Yesterday we did it for the 3rd time. The Bernie volunteers of the East San Fernando Valley got together at the North Hollywood Metro Station to do some flyering. There is a pattern, some volunteers show up every Saturday around 8:30AM others come and go. We have a chore of about 6 volunteers that have been there the three times and each time there is from 5 to 10 that show up at least once.
This time we added a big tent;
We are starting to look very "official" for a bunch of amateur volunteers. We are going through learning curves about what we can do and what works better. I am also learning about people and life and having a great time along the way.
One thing has become clear, you cannot look at someone and predict how they will react to your reach out.
Certainly, if someone is walking in a hurry towards the station loaded with bags the chances are that they will not take the flyer. Still I just do t and say something like; "Bernie Sanders is running for President, check him out". Many times the hurried metro patrons will not even look at you but sometimes they do and they smile. More than once they said "I already have the flyer" probably from last week. They come in batches when they get off the Orange Line to take the subway Red Line;
Women, men, young, old, black, Latino, Asian, white, wearing baggies, wearing shirts and ties, fashionable, run down, smoking, even texting, you just never know who will stop and even turn around and take the flyer. Bernie Sanders is bringing all sorts of people under the big tent.
Some take the flyer and stop and ask you questions. Then it gets very exciting. Some people ask things like; "what will Bernie do about the economy?". So we give them another flyer with the 12 Point Platform. Others ask all sorts of things ranging from healthcare to foreign policy. I must admit that Trump has been mentioned by more people in discussions than the last 2 times. This time no one said they would vote for him, last Saturday only one. And this time we had no one that said, I'm voting for some other Dem.
We offer flyers to people who are just sitting and waiting to get picked up perhaps. One such guy told me that I had given him a flyer before and reminded me that he was a registered Republican who was going to vote for Bernie. A smart young man IMO. We briefly talked about him re-registering as an independent (no stated party) so he can vote for Bernie in the "modified-closed primary" on June 7.
Those metro patrons coming out of the train are typically more relaxed and approachable. You can see our tent in the background;
Sometimes we hit pay dirt when someone offers to volunteer and we sign them up;
We still haven't used the PA system effectively but this will change. We will also get more acoustic and play music at least like "Keep on Rocking in the Free World" by Neil Young that is becoming Bernie's theme song since Neil endorsed Bernie and took the song back from Trump who used it without authorization.
This is from the first Bernie event I covered;
We will also play the other Bernie song;
Campaign music? Sen. Bernie Sanders once recorded a folk album
If you live in Los Angeles and want to volunteer check this website;
http://www.losangelesforbernie.org
If you want to join us next Saturday (we may also start doing the same on Sundays soon) join us on Facebook or on the BernieSanders.com page for the event.
Here are the previous diaries about the NoHo flyiering;