Saturday afternoon, donning a McCain-Palin T-shirt bearing a McCain-Palin button, a Michael Williams button, and my CTRA President name tag, and wearing a hat bearing a Ronald Reagan for Governor button, a McCain-Palin button, and a Constable Bob Vann pin, I was walking around a Valero gas station politely asking customers if they had voted yet (i.e. early voted).
If they said yes, I would genuinely thank them for exercising their right to vote (even if they voted for Obama). They seemed to warm to that expression of gratitude. If they said they were not registered to vote or were not a citizen, and thus could not vote, I thanked not voting explaining that some people vote illegally. If they were registered to vote and indicated that they had not yet voted, I would urge them to vote on Tuesday, November 4th, offer them some literature about, and my personal knowledge of, the Republicans that were on the Travis County ballot and try to persuade them to vote Republican in at least some of those races.
Even if they said they were voting for Obama I would suggest that if they were not planning to vote a straight Democrat ballot they might consider some of the down ballot candidates on the R team. Then, depending on my perception of their receptivity, I would mentioned the Supreme Court candidates and why we needed to keep those Rs in office (i.e. to keep the court functioning in a non-activist manner, to interpret and apply law so that lawmaking would be left to the legislature, where as a representative body of the people it rightly belongs), and then move on to Jerry Mikus (if they lived in HD 50).
It was quite enjoyable and they seemed very appreciative of the conversation and information, especially the Republicans. :-)
I started out in the morning at a Velero station in Pflugerville at which I bought a tank of gas and later a Diet Coke. During my very enjoyable interaction with customers at that station one customer I spoke with asked me to visit a car wash where his son Danny worked, and to give information to his son Danny. After a little while I did just that. I went to the car wash, found Danny, gave him the literature, and got my car washed and waxed while there. Of course, I took the opportunity to talk to more people and hand out more campaign literature. It was a different situation than at Velero. There were fewer and a much more sedentary clientele (i.e. they hung around for a long time). I decided that the gas station was a better place to do what I was trying to do (exercise my free speech rights).
In the afternoon, as I mentioned at the beginning of this report, I went to the other Velero station, near US183 and Spicewood Springs Road, in Austin. After spending about 90 minutes there, during which time my only purchase was a Diet Coke, a clerk came out to me as I was asking yet another customer if he had voted yet. She informed me that "they" could not have me doing what I was doing at their store, claiming that I was harassing their customers. She said I had to leave. I told her that everyone I had talked to (and I filtered out no one based on outward appearance or even presence of a non-R bumper sticker) did not seem to be bothered by my conversation with them and that I was in no way trying to harass anyone. I asked her if any customers had complained about my activities, to which she would not answer yes or no.
Earlier I had been in the story and talked to another clerk, a young man, who said he does not vote, did not want to vote, and was just "along for the ride" in this society. I don't remember seeing the young female clerk at that time. I talked with the male clerk out in back of the store later on and right before I left. He did not seem to be bothered by our conversation. Before I left, I went back into the store and asked if the manager was in. The clerk said no and then I asked for her name and the manager's name. She said her name is Angela and the manager's name is Dora. She did not tell me her or her manager's last names. I was not angry, but I told her that it seemed like she was harassing me rather than me harassing anyone. She simply said "may I help you" a couple of times and then asked me to leave because she had a customer to attend to whom I did not see walk up behind me. So, I left.
My guess is that she was on the other team (a Democrat) and that she wanted me to leave because I was a Republican who was hurting her team. I could be wrong. I do not think I was harassing anyone, unless perhaps I asked an illegal alien (whom of course would not have "illegal alien" written across his or her forehead) if he or she had voted yet. Like I said, I did not discriminate in my selection of customers to approach....maybe I should have.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
