It’s all a swirl, a conglomeration. Everything is compiled into one clump.
The swirl includes quotes, phrases, first-hand accounts, observations, emotions, reactions, and more. It’s overwhelming how much I’ve experienced and in these moments as I sit for a few hours in the airport waiting to leave Denver, I am scrambling to get down and say everything I want to about yesterday and more.
It’s not like I don’t want to take all the pieces in my mind and begin to piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s not like I don’t want to pour the pieces out of the box and spread them out and see what picture I get after putting together the pieces. I am more than happy to do this, but there’s a small fear that whatever picture the puzzle forms will be one people will choose to not see.
The thought of masses of people ignorant of what lies before their very eyes is too much for me.
Are we a nation of good Germans at peace with being at war? I don’t think it’s fair to characterize the American populace in those terms.
Such characterization discounts the fact that people recognize the situation we face. The people know big thunderhead clouds lie on the horizon ready to move in as soon as they catch the right gust of wind.
These clouds that could move in closer at any moment are ready to burst. It doesn’t mean they will burst. It means that every action we take will have a higher magnitude of effect at this point in history.
I would have never thought I would be in the Invesco Field stadium to hear and see Barack Obama speak. I didn’t want to go. But, I was working with two people on a film and when we asked randomly at a transit stop if anyone had extra tickets, we were in luck. A man from the New Jersey Delegation gave us three of his extra credentials.
I and my two friends began to make our way over to the stadium at 4:30 MT on Thursday. By then, people were already in the stadium and mile-long lines had been forming since the morning.
You could say this was like the Woodstock of all presidential candidate events in our history. About 70,000 to 90,000 were expected to attend (and did attend).
The DNC and Barack Obama shrewdly devised this event and chose this date to evoke memories of prized moments in American history. FDR and JFK had been the only two presidents to hold acceptance speeches in outdoor arenas. The date of the speech marked the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
After navigating barriers, sidewinding pathways, checkpoints, and crowds, I made it into Invesco about the time that Bill Richardson was speaking.
Inside Invesco
The capitalist/consumerist aspects of the event made me feel like I was at the Super Bowl. I’ve never been to the Super Bowl, but I could imagine this is what it must be like. After all, Michael McDonald did sing the national anthem.
People were not engaged in political discussions despite the nature of the occasion. When they weren’t paying attention to the speakers or musicians, they were engaged in eating, drinking, and “water cooler” conversations that were on par with, “So, how about the weather? What a beautiful day.”
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