I recently went to a community barnstorming session for the Bernie Sanders campaign and signed up to do canvassing and phone banking, something I’ve never done before. I had followed and supported the Bernie campaign in the last election, but this was the first time I was being actively involved in something for it.

So I went to my first canvassing shift today, and while I was nervous I had a fun time and talked a lot with the guy I was partnered up with for the shift. To be honest, out of all the houses we went to, only one person answered the door to us. Funnily enough, the person who answered the door told us the person on our list of people to talk to no longer lived there. So we took a moment to speak with the young gentleman who’d answered the door to us instead.

We spoke about issues and things going on that pertained to Bernie’s platform (of which the economy and education were most important), and then asked if he was registered to vote. He looked very young and had told us he was going to college next year so there was the possibility he hadn’t registered yet.

To our surprise, he was a registered Republican.

He followed the statement with how after talking with us, he would consider switching his party so that he could participate in the upcoming caucus out here in Nevada next year on February 22nd, and that he would be looking more into Bernie and his ideas!

We were pleasantly shocked, to say the least! What that experience taught me is that labels do not and should not define us as people. That people have more layers to them than that and that these labels people use to group themselves and others are only surface level and don’t paint pictures in black or white.

Here we were, registered Democrats (only registered as such so that we can vote in the closed caucus) having a meaningful and respectful conversation with a registered Republican voter. We were able to share our concerns on similar issues and look past party lines to actually talk to each other like human beings worthy of respect and consideration.

Now please don’t get me wrong, that in no way is to say that just because someone has a particular party affiliation they’re more or less worthy of those things – I feel that people are always due respect and consideration. There may come a time when you may walk away from a person, but I hate seeing people on either side of aisle throwing cheap shots at one another, attacking each other for unimportant things, and just hating each other all around for simply disagreeing on issues.

What I mean to say is that I wish people could have more conversations like the one I got to be a part of today. I wish people could look past their differences and instead see how similar we are instead. I wish people didn’t find reasons to attack or argue with others, just to try and prove a point or to be “right” about something. I wish people could work together to make up a diverse community where we share ideas and find ways to move forward together to make our lives, our communities, and our world a better place.

This experience in my community reinforced my belief that people can absolutely come together despite our differences and can work towards a brighter future without the hate and anger and ugliness. And it reminded me that many of these issues we’re fighting for are not partisan issues – they’re American issues, and they’re human issues.

And while we only spoke to one person in about two hours of walking around, I would say that having that conversation with this person on the other side of the aisle was incredibly meaningful, and potentially carried a bit more weight than it may have had we instead spoke to someone on our list who had shown support for Bernie in the last election.

I can’t wait to go canvassing again!

I also highly recommend everyone consider going out and supporting &/or volunteering for the person you believe is the best person to lead our country. Not only will you get a sense of fulfillment by being a part of something bigger than yourself, but you will also get to talk to new people, share experiences, and build solidarity within your community! I invite you to be active in what you believe in, and to also please share your experiences with the community here!