Report from the Front Lines – embedded in the Sanders Campaign HQ in LA
5500 Hollywood Blvd. Friday June 3. Less than 100 hours until the polls close.
Berneste!
It is, of course, immensely hard to convey the energy, and the spirit of the campaign as text. I’ve been in three Campaign “offices” in 24 hours ...
- At the Diner, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pCh_-grdGc.
- At the sad 1 person office on MLK Blvd/South Central LA in the middle of the all Black and Hispanic world – where nothing was going on and the decision not to devote resources there was a rational acknowledgement of voter interest and density.
- And at the epicenter of Bernie LA– the true Center of Centers … a field HQ operations center, with canvas captains and Susan Sarandon. Where if you complete a 3 hour canvassing shift you get a wrist band letting you into the show.
- The time is now.
- We’re gonna change the world.
- Sign up for three three hour canvassing shifts over the next three days.
- This moment in history will not happen again.
- We did it without big money.
- Overturn CU.
- Bernie may be here at noon tomorrow.
- It makes you feel vulnerable to believe again.
- IT will be a story with a much better ending if we all do three shifts.
- We need to push.
- We need to pray.
- Don’t get this wrong, but it’s “as if God put him here.”
- We are being given an opportunity to change the world.
- There is an emergence of imagination, of art, of thinking outside the box.
- Hamilton is a yuge hit show. Link to the Hamilton Bernie ad.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoNV7IuM_S8
- Some guy who says he’s in LA from Cape Cod (and alleges he is a delegate from the 9th MA CD and is out here to help win the primary on Tuesday) wants a minute to share a message from the east about gratitude, breadth, the ancestors, and Mother Earth. He approaches the HQ Leader and asks to convene for a collective moment, for one collective breath, for the literal infusion of energy that accompanies acknowledging our common mother and common ancestors. The leader says not now.
- The visitor from the east creates a much smaller moment in which to receive greetings from the great spirit. To preach the gospel. The choir knows the gospel. The apostles take one breath together … They hold hands and say their names and where they were born and where they are now from and even perhaps a word about themselves. The beads are strung. Every voice is heard. The choir takes a breath together. If you are not in Cali make phone calls. Winning here is important.