Dear President Obama: My organizing journey
By Chad Guerrant
I am a 29-year-old 3rd generation multi-racial African-American man. I take a daily medication to control a seizure syndrome that I have been challenged with since I was young, so health care has been very important to me. Normally my needs are last on my list to take care of; I believe in caring for the health and well-being of my loved ones and my community. At 21, I first heard your name when my 1st grade music teacher Edwina Marshall brought me down to your Lansing, MI campaign office in 2008. On the way, she told me, “Chad, just like Senator Barack Obama you too will change the way people judge each other and how the world looks at African-Americans.”
I enrolled in junior college looking for my next career path. That led me to work for the Michigan Department of Education. Knowing that I had a heart for the community and helping others, Ms. Marshall would take me to the local campaign office every day until I started walking from work myself. The joy I received while speaking to north Lansing residents in the first 4 months compelled me to begin a campaign chapter on Lansing Community College’s campus. I decided to run for student body president on campus. This began my career in community organizing.
Over the next 9 years, I received above-and-beyond training and support from Organizing for America to help me grow from community organizer to senior campaign manager. I thank you a million times over for this, Mr. President. The freedom and the ability to help others through community organizing has been a blessing to me. The continued passion on your conference calls and campaign speeches instilled in me perseverance as well as proved to me that greatness in politics, and doing things the right way in Washington, was possible.
One of the best gifts I received while working for you came on March 23, 2010, when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law. Prior to the bill passing, I remember going door-to-door listening to the stories of how parents, grandparents, students, and other working-class citizens struggled entirely too often with health care cost, past medical bills, and prescriptions just to live the “American Dream.” I sometimes walked to the next door thinking, “how can I change their situation?” But you were thinking ahead, as we found out you always did. I remember coming home early that day sitting in-front of the TV watching the change that miraculously took place to all American lives. What a gift!
Working for you in Nevada in 2012 was truly amazing but offering the freedom of affordable health care to over 3 million Michiganders as regional field organizer was remarkable. It was during Get Covered America I had the ability to set-up a snowflake organizing structure on my own. Where I was able to teach non-OFA members how to build sustainable volunteer teams, and where I met my future wife and current fiancé.
With all that I’ve learned over the last 8 years, I can see the impact that I have made as precinct delegate. It is phenomenal to see the teamwork that is assembled to help neighbors that are in need of financial and food assistance. My hope for the near future is to introduce fellow precinct delegates to the snowflake organizing model, so we will be able to help all lower and middle class citizens with more than just surface level needs. In 2018 I plan to run for public office, starting with county commission or senator. The ultimate goal is Mayor of Lansing, where I spent my first 3 years of community organizing and saw how much influence that the mayor’s office holds.
So, Mr. President, I can’t thank you enough for being such a wonderful role model for myself and young African-Americans over the last 8 years. You have truly given this generation the mold of how a PERFECT public servant should act, and carry themselves, I thank you with all my heart and soul.
