我要从今年的竞选学期回到校园上我的第一节课, and a flood of memories of the Organizing for America campaign has come back to provoke some critical thinking and bittersweet emotions.
就在一周前, it was Election Day - the day that everyone on the campaign has been painfully and anxiously anticipating. 你是不是一个现场组织者, who endured the strenuous nature of the campaign for months with seemingly no end in sight, 或者是全职或兼职研究员, 是谁同意作为最忠诚、最无偿的仆从之一一直到最后, 或者每周/每天做志愿者, who made time to ensure that no resident was ignored by the Obama for America campaign - November 6th was considered a HOLIDAY.
然而, 不像大多数节日, 保证奖励, 比如礼物, 礼物, 大量的食物, 好伙伴, 11月6日相当于政治版的审判日. 尽管我们知道我们付出了巨大的努力来执行一个有凝聚力的, 光滑的, 简洁的竞选活动, 这些努力的结果只有在投票结束后才能显现出来. 换句话说, 11月6日本可以成为通往幸福和幸福之门的入口, 或者是长达四年的诅咒的开始.
在工作时间, we constantly discussed the various permutations and combinations of electoral votes our President can attain to guarantee reelection. We obsessed over daily polls, political factoids, and other editorials related to the election. 我们互相说我们的总统会赢, but of course - those predictions would only be either confirmed or denied upon the nightfall of November 6th. 我们对总统连任持乐观态度，但没有信心.
结果是, we frequently tried to quantify our efforts - hence the obsession with immediate data entry post-Weekends of Action, GOTV, and other volunteer events - and predict what amount of that pool of contacted voters would be excited and guaranteed to vote for our President. In our minds, polls were fleeting and volatile, but two important statistics were self-evident:
1. 通过奥巴马为美国的多重战略和战术, 我们可以将选区的投票率提高20%.
2. 特别是, 当选民决定在“承诺投票”卡上签名时, 投票的可能性增加了5%.
这些数字似乎没有多大意义, 但考虑到2000年发生的事情, 当时的总统竞选涉及阿尔·戈尔和克林顿. 乔治•布什(George W. 布什, and Florida was a toss-up over a mere 537 votes - we knew how much of an impact that an increase in voter turnout by 5% and/or 20% in can make in a presidential race.
我们不能容忍这样的事件再次发生. 我们无法想象会输, but we also didn't want the presidential election to boil down to a mere 537 votes - which is why we we made sure that it would never happen again, 特别是对我们的总统.
对我们来说，我们为奥巴马而战. 我们不仅仅是“支持”奥巴马. We were armed in the fight against the bubble of backwards thinking as embodied in Governor Romney. We received a minor amount of backlash for doing so with such vigor and passion - but at the end of the day, 勇气和决心从未动摇. 我们不在乎. To us, passion and vigor about our President was what each and every volunteer was all about. 我们相信战术的有效性和生产力, which is why we executed the same routine over and over – made hundreds of calls together each day, canvassed different wards and precincts on a day-to-day basis even if we just visited a few days ago, 并以如此紧迫的方式打击选民. 一些选民认为我们在纠缠他们, 但对我们来说，这些策略在公务员队伍中是必要的.
We continuously pounded doors because we knew Barack Obama stood for something larger than us. Not only did he represent America, but he embodied ideals that we cannot achieve on our own:
1. 在实现舒适方面取得重大进展的保证, 独立, 以及以前无法做到这一点的社区的财政可持续性.
2. 丰富的资源给嫁接机会和好客的天性使之公平, 平等, 而成功却无处可寻.
我们由衷地相信巴拉克的信息和议程, and we couldn't wait to spread that belief and demonstrate our urgency for the continuation of progress as promised by Barack.
这种深情的激情在选举日尤为明显. 在选举日的早晨，志愿者和我做了一件我们以前从未做过的事. We held hands, initiated a prayer circle, and prayed for the reelection of our President. We respectfully requested for the grace of God to hover over us as we make our final request to voters to go to their polling location and vote for our President, 让我们的总统在最后的战斗中充满勇气和希望, and to guard our President with several angels as he anxiously watches the polls churn before his eyes.
在选举日的混乱中, I understood that this was one of the most beautiful moments I've ever shared with a body of people other than my family. As I was led through a series of responsorial psalms and prayers for our President and for all the volunteers, 我记得我心里觉得这一刻是一生一次. 那一刻是我人生中第一次意识到自己有多么渺小, 紧密结合着的, 多元化的人群可以创造出如此强大而不变的力量, united by the desire to demonstrate an unparalleled and unrivaled amount of generosity, 同情, and consideration for the survival of the United States of America and the ideals upon which it was founded - and I was so honored to be granted the blessing to be a part of that group.
一整天, I had flashbacks to that few minutes we shared to pray together as humble individuals who left the election to fate. 我不禁想到我们的要求是多么迫切, 但同时在精神上也很谦虚. 我以如此强烈的心情享受着那一刻, 当奥巴马总统的选举人票超过270票时, 我的思绪又回到了那一刻.
I was caught up in the past and the present as my team and I were at our team party waiting for the final results to crunch. As we anxiously watched the big screen with hundreds of other Obama supporters in a hotel at Center City in Philly, 我们看到奥巴马已经接近270分了. 奥巴马总统获得259张选举人票，罗姆尼州长获得203张, we were nervously awaiting for either at least 11 more electoral votes for our President or for Governor Romney to catch up with our President's amount of electoral votes. 然而, 民主党在俄亥俄州取得胜利的决定性时刻, 当时奥巴马总统的选举人票从259张跃升至274张, 时间停止了. 过去、现在和未来之间不再有明显的界限. 我完全不敢相信, 背景中的噪音渐渐消失了, and my eyes began to water as I saw the words: "President Obama has been reelected" marquee across the large projector screen.
我转身看着我的队员们，看着他们的脸，当我这样做的时候
I reflected back to that moment where we prayed for the grace of God to bless our President during this fateful night. 我的思绪在那令人羞愧的景象之间来回切换, and the present vision laid before my very eyes - my teammates' expression upon the realization that our hard work paid off. All those long hours at the office and those non-stop days of establishing voter contact and engaging Obama supporters resulted in the making of history. 我们帮助第一位黑人总统重新当选，我们情不自禁地为之陶醉. 尽情享受吧. 沐浴其中, using our tears cried out of pure happiness and disbelief at the fact that we dedicated our lives for a significant amount of months to the achievement of the reelection of he President.
对我们来说，那个决定性的时刻不再使我们把选举日等同于审判日. 在那一刻, 我们在一起紧紧拥抱庆祝, we recognized that this fateful moment was more reminiscent of something so much happier than Judgment Day. 这是一项名为“政治”的运动的最后一场比赛的胜利, 我们永远不会忘记，我们是冠军球队的关键队友, 叫做为美国而组织.