Adventures in Urban Biking

Day two of my return to a bicycle seat since I was a kid and I learn I haven't grown up yet. Our office has moved to the neighborhood, and so all of us live within a short bike ride/walk and it has so simplified our lives and narrowed our playing field to just the intown neighborhoods around I-20. It's been great, especially with the soaring gas prices!

In the spirit of things and since it's one of the few types of exercise that I enjoy I bought a good-old Schwinn at Target and rode it to work yesterday. Tonight my brother and I decided to ride up to the new Target complex to go to B&N etc. and man, those hills were tough! By the time we got there my face was beet red and I had to sit down inside the bookstore (which tells you something there, with my love for books!)

Disgusting

Doors Locked on the People

Yesterday at Family Day the Fire Marshall claimed that the inside of the capitol was too crowded and had the doors locked. Most of GfD were already inside when we learned of this from Melanie, who was able to slip in with a legislative aide. She reported that the Labor groups were still outside as their program had not ended and now would be barred entry. I'd wondered how they were going to be able to distribute free food to everyone, and now that was answered as we glanced around and saw the tables set up for the food inside.

As we walked around and talked to others who are here on a regular basis, we learned that there were 10 times as many people here on opening day, and that yesterday the place had way more people. As labor swung into action outside by calling the media, we grabbed yellow slips and wrote to our senators on the floor to let them know what happened. My senator is Sam Zamarippa, who, to my surprise, came out to talk to me. I let him know what was going on and he and the others we alerted also swung into action. As another senator we talked to joked "I wished they'd done this during Tort Reform!" They also verified that the amount of people in the halls was nothing compared to other times.

Equality is a Controversial Value in the Georgia Senate

Another of our group came in shortly after already wearing her sweatshirt over her Vote t-shirt, not knowing what had transpired. When she removed her sweatshirt, the Lady swooped down hawk-like and told her to put her sweatshirt back on. For those of you unfamiliar with our t-shirts, the back says in huge type VOTE. However, just above in small type it says "take back your country". I guess that was what sent it spinning crazily into "iffy" land.

Later downstairs we learned from a legislative aide that this rule, if true, was spottily enforced as he said that the Christian Coalition is allowed to sport their slogans all the time in the gallery.

Polls, Schmols

Add to that the recent discovery posted on DailyKos of Gallup's Republican bias, I've decided not to listen to polls any more.

I've been pounding the pavement almost every weekend for the last couple of months to register voters, and the refrain I keep hearing whenever I ask "Would you like us to call you to remind you to vote" is a chuckle and a "I don't need reminding this year!"

This canvassing has become addictive for me as a great boost, and I fear I will go in withdrawal this weekend now that the voter registration push is no longer possible. No matter how discouraged I felt before heading out, I always finished with a very upbeat attitude-- the folks I talk to are very vocal and determined to get Bush out of office. Our next challenge is to keep this momentum going and translating it into people at the polls on election day!

I think Georgia's winnable folks!! People laughed at me back in the spring when I said that, but am getting less of them now, but am still getting laughs when I say I think Kerry will win in a land slide, oh well! One can dream right?

Now off to Manuel's too see Edwards vs. Darth Cheney

For more info see: "As Deadlines Hit, Rolls of Voters Show Big Surge" (10/4), New York Times "Rush to register on last day" (10/4), AJC "Blacks poised to pack polls" (10/2), AJC