About what Missoula looks like Tonight was my third night in a row of walking on the slushy and wet Missoula streets. I’m up to 112 doors knocked on now. That breaks down as 66 doors where I’ve talked to a person and 46 where no one was home or didn’t open the door. On those I just left my flyer in the door crack.
Missoula Dogs
A slight exaggeration On a few houses there were plenty of dogs.
I had one tonight where I crossed the damn street (which is busy 14th/Mount) and got my feet wet in a big driveway puddle. Well, there was just one house there, and it had these braying and barking dogs.
I walked up the first couple steps and this dog lunged over this fence and probably would have taken my head off if I’d been a few steps closer.
Well, I crumpled my flyer up into a ball and threw it up there on the porch. The dog was dumbfounded for a moment, but then started barking again.
I had one tonight where I crossed the damn street (which is busy 14th/Mount) and got my feet wet in a big driveway puddle. Well, there was just one house there, and it had these braying and barking dogs.
I walked up the first couple steps and this dog lunged over this fence and probably would have taken my head off if I’d been a few steps closer.
Well, I crumpled my flyer up into a ball and threw it up there on the porch. The dog was dumbfounded for a moment, but then started barking again.
Unlikely Voters
I walk in this, at night Sometimes when I’m walking around I’ll see someone standing outside.
Usually this will be someone smoking outside their apartment or shoveling snow. Since I’m walking by and they’re looking at me, I usually go up and give them my flyer and introduce myself.
I had two of those tonight. One woman I asked if it was a certain address. She said no, but then I introduced myself and she said thanks.
The next one was a woman smoking and I came up. She asked me what I planned to do about NAFTA and all the manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas. I told her that I didn’t think I’d be able to do anything about that in the legislature.
She then asked what I was going to do about this “damn Obamacare” or something, saying her son had had his hours cut from 40 to less than 25. I told her that was a big problem.
She kept on getting in my face so I finally said something to the effect of, “listen, they don’t care about you or your son and those fat cats in Helena have no idea about you or your problems or how much you might be struggling. I do know because I live in an apartment like this one, and I hope you’ll send me to Helena so I can give ‘em some hell.”
Then I got the hell out of there.
Usually this will be someone smoking outside their apartment or shoveling snow. Since I’m walking by and they’re looking at me, I usually go up and give them my flyer and introduce myself.
I had two of those tonight. One woman I asked if it was a certain address. She said no, but then I introduced myself and she said thanks.
The next one was a woman smoking and I came up. She asked me what I planned to do about NAFTA and all the manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas. I told her that I didn’t think I’d be able to do anything about that in the legislature.
She then asked what I was going to do about this “damn Obamacare” or something, saying her son had had his hours cut from 40 to less than 25. I told her that was a big problem.
She kept on getting in my face so I finally said something to the effect of, “listen, they don’t care about you or your son and those fat cats in Helena have no idea about you or your problems or how much you might be struggling. I do know because I live in an apartment like this one, and I hope you’ll send me to Helena so I can give ‘em some hell.”
Then I got the hell out of there.
Going Inside
Ottawa, but Similar to Missoula I got invited inside by this older woman tonight. She told me she was an election official volunteer and we talked for about 5 minutes about things.
She was interested in getting rid of Citizens United, which says corporations are people. I told her that was a good idea. We’ve got people struggling and I’m not concerned about huge corporations bleeding red ink when it was their own failed policies and procedures that got them into that mess in the first place.
Another topic we touched on was Montana’s real treasure. She mentioned that so I told her about my history books and how Montana’s always relied on resources, whether furs, gold, silver, sapphires, cattle, or copper. Now it’s rivers and streams and skies and that’s what’ll bring in the good jobs that we need.
Really, just a lot of preaching to the converted, which I had at another woman’s door.
She asked about K-12 Funding, because she’s a kindergarten teacher. First she mentioned university spending, and I told her the legislature needs more oversight on what the Board of Regent’s doing with that money before we start throwing more over the wall at them.
In regard to K-12 I told her that we have a 3-year old in my house and the state won’t help us at all with that. Other states have those programs, but Montana doesn’t. That’s just another way we could help struggling families. I know if we had daycare that was subsidized we’d be able to work more, having more money to put into Missoula’s economy.
I also know those big green companies we want in the state will be looking for that and similar programs when they’re considering new locations.
Folks, we’re not going to see any decrease in the internet, only an increase. We want more jobs that bring in that internet money.
Thankfully many of the people that work for those companies want to live in places where they can drive for 5 minutes and be outside in the middle of nowhere. We have that, now we just need to put the few other pieces of the puzzle together so they come here and put down roots.
She was interested in getting rid of Citizens United, which says corporations are people. I told her that was a good idea. We’ve got people struggling and I’m not concerned about huge corporations bleeding red ink when it was their own failed policies and procedures that got them into that mess in the first place.
Another topic we touched on was Montana’s real treasure. She mentioned that so I told her about my history books and how Montana’s always relied on resources, whether furs, gold, silver, sapphires, cattle, or copper. Now it’s rivers and streams and skies and that’s what’ll bring in the good jobs that we need.
Really, just a lot of preaching to the converted, which I had at another woman’s door.
She asked about K-12 Funding, because she’s a kindergarten teacher. First she mentioned university spending, and I told her the legislature needs more oversight on what the Board of Regent’s doing with that money before we start throwing more over the wall at them.
In regard to K-12 I told her that we have a 3-year old in my house and the state won’t help us at all with that. Other states have those programs, but Montana doesn’t. That’s just another way we could help struggling families. I know if we had daycare that was subsidized we’d be able to work more, having more money to put into Missoula’s economy.
I also know those big green companies we want in the state will be looking for that and similar programs when they’re considering new locations.
Folks, we’re not going to see any decrease in the internet, only an increase. We want more jobs that bring in that internet money.
Thankfully many of the people that work for those companies want to live in places where they can drive for 5 minutes and be outside in the middle of nowhere. We have that, now we just need to put the few other pieces of the puzzle together so they come here and put down roots.
