I have never seen Brent in a bad mood and he's one of the most consistently supportive people I know. If that doesn't make for a good man I don't know what does. He has come to every event I have ever produced and does the same for all the people in his life who he loves. One of the most beautiful things about him is that all that love and support come with absolultely no strings attached. He's the kind of person you always want on your team, and I'm blessed to have him on mine.
Brent's Story:
Like many of the Lil' Oprah participants I struggled to figure out the best way to use my $20. In deciding how and where to use the twenty bucks I placed a priority on helping to make a difference in people's lives. I wanted to do something that could make both Oprahs (Lil' and Big) proud. So I put the $20 in my gas tank. Yes, that is correct. I used Lil' Oprah's money to purchase a little over six gallons of 91 octane for my gas-guzzling Infiniti. You are probably wondering why I am using Lil' Oprah's money on fuel and how I could possibly think it would make the two Oprahs proud. Well, I used that six gallons of gas for a good cause: for a trip to Vegas.
Even though I didn't spend one cent at the slots or the tables, I cannot honestly say that the wasn't for a gamble. You see, I went to Nevada, along with thousands of others from around this great nation, to volunteer for Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The Nevada Caucuses were held on Saturday, January 19th and I was there as an active participant. It was one of the most moving experiences of my lifetime thus far.
My journey began around 3 am on my birthday, Thursday, January 17th. That's when I "donated" my Lil' Oprah money to Arco. I made the trip in about four hours. I was assigned not to Vegas proper but to Henderson, a suburb about 15 miles south of Vegas. Henderson is kind of like Vegas with less casinos and a lot more old people. It's a big-time retirement community. Not exactly Obama-country if you've been looking at the election results. Obama tends to do best with people 55 and younger and Henderson is full of 55+ restricted communities. It was in these communities that I spent Thursday through Saturday, knocking on doors for twelve hours each day and making phone calls for a few hours after that.
As daunting as that sounds, it was actually a lot of fun. Even though I had to deal with my share of rude people, most were very courteous and were impressed to see people out going door-to-door for a candidate, even if it was for one that "needs a little more seasoning" as I was told by one nice elderly Edwards supporter. I had some very interesting and lively discussions with people as we politely debated which candidate had the best chance to win in the fall, who had the best ideas, and whether or not America was ready for a black (or a woman) president. It can be be very disheartening to have a door slammed in your face or to futilely deal with someone over the phone who believes the email they received telling them that Barack Hussein Obama is a sleeper muslim jihadist who refuses to salute the flag to be the truth. But it only takes one small victory - one person signing a pledge card to caucus for your candidate - to lift your spirits and keep you moving.
On Saturday, I got up at 5 am and starting putting doorhangers on the doors of supporters reminding them to go Caucus. At 11 am, the Caucuses began and, though as a California resident I could not Caucus, I did participate as an organizer. The Caucus system is very foreign to someone used to primary elections. For one thing, it is very public: no secret ballots here. You are in a room and everyone stands or sits together in groups divided by candidate preference. In order for a candidate to be viable (for them to earn any delegates) they must have the support of at least 15% of the people in the room. In my precinct (a precinct is basically a neighborhood), there were far more supporter of Clinton than Obama. But we were viable and Edwards, who had not yet dropped of the race, with only about six supporters was not viable. I was able to convince five of those Edwards supporters to move over to Obama. The other one went home rather than Caucus for either Obama or Clinton.
We lost our precinct and the overall popular vote of the state of Nevada: 51 to 45%. Still this was something of a small victory given that Obama trailed Clinton by about 20 points in the polls only two weeks before the Caucus. In a less positive light, my Caucus experience was also notable for the large amount of dirty tricks that I and other volunteers witnessed. All this for a state with only 25 delegates at stake. I won't go into detail but you can read more about it here: http://tinyurl.com/3ytaks . I am sad to say that these things actually happened in a Democratic contest in the year 2008. But I don't want negativity to be the theme here. Overall, I had an amazing experience in Henderson, NV. I felt like part of an extraordinary movement and I will always have fond memories of my time there. Thank you, Lil' Oprah, for the gas money.
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