Trainpaigning

"Trainpaigning" was what my neighbor on the Albany to Chicago "Lake Shore Ltd" called my canvassing of the train to distribute campaign info and to answer questions for people interested in Ron Paul.

The kitchen staff spoke of the New World Order, the man reading the WSJ called him an isolationist, someone planning on picketing a few abortion clinics hoped he'd be against abortion. All of them had a better understanding of Ron Paul's viewpoints when we'd finished talking and I left each of them with my email address too, in case further questions came up, or perhaps even just an interest to continue the discussion.

The ROTC senior at IIT, the documentary film student at Columbia, the youth-minister-to-be heading to his first semester at North Park - all were ready for a little debate and that we did. Damn do I love riding the train - no one forces you to remove clothes before boarding, no prohibitions against standing at the bathroom, and a great atmosphere that just welcomes talking to others.


Johannes and Fabio, I thought of the two of you when I saw a journeyman carpenter from Kiel in his full dress taking the Amtrak through the US - I wanted to photograph him with an RP sign, but he seemed to have been overly photographed and I figured I could just convince you guys to use your imagination about how he would look as I told him about RP and the Tea Party and Europe4Paul.

Dozens of RP 10 minutes DVDs, copies of the US Constitution, slim jims on topics from farms to immigration were all handed out. I'm so happy to sit and talk with my fellow Americans about what they think about the economy, about fiat money, about Iraq, and politics in general.

Johannes, Dan, Ben, and Aminka, thank you for the encouraging comments.

Allan
(writing from Blue Island, IL)