Hillary Clinton...

Yay!  I finally met up with some Hillary Clinton supporters over the weekend.  It took several weeks, and several phone calls, but I was able to attend a town hall-type meeting where a bunch of volunteers from Montgomery Cty, MD got together, discussed strategy and donated time and money towards the campaign.  One of the first interesting moments is when I walked in, wheeling my large case of camera gear (more on that in a moment), and I bumped into this woman whom I photographed months earlier at the DNC meeting in Tyson's Corner (holding the stickers here).  I've learned quickly that the more I show up to these events, the more often I run into the same people.  

"Hello, my name is ... and I'm calling on behalf of Hillary Clinton...Will you be voting in the upcoming primaries?..."

Maybe it really is necessary to remind supporters to actually support, and more importantly, donate.  As these elections wind on, it seems ever more important on the Democratic side, as it appears that Obama and Clinton are going to battle to the wire.  And as we've seen (especially on the Republican side) any bit of momentum can carry you a long way.  

I thought it was so interesting to be in this large hall with huge windows pouring the morning light down onto the wood floors, and everyone is just sitting in a bunch of chairs and talking about the best way to get Hillary elected.  I felt transported back a couple decades, like the internet and Meetup.com hadn't been invented.  But in fact it was the perfect melding of good old-fashioned campaigning, combined with the luxuries of the internet.  I never would have found out about this, but for emails, meetup.com.  Of course my cellphone helped too.

Anyway, I mentioned that I brought in a case of gear to shoot with.  Recently I began taking a large format photography class, and today was my first experimentation away from my apartment with the camera.  I wish I could show some pictures, but since it really is the old fashioned way of taking photos, I have to wait until tomorrow to try and develop the film, sheet by sheet. 

I wish I had more to say about the event I went to on saturday, but it was pretty simple.  People gathered, they volunteered their time and money, and somewhere, someone is making up their mind to vote for Hillary or Obama, or maybe one of the Republican candidates. 

Whether they are directly contributing to a candidates' becoming nominated or elected isn't much the point (to me at least).  What's important is that people are engaged in the process.  I can't say that I saw many people under the age of 30 at the meeting.  Maybe because it was Saturday morning.  Maybe it's because the younger voters seem to support Obama.  Hopefully it's not because they aren't interested in becoming engaged in the process, although I have to admit, beyond voting, this is the first time for me, although I do it from behind a lens.