Thursday, July 10, 2008
Interns taking politics to the streets
Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times
Scott Ackman, a 20-year-old canvasser for the Virginia Organizing Project, leaves a voters pamphlet at a house Wednesday in Roanoke. The group hired college students to conduct a statewide survey to gauge Virginians' concerns.
At top: La'Nessa Garman, 19, talks with Tony Warren during a survey of Northwest Roanoke. Bottom: Cari Nash (left), 21, and Scott Ackman are among four interns canvassing in Roanoke.
KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times
La'Nessa Garman is part of a Virginia Organizing Project group that hit the streets May 22 and had knocked on more than 7,600 doors in the Roanoke area through Wednesday. They will finish July 25.
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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When Scott Ackman signed up to be a foot soldier for democracy and social change, peacocks weren't supposed to be part of the deal.
The 20-year-old Virginia Tech student was three weeks into his summer job canvassing neighborhoods and asking voters what they considered the most important issues. Their answers would be used to attempt to influence state lawmakers.
But one afternoon in early June, no one was home at a house in North Roanoke County. So Ackman neatly tucked a health care flier and a 2008 voter guide in the door, turned and started walking down the driveway.
"There it was," the political science major said this week recalling the colorful peacock standing in the street in front of him with its feathers splayed.
"It was NBC-style, real huge," an understated Ackman said, referring to the TV network's famous logo. "I think it must have been somebody's pet. I have no idea why someone would just let their peacock out for the afternoon."
As a canvasser for the Virginia Organizing Project, Ackman and his three fellow interns are learning firsthand that politics isn't all campaign buttons, stump speeches and adoring supporters. The nonpartisan social justice group works to organize Virginians at the grass-roots level. It helps people organize meetings in their community with legislators or make trips to Richmond to lobby them on issues such as predatory lending or health care.
Activism out in the trenches includes an unexpected run-in with a peacock, carrying dog treats in a backpack to disarm the occasional angry mutt or mussing a scrawny cat to get its owner to talk.
And getting constituents to talk is why Ackman, his co-workers Cari Nash, Tasha Wiley and La'Nessa Garman traipse up and down streets in the summer heat for $11 an hour, eight hours a day. They started in Roanoke County, moved to Salem and began Wednesday in Northwest Roanoke.
The interns hit the streets May 22 and had knocked on more than 7,600 doors through Wednesday. They will finish July 25.
Photos by KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times
Scott Ackman, a 20-year-old canvasser for the Virginia Organizing Project, leaves a voters pamphlet at a house Wednesday in Roanoke. The group hired college students to conduct a statewide survey to gauge Virginians' concerns.
At top: La'Nessa Garman, 19, talks with Tony Warren during a survey of Northwest Roanoke. Bottom: Cari Nash (left), 21, and Scott Ackman are among four interns canvassing in Roanoke.
KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times
La'Nessa Garman is part of a Virginia Organizing Project group that hit the streets May 22 and had knocked on more than 7,600 doors in the Roanoke area through Wednesday. They will finish July 25.
"It's door by door, person by person," said Barry Butler, a VOP leader who started the Roanoke chapter before moving to Lynchburg. "You have to build critical mass to get social change."
Statewide, VOP hired 50 college students to conduct its first statewide survey to gauge Virginians' concerns. Butler said the organization plans to compile the answers and use them this fall when it helps Virginians lobby lawmakers about legislative needs.
In the Roanoke Valley, residents' No. 1 concern so far is health care, followed by the economy and safety, according to Sharon LaMar, who supervises the area's interns.
Butler said interns are on the front lines of democracy because they are residents' first point of contact with the political system.
Ackman, a laid-back kid from Pittsburgh, didn't want to overstate his importance.
"I feel like I'm out here on the front lines of one part of democracy. I feel like I'm fighting for a progressive mind-set toward democracy," he said during a short break Tuesday afternoon.
Older people might believe young folks are less engaged and less informed than they were. That's certainly not true of Ackman and Nash.
Ackman, who hangs out with engineering students, admitted to sometimes overloading them with talk of the war, the economy or the stock market.
"Dude, seriously," he said smiling, repeating what his friends tell him when they've had enough.
Nash, who spent a semester in South Africa living with four families, said that young people care about issues. But they may not march or protest the way the baby boomers did decades before.
"You know about Facebook?" the University of Virginia student said to me, half-declaring, half-asking. Without waiting for my answer and correctly assuming I didn't, Nash proceeded to explain how Facebook users can click on something to signal their support for a cause.
"It makes you feel like you're doing something, but you're not," said Nash, 21, who has a double major in anthropology and biology.
The Sterling resident said she prefers to be more politically engaged and was raised that way.
"We grew up discussing things around the dinner table," she said. Her parents "encouraged us to have an opinion."
"We're hoping we're giving people more a sense that they hold some power to change things," she said of her work this summer.
Out in the trenches, in places such as the 2000 block of Ellison Avenue in Roanoke County where Ackman and Nash were Tuesday, is where change begins.
Before piling out of their older-model VOP-owned Honda, the students scope out the block and count houses to see if the numbers align with their survey sheet. The survey is no more than a minute and contains quick questions.
What is the most important issue facing you? On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being most important, how would you rate that issue?
Nash is chipper. No one was at the first door, so she efficiently moved on. At 1:30 in the afternoon, she's used to folks' not being home. According to Ackman, a good day is when one out of eight knocks yields a completed survey. An average day is one out of 10 respondents.
At the next door, the woman told Nash that the most important issue was "the way this country is getting away from God."
Down the street, Helen King told Ackman that she worries about health care. She has coverage, but she still worries. Same with 73-year-old Evelyn White, who shared that her neck was reconstructed last year, or otherwise, she'd be in a wheelchair.
Different neighborhoods bring different responses. In more rural areas, Ackman said, homeowners are more suspicious. Once they find out what the interns want, complaints pour forth, generally about lack of jobs or health care.
Some folks use the chance to gripe about their neighbor. Nash recalled somebody who wanted something done about the neighbor's hulking tree. The person worried it might fall onto his house.
Ackman said his summer job has been an excellent experience. It has taught him to gain more ease approaching strangers. The skill will help him in whichever field he pursues. Right now, he's considering elective office, political operative or journalist.
Despite his political acumen, Ackman is still a college kid, and he's not always so serious. Ackman, with his Pennsylvania roots, has a burning issue for Roanokers:
"I wish someone would explain this star thing to me. It's a big deal around here, and I guess I just don't get it."
Shanna Flowers' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
