MY DAY AT THE TEXAS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
If in the fall I were given an assignment to write about “What I Did Over the Summer”, I’d surely have to include an accounting of my trip to Austin for the Texas Democratic Party Convention. I’ve been a Democrat my entire adult life, and yet this was my first convention. Go figure.
For all you people-watchers out there, have I got a venue for YOU!! At the Texas Democratic Party Convention, there are people of every race, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, hair color, skin color and body type imaginable. As a big-tent kind of person, that makes me extremely proud.
I was allowed into the convention for just one day on a “Guest Pass” which I won in a lottery (probably jinxing my chances to win in all the big money lotteries that I never play). A Democratic activist who writes a REAL blog told me I was extremely fortunate to have won that pass, because her senate district, which consists of 19 counties, had been given only 18 guest passes.
As guests, we weren’t allowed to be in the same room with the delegates and alternate delegates, so we were ushered into an “overflow” room. Imagine my surprise when I saw hundreds of empty chairs in a room that was supposed to be filled to capacity by lucky guests such as yours truly!
The speeches (which were broadcast on a big-screen closed-circuit television) were WAY more interesting than I expected. In fact, I found myself on the edge of my seat, clapping every bit as enthusiastically as I would have had I been an actual delegate. I resolved to go home and do whatever I could not only to help Barack Obama in his bid for the presidency, but also to help other Democrats win theirs.
Of course, since I live in a blood-red county in an even bloodier-red state, I doubt that my efforts will help much. But I’ll still do what I can, because as I said in an earlier blog, I want to do everything I can to make this country a better place to live for my kids and grandkids. They deserve nothing less.
For all you people-watchers out there, have I got a venue for YOU!! At the Texas Democratic Party Convention, there are people of every race, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, hair color, skin color and body type imaginable. As a big-tent kind of person, that makes me extremely proud.
I was allowed into the convention for just one day on a “Guest Pass” which I won in a lottery (probably jinxing my chances to win in all the big money lotteries that I never play). A Democratic activist who writes a REAL blog told me I was extremely fortunate to have won that pass, because her senate district, which consists of 19 counties, had been given only 18 guest passes.
As guests, we weren’t allowed to be in the same room with the delegates and alternate delegates, so we were ushered into an “overflow” room. Imagine my surprise when I saw hundreds of empty chairs in a room that was supposed to be filled to capacity by lucky guests such as yours truly!
The speeches (which were broadcast on a big-screen closed-circuit television) were WAY more interesting than I expected. In fact, I found myself on the edge of my seat, clapping every bit as enthusiastically as I would have had I been an actual delegate. I resolved to go home and do whatever I could not only to help Barack Obama in his bid for the presidency, but also to help other Democrats win theirs.
Of course, since I live in a blood-red county in an even bloodier-red state, I doubt that my efforts will help much. But I’ll still do what I can, because as I said in an earlier blog, I want to do everything I can to make this country a better place to live for my kids and grandkids. They deserve nothing less.
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