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MyLine:Cover StoryUMW College Republicans share campaign memories during inauguration week Date published: 1/18/2005
EDITOR'S NOTE: As Inauguration Day arrives, students from the University of Mary Washington recall their work during the election campaign. This week, the Republican students remember some campaign stories; the Democrat students' accounts will follow in a subsequent edition of MyLine. Enjoy. YOUTH CORRESPONDENT BSERVE THE NEW FACE of political activism: It is young, it is female and it accessorizes its jacket with a stack of beaded bracelets and a giant "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS" pin. At least this was the impression I got a few months ago when I sat in the Pennsylvania GOP Headquarters and watched my friend Audrey. With one hand she gripped a gargantuan Halloween cupcake, and with the other, she scratched notes on a list of Republican supporters. As she maneuvered to keep orange frosting away from her blond hair, Burberry bag and--above all--her call list, it hit me that (to borrow the rhetoric of Bob Dylan) the Republican Party, it is a-changin'. Young people are no longer satisfied to let their parents be the nation's king-makers, but are ready to seize that role themselves. And it was for this very reason that some 70 College Republicans from the University of Mary Washington packed into two charter buses and headed to Philadelphia. On the weekend before Election Day, our crowd of students had but one goal: to convince the city of brotherly love that George W. Bush was the candidate it should embrace at the polls. We phoned voters, banged on doors--everywhere lauding Bush as the once and future king, a man poised on the brink of victory. We reminded each citizen that this victory depended on his or her individual vote. Reactions to this message were diverse. Some kind (and stoutly Republican) souls invited us into their homes or wrapped us in their arms, while others demanded we leave the neighborhood immediately. Now, make no mistake about it: The work we did was neither easy nor glamorous. On Saturday and Sunday both, our work stretched from sunrise to sunset. Much of our time was spent wandering through some highly suspect and almost certainly crime-laden sections of town. Fortunately, no members of our group were hospitalized.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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