ohio bound - day 1: Warding Off Evil Spirits!

Spending the past 5 days in California, I met lots of discouraged folks: Californians who believe the middle of the country is going to drag us all down to bush.

DON'T listen to those polls - they're WRONG! My poll is more accurate - MANY more positive, Kerry supporters than the negative bush supporters – consistently ALL across the country! The bush supporters just own the media, are violent in their support for bush (after all, they promote killing to get what they want), and are willing to do anything to win. So it just means we have to work harder. we CAN do it, we WILL do it.

So now we're on the road again - Rae has decided to return with me to Ohio to help register voters - yeah!

Before we even got out of our beautiful Bay Area, we were stopped by California state police officer – Mr. Root – who tries to find something to give me a ticket for: he claims he stopped my truck (in the middle of hundreds of thousands of vehicles jammed on I80 east) because I didn't pull into the weigh station. I told him about the one time I did pull into the weigh station, the male officer there made me feel like a fool. He told me my truck was too small and that if I owned my truck and was hauling my own things, I didn't need to stop.

Slightly deflated, Officer Root then begins to examine my truck: he circles the truck kicking all 6 of my tires; has me flash my lights, blinkers, and then rocks the truck. When I tell him I take good care of my truck, he (probably) rolls his eyes behind his dark sunglasses as he peers pointedly in the direction of my "Imprison Bush" paint job and says flippantly “Yeah, I can see that”.

Then he stands in front of the truck and begins belligerently jabbing his finger on the windshield at the bunch of dried green vegetation I have lying on the dash. I know he’s hoping it’s marijuana: "What is that?" he hostilely demands. Moving around the corner to lean heavily on the passenger's side door, he seems poised to spring into arrest mode.

"Sage," Rae and I answer in unison.

“What's that? What is it for?" he demands. I want to say “Warding off evil spirits” but I only say "Good karma".

"Oh," he nods knowingly, being an experienced California guy, "yeah, karma".

He tries one last thing: "Who's paying you to take this trip?"

As if! When I tell him I’m volunteering so we can register voters, he asks if Rae is my assistant – more eye rolling, this time by us.

HIS assistant, after asking us for those yellow or red-white-and-blue ribbons to stick on her vehicle, writes us up only a warning, assuring us no ticket this time! As if!

Then Officer Root comes back to instruct me on how to enter the freeway and for us "girls” to have a safe trip – urrggghhh.

But in about 25 minutes, we've collected almost 30 yeahs already and not one negative – LOVE California Bay area!