Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018 | 2 a.m.
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I started working as a campaign volunteer because I felt dissatisfied with debating my friends, watching the news and arguing with strangers on social media.
I’m registered to vote, but things keep happening every day that threaten to take away the essentials I need to live. Living in Nevada means that Repubilican Sen. Dean Heller’s bad decisions affect me and my family. He’s against the programs that make sure my mom and I have health care. I can’t sit still while someone casually tells the public they “didn’t give a second thought” to empowering employers to pick and choose which medicines and procedures they prefer to cover. I can’t let Supreme Court judges get appointed who demand dominion over my body. I have to channel these feelings into action.
I was hesitant at first to go ring strangers’ doorbells. More than once has someone knocked on my door, and despite hearing me actively watching TV, left with the door unanswered. How could I do this when my empathy is for the person at home? Then I realized: That was exactly why I had to do it. I know what it’s like to want peace and quiet. I also know that the reasons that bring me knocking are important and powerful enough to affect that peace.
Connecting with people can be especially challenging when talking about politics. It’s endlessly confusing and often dull. People sometimes see it as grown-up homework. We can conquer this hurdle by getting rid of tired political language and just talking to one another. If I can communicate clearly how urgent these issues are, and that the person I am speaking to is desperately needed, then there is a little more hope that they will do something about it.
I’ve also found some unexpected benefits to volunteering. Focused effort on helping other people gives me great perspective about my own life and its values. I’m interacting with a lot of different kinds of people — people I would probably otherwise never encounter. It forces me to see life from points of view I’d never considered. It also allows me to see the commonalities among us all. I get to test my convictions when I canvass. I get to understand what I’m willing to speak up for and defend. This deeper understanding of what matters makes it easier for me to talk about why we need to hear from every eligible voter.
Not everyone is receptive, and how we handle it speaks to who we are and the quality of the ideas we represent. Not everyone wants to stick to the issues on the handouts. Processing people’s passion and exploring its root causes is a great way to find the bridge between people. Once we build that bridge and meet in the middle, from there we can go forward and consider each other’s life lessons. It’s these lessons that determine if, and how, we vote.
Canvassing has shown me that people care. When people care, they don’t want to just keep those feelings inside, they want to do something with them. When I canvass, I’m showing people, maybe for the first time, that getting involved is a productive use for those feelings. We don’t have to agree on much, but creating the dialogue and straining to try is worth the effort.
Nilsia Cadena, of Las Vegas, is a Planned Parenthood volunteer and a columnist whose work has appeared in print and online media.
