Cole Scholars: serving the [political] community

This summer, I will be knocking on hundreds of people's doors, calling thousands of people I have never met, eating too much junk food and living out of my car. That's right, I will be working on a political campaign this summer. Although this may sound like a less-than-appealing experience, life on the campaign trail is incredibly rewarding. Knocking on the doors of strangers and making phone calls to ask citizens about their voting habits is uncomfortable at first, but it is one of the best ways to get in touch with the community that you live and work in.
After the 2008 election cycle, my first time ever volunteering on a political campaign, I noticed a big change in my community at home in Royal Oak, Michigan. The expanse of my community broadened before my eyes. For the first time that I can recall, my parents volunteered to knock on doors and participate in phone banks for local candidates. All of my friends, some of whom were politically apathetic, some only accustomed to their family's voting habits made it a priority to educate themselves on the issues and on the candidates. I met high school students, new parents, young couples and senior citizens that I had never seen around my city before all inside my local county's democratic party headquarters.
When there is not an environment for political dialogue, it is easy to get sucked in to the belief that your personal views are right, and reflect those of all citizens. So. Wrong. Speaking with every resident on a city block, you will get a different set of priorities and a different need to be addressed.
This past fall, I went canvassing for a local ballot issue in Cleveland concerning legal protections for transgender people in the area. When we first set out on the canvass, I was nervous about the response to the topic of transgender rights in the middle-class, typical midwestern neighborhood that we would be walking in. Although each family I visited had a different home life and background, almost every person I talked to had the same basic reasoning for supporting the proposal: why not? To these residents, the issue was not a question of partisan politics, but merely a way of ensuring that all citizens were equal under the law. After that, how they lived their lives was up to them. Thus reaching out to members of your community highlights the differences from one family to a next but also brings to light the commonalities that bring us together.
This summer, I will be moving beyond the community I am most at home in to another community just a couple hours away in the middle portion of Michigan. Despite my current lack of familiarity with this region, I am looking forward to two months of knocking on doors all over the district and saying "Hi, I'm Robin. I want to know what matters to you and how my candidate can help."