DNC Day 7.5

Back from the Kucinich party at a local rock club.

Good party. We had some speeches from various Kucinich folks, a *really excellent* poet (who happens to be a female steel worker, Rebecca Cooper), and a guitarist and singer from Santa Fe.

We watched the Kerry speech on a big screen; sorta hard to hear the audio in the noisy environment of the club. I'll reserve judgement on the content of the speech until I can hear it in it's entirety with no noise in the background.

General consensus with the Kucinich folks who listened to it said it was impressive, both in content and delivery. And when these folks say "impressive" I tend to respect their judgement. One of the great things about being here in person is that I got to really converse with some very savvy, smart, and pragmatic Progressives.

I've learned that this is a general characteristic of Kucinich supporters.

About 2 hours later, Dennis visited the party and delivered a rousing "thank you" speech to the crowd. Among other things he said that even though neither he nor we (his supporters) had any illusions about not being in total agreement with Kerry on all issues we were all (including him) to work *very* hard at getting Kerry elected.

He said that he'd been interviewed extensively by the media this week, and spoke with both foreign and domestic political people (officeholders and pundits) and that they *all* said that the depth, dedication, and principled discipline of Kucinich's supporters was evident to all.

He finshed with an admonition that "we are starting to change the world" and encouraged all of us to stay active as a group and dedicate our energies to continuing to build the Progressive Movement.

He then stepped off the stage after stating that he wanted to talk to each and every one of us in the room.

Since I was on the edge of the stage (by permssion) taking pictures I was one of the first to grab and hold his hand for a few minutes while stating my thanks for his work.

Whew!

An important (I think) footnote: I wrote up a page for Dot Maven about Democrat Richard Morrison's campaign about Tom Delay, and that we Houston folk may need help with Progressives everywhere to help defeat him (Delay) in November. I've met Mr Morrison personally both at the Texas State Convention and in a house party held a few weeks back at the home of a fellow Kucitizen (Dan) whose political opinion(s) i value highly.

My in-person impression of him is that he is a good and fair man, and that he speaks straight (I have asked him some very specific questions and got no-nonsense no-evasion answers).

Once I get back I really need to sit down and research Mr. Morrison more thoroughly so I can intelligently address his background, experience, and positions; I look forward to doing so and expect to come to similar conclusions as Dan's on him (i.e., it's not just an ABD (Anybody But Delay) type of thing).

Back to the DNC:

Earlier in the day at Roxbury College, the Progressive Democrats of America had an event that started with Howard Dean. I'll try to remember the specifics, but bottom line is that he made a great speech and implored everyone not to stop with "just voting: RUN FOR OFFICE!"

I was taking pictures from the floor (literally) about 8 feet or so from him. No teleprompter at this event :-)

And he introduced Dennis by saying " And Now for the Real Thing!"

I have shots of him and Dennis holding hands aloft togther, and Dennis was both gracious and effusive in his praise of what Dean accomplished: to wake up the Democratic Party and specifically to rally the Progressive Wing.

I should be able to get an audio (and probably video) of his speech, but IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) it was *much* better than the speech he gave on the DNC floor. Among a number of metaphors he used was that of a running track (the event was held in athletic facility with an indoor track round the outer perimeter).

His point: that we're running not just *one* race, but many, and that it will require persistence and "going around the track a few times".

He did his little "bounce routine" (he's done that at a number of speeches when he gets cranked up: it is simultaneously amusing and energy-generating at the same time :-) ).

The real surprise was hearing Granny D, the famous 93-year-old who walked across the US in a voting drive. She was barely able to see over the top of the podium but made a very impassioned speech about the political process.

Some highlights :

"Politics in the past was a banquet. Politics today is the fast food version".

She made the point that "in the old days" politics was something that *everyone* did , even between elections. Getting out to talk to your neighbors and friends, talking about the issues, and then voting were standard in many places in the US.

Now campaigns are all about "getting elected", not necessary "solving problems". She was very critical about the fact that the typical Democratic political strategy involved / involves going to the minority voters at the last minute in the campaign(s) and then expecting them to vote Democratic without any particular incentives. Once elected, most Dems then turn around and ignore the minoritites until the next election.

Her other food metaphor for this situation: "we give them the icing but no cake".

She was presented (somewhat at the last minute) a BackBone Trophy which I naturally took pictures of. Very appropriate use of the award (and it was a nice gold backbone mounted on wood).

Made a *lot* of contact with a *lot* people; shot > 300 pix today (mostly people) who will be contacting me for digital copies via EMAIL , so I'd better watch my EMAIL box closely over the next week or so. I expect (hope) to be inundated with contact info, and it'll really be fun to be able to match the people with the pictures in future blog entries.

Oh, and I forgot! I got to hear Amy Goodman speak at Border's Bookstore (how could I forget!) I missed her when she visitied Houston (Sarah, my sister, got to see her there and got her book signed for me).

As usual, Amy was both eloquent and moving, and made the point *again* that corporate media is just flat not doing their job in presenting important stories and asking tough questions on *all* sides of the political spectrum.

She told one story about her coverage in 1991 of the invasion of Timor by Indonesia. She said that the outright slaughter of Timorese by the Indonesians (armed by the US) were horrific.

One specific episode occurred when she and a male colleague were speaking to a large number of Timorese. All of a sudden, a squad of Indonesian soldiers appeared on the scene.

Afraid that the soldiers were there to kill the crowd (which was apparently peaceful) Amy and her companion went to the front of the crowd in an attempt to dissuade the soldiers from massacring the crowd.

Rather than stopping the soldiers, Amy and her companion were roughly thrown to the ground and beaten severely with US-supplied M16s. Her companion threw his body on top of hers to keep her from harm and had his skull fractured by the beating.

In the meanwhile, the soldiers opened fire and indiscriminately slaughtered the crowd as Amy & company were on the ground.

Once the soldiers realized that Amy & co were Americans, they allowed a Red Cross ambulance to take them to a nearby hospital. When the doctors and nurses realized what had happened they wept. Not for the massacre per se, but because they realized that even the presence of a US journalist couldn't stop the slaughter.

[ Note : this is my rendition of the story; Amy tells it much better in her book entitled "Exception to the Rulers" ]

Ten years later Amy revisited Timor on the day of their independence.

I quitely shed some tears during the story; I wasn't the only one in the room to do so.

On a more upbeat note, when I came back to the dorms some folks were singing another Beatles' song in the lobby complete with a guitar.

Wonderful way to end this particular day and, officially, the DNC for me. I'll be travelling on Friday and will probably visit some friends in Dallas on the way to Houston.