Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana...

The first thing you think of when you hear the sound of Gary, Indiana is probably the jocular song from the Music Man, but for the University of Chicago chapter of Students for Barack Obama, the phrase to come to mind is Yes We Can!

I and about 37 other students (including my boyfriend, who apparently can in fact get up by 9:15 on a Saturday) took the South Shore Metra down to Gary, Indiana to canvas for Barack Obama. We met volunteers from around northern Indiana at the campaign headquarters. We were trained to help residents fill out absentee ballot forms and to direct them to early-voting polls.

According to the coordinator, we knocked on 550 doors in Gary and distributed dozens of absentee ballot forms. SFBO will make more trips to Indiana on October 11th, 18th and 25th.

For someone like me who is excited by Barack Obama's policy ideas, charisma, and of course his hometown of Hyde Park, IL, the trip to Indiana was at times inspiring and disheartening;

I knocked on more than 40 doors, and almost everyone I spoke to was a strong Obama supporter. However, Gary's turn-out rate has historically been close to 15%. This rate is understandable; most residents commute to Chicag to work, and consequently have trouble making it to the polls between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. If you don't know about absentee or early-voting, you're out of luck come election day.

And suprisingly, at least to me, several of the people I spoke to are Jehovah's Witnesses, and therefore cannot participate in government or even vote. One man scanned over my list of households and said, "I don't vote. He don't vote. But Dwight votes. Talk to him."

The demographics of the neighborhood we hit were almost entirely black. The streets and houses, though suburban, looked quiet and rundown, and it was clear that many people didn't live in one place for long. There is probably some prejudice in this statement, but I cannot wondering how the future of my country could be decided behind these broken windows and rusty screen doors, where the complications of religion and jobs may keep residents from viewing voting as the de facto obligation it is for me. I am appalled but unsuprised that our country would make it harder for these working-class citizens to vote.

UPDATE: my Maroon article about University of Chicago students mobilizing to get out the vote is here.