned Parenthood kills” sign in the middle of our crowd chanting and quoting the bible through megaphones. We asked the cops to remove them and they didn't so it got a bit intense for the last few minutes of the rally as people from our side got around him to block out his voice and make our chants louder. It did make me a little nervous especially when they followed us to our street corner after the rally where we did more Burma Shaves (visibility events) and parked their van behind us in a bank parking lot. They are so intimidating dressed in their camouflage and black hats. The college kids that were with our group happily stood blocking their fetus pictures with our signs until the bank manager came out and asked them to get their van off their property. Esther said they have been outside the clinic all week filming patients and everyone else including news reporters entering the building. Then at the end of the rally the anti-choice group had a huge bus drive down the street and these young kids get out and let out hundreds of balloons and march down the middle of the street with a sign saying these 814 balloons represent all the women's lives who have been hurt by abortion last year. Apparently the anti-choicers are anti-environment too as they let all these balloons fly away and pollute the environment. The antis here are hard core...it's so sick, their messaging, their tactics...I can't believe I am living in a time when we have to fight so hard.   We went to the SD State University campus in Brookings tonight to try and recruit volunteers for the GOTV canvass and phonebanks this weekend and even the progressive groups, college dems and women's group don't seem overly motivated to do GOTV stuff. Some are doing visibility events which is great to see but again, the urgency is just not there. Jamia and I were trying to make the pitch that we flew all the way here to volunteer on this campaign and you should too.
Some good news from the campaign...there is enough money to do paid GOTV phone calls over the weekend which means more volunteers for canvassing. The Brookings organizers feel confident that we will get our canvassing done but they are being cautious and concerned that the positive numbers in Sunday's poll might make people lazy about voting. We are up by 10 in Sunday's poll. Tomorrow is our final push for volunteers!
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Day Three: 11/03/06
Today, Jamia and I were in Brookings all day, arrived at 10 am and just got back in Sioux Falls at 11pm. It was a long day as we finished all the final prep for GOTV efforts. Our wonderful organizers in Brookings finished cutting the turf for canvassing and we spent the day putting together canvass and phone bank packets and put out another final push for volunteers.
What has been so difficult for me to figure out is why volunteers aren't flooding their office...it seems crazy to me that there aren't hundreds of women jumping at every chance to help fight this...I just can't imagine being a resident here and knowing I might be days away from being stripped of my reproductive rights and not dedicating my life to defeat this ban. It is truly shocking for me to hear people saying they are too busy to help us over the weekend and they support us but just don't have the time to volunteer. I guess the sense of urgency isn't the same here which is pretty hard to handle. I can't figure out if it is just the fear of being "out" as pro-choice which is what keeps people silent.
We had a great visibility event tonight at 5pm which drew 15 people...which is great for Brookings from what we were told. We were joined by a group of South Dakota State University students and a few people who saw us and then parked their car to join us. It was definitely more intense than yesterday because I haven't been flipped off so many times in all my life. Lots of people yelling at us and wagging their fingers...a lot different than our burma shaves on the green back home. One of the local restaurants brought out hot chocolate to us because it was 22 degrees and we were literally freezing. I know it seems ridiculous but I can't help it, the antis are just scarier here. Just to make you feel a little better about it all we did get a lot of "honks for Vote No on 6".

And to add to the drama of this campaign...we heard today that the Vote Yes campaign had the largest donation from a mystery group whose only director was listed as none other than Rep. Hunt, the representative who sponsored the ban. How classic...the anti-choicers will stop at nothing. The Campaign for Healthy Families is of course thrilled and not surprised to hear of this. So the South Dakota adventure continues...keep you posted on the latest news of the money scam. It blows my mind what the antis will do to make abortion illegal. I can't believe how extreme they really are.

Tomorrow our Get Out the Vote efforts begin and we are all so pumped up. The campaign is thrilled to have the extra PP help which has made this more exciting because they have literally said without us they know they could not do it.
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Day Four: 11/04/06
Today was first day of GOTV efforts which was intense and exhausting...I have never worked this hard on a campaign and I am so amazed at the time and effort that is put into everyday. Another 13 hour day for us and there is still so much work to do. Today I canvassed for 3 hours with one of the organizers here which is when I snapped that photo of the Vote Pro-Life sign. I was intimidated to start door knocking by myself for fear of what I would say to an anti-choice person but after the first one I felt less scared. (I know it is hard to believe I would be scared to talk to someone but it's true, I was.) The hardest part for me was talking to a woman holding her child (her daughter) on her hip as she answered the door and hearing her tell us she was so against what we were doing. I am outraged that this woman wants her daughter to grow up without the freedom of reproductive choice. I was in disbelief as we knocked on 107 doors and I kept saying to Christine (our organizer here) I can't believe we are canvassing to keep abortion legal...it is insane to me that decades after abortion was legalized I am walking in a neighborhood in Brookings, SD to convince people to keep it legal. This just doesn't make sense to me that we are fighting so hard for this. What is going on with this country? I spoke with an older woman who asked if I was pro-life because that is what she is and I asked her it depends on your definition of pro-life. She is against the ban and is one of the people tricked into thinking there is an exception for rape and incest because she supports abortion in those instances only. I am hoping the few minutes we spent talking to her she understood that those exceptions aren't there and that she changes her mind on how she votes.

We have about 10,000 calls to get through in Brookings and made about 900 tonight so we are off to a good start. Thankfully we have paid callers for the first 2 sections of voters so we are hoping we can get through it. Tomorrow we have 3 more volunteers coming up to help us which is exciting. Everything is going well and the momentum is on our side especially with the money scandal from the other side hopefully hurting their campaign. Check out the update on www.sdhealthyfamilies.org. I am hitting the streets in the morning...time for some rest!
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Days Five & Six: 11/06/06
The weekend of canvassing and phone calls was yet another reminder on why I am doing the work I do. After 8 hours of canvassing on Saturday and 4 hours Sunday I have had the chance to talk to some really great people and some very scary ones as well. What has amazed me is the people who are on our side actually seem thrilled to talk to someone who is pro-choice and the ones that are against us for the most part are very polite. Another team of canvassers didn't have quite as nice of an experience as I have had over the last few days. Someone actually screamed at one of the teams "if you are pro-abortion then get off my property now". It is crazy some of the comments the canvassers have heard. I actually have preferred talking to people face to face because they are much friendlier than when you call them. I think people are electioned out here. I had a great experience with one woman I spoke with because we were literally canvassing right behind the Vote Yes on 6 people and she had just gotten misinformed by the young girls (and by young I mean 14 and 16) who were out campaigning for the antis (I asked b/c they engaged us in a conversation and of course I was outraged that teenagers were so brainwashed). Anyway the woman I spoke with was upset because she is Catholic and her church keeps talking about this issue and she said she was so disappointed with them because she didn't understand why they felt they needed to get involved. The Vote Yes for Life girls were frighteningly programmed, they were repeatedly telling us "God is awesome and he will help women harmed by abortion." I can't believe how many young people are out campaigning for the opposition...they have no clue. And as horribly judgmental as I sound it has just been so unbelievable for me to believe that the Vote Yes campaign feels good about exploiting young girls and victims of rape who have had children. If you haven't checked out their website you should check out the video testimonial from women who chose not to have an abortion. www.voteyesforlife.com. This is how they are convincing people...by using women's stories, which also reminds me how vitally important it is that our side emphasizes women's stories...we need to let everyone know it is about women's lives and without the stories we can't win this fight.

What kills me is that the vote yes campaign is now promoting (EC) Emergency Contraception as the alternative for rape victims so that is why an abortion law doesn't need a rape exception. These are the same people who won't promote EC access but now that it is convenient for them they are using that as a "good option" for victims of rape and incest. It is so sick that is what their message is now. I am more outraged by the day and I know I keep saying this but this is such a wake up call for me...we are so lucky to be living in CT and it is shocking women here have no one standing up for them. And also how AWESOME it is that people from all over the country came here to fight this with the people of South Dakota. I have been working with students from Westchester Community College and a young woman from Smith who is vice-president of her VOX group on campus. Their energy is amazing and so inspiring and once again reminds me for those people who think youth are not involved in our movement they are, and they are motivated and dedicated to protect our reproductive freedom.
I am on the phones today, my last day here and I am surprised how attached I am feeling to these organizers and volunteers...our team in Brookings has become a close group and I am so happy I got to come to this town to work...it has been such a wonderful, life changing experience. I know with all this all energy we will win tomorrow...we have to!
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11/07/06 Back in Connecticut
This experience has been life changing for so many different reasons that I am having trouble expressing it in words to people who have asked me about my trip. I hope that after today is over and the election results are in we will all be celebrating collectively as a nation but I wait anxiously for that answer to come. I felt extreme sadness yesterday as I left my new friends and fellow freedom fighters in South Dakota and wish I could be with them tonight to support and congratulate them on the most incredible organizing effort I have ever experienced. They have truly inspired me in such an indescribable way and I feel so honored and lucky to have worked beside them for the past 7 days. I have learned so much about organizing from the SD Campaign for Healthy Families and I can only dream of being such an amazing organizer. I hope tomorrow that we can say we won South Dakota and when we do I realize this is just the beginning of the fight to protect and preserve reproductive freedom for everyone!

11/08/06
I just received a call from one of the SD organizers I worked with and she said they called it...WE WON!! I can't believe it! All our hard work, effort and support to South Dakota has paid off. Dena, the organizer I worked with called to thank me for all my help and to tell me they couldn't have done it without us. I am so moved that she made that call and I am so honored to have had the experience I did working on this campaign. I know I still have yet to find the words to describe my experience but at this moment I feel tremendous relief and hope that with the right people leading us...we can win the war on women that is happening in our country. WE ROCKED SOUTH DAKOTA!! I wish we were all together celebrating at this moment!


Moving forward in Connecticut
I realized more importantly how lucky I am to live and work in a pro-choice state. As our team knocked on hundreds of doors and made thousands of calls and talked to voters I had first hand experience at dealing with the anti-choice side everywhere. It was exhausting and energizing at the same time because it made me realize how much we need to continue talking about reproductive health and rights back here at home. They are fighting a completely different battle in South Dakota but we have our own battles to win here. And having the experience I did in South Dakota just reinforced how powerful we can be if we all work together!

As we celebrate the victories of the election and move forward to our legislative session (begins January 3, 2007) we know that we will face our own challenges here. We will continue to work on passing legislation that would require all publicly funded hospitals provide emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault. We are urging our supporters to talk to your legislators about why this issue is important and must be addressed because rape survivors deserve compassionate and appropriate medical care.

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Visit the Planned Parenthood of Connecticut Website
Visit the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Action Fund Site