A lot of folks were crying at the convention. Some tears of joy and some tears of sadness.
I would start talking about Hillary getting the nomination and I would start crying. Spontaneously. I truly didn't expect that.
Gen from Annie's List and I were talking about the upcoming election and when they would be endorsing candidates. Our conversation turned back to former state representative Carol Kent. We were both totally in awe of her. How wonderful she was as a candidate and a legislator. She was the perfect candidate. I think we both cried reminiscing about her.
My neighbor Kim was crying the first night because of the disruptions of the Sanders delegates. She was crying that this convention had meant so much to her and they were ruining it for her. On the last night she had a long talk with one of the Sanders supporters and they come up with an agreement. It seems that the Sanders supporter broke the agreement, I think it was not to interrupt during one of the speeches. And Kim was crying again. I told her to ignore them, don't let anyone ruin the moment for us.
I cried during some of the speeches.
However, the moment I really lost it was during Chelsea's speech. When she said that she knew that her grandmother was looking down on her mom and how proud she is. And I was thinking about my mom and hoping she was proud of me. I was initially hesitant about running for national delegate during the mourning period after her passing. But knowing her, she would have wanted me to run. Thank you mom for giving my the courage to go after my dreams.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Monday, August 1, 2016
The Bernie delegates - final night of the Convention
The Sanders delegates were quieter on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The pro-Palestinian signs from the first night were gone.
They did walk out Tuesday night after Bernie asked that the convention ratify the nomination of Hillary Clinton by acclamation. Honestly, we were happy to see them go. But they did come back. Some had taped their mouths shut. I guess that symbolized they had been quieted. The Clinton delegates were happy - no more interruptions! But some were talking through the tape.
The final night of the convention, the fringe Sanders supporters appeared in day glow shirts, ensuring that they stand out in the crowd.
We had a handful in the Texas delegation. The largest number were in the California delegation which sat across the arena from us. The empty seat in this picture to the right of James (in the sunglasses) was my assigned seat for the convention. To the left of James sat Kim, a "Super Volunteer" for Hillary.
I did notice the Sanders supporter behind me had a cowbell in her lap. Oh now, I thought to myself, the last thing I wanted to hear was a cowbell in my ear during Hillary's speech. I sent a text to two of my contacts with the TDP. OK - they were watching. Was cowbell on the banned list? We weren't sure.
Our instructions were texted to us by our Whip. Hold our signs high to cover any anti-Hillary signs and shout over any anti-Hillary chants with our own chants. The disruptions came during Leon Panetta's speech "No more wars" to which we chanted over "USA". It was silly. Nobody wants any more wars. During Bloomberg's speech, people were chanting "Stop and Frisk" I can't remember what we said to drown that out. James turned around and said de Blassio got rid of it. Maybe we should have yelled "Super Gulp!"
Unlike people watching at home, it was often difficult the hear the speeches well.
During Hillary's speeches, chanting was coming from the California delegation. Our Sanders supporters were relatively quiet. An out burst here and there, not when you expected it. A young man with a beard was very angry. Others look resigned. When the anti-Hillary chanting occurred, we changed back Hill-a-ry. I know we missed a lot of the speech. When I have time, I will need to watch the speeches on You Tube.
I did turn around several times to see if the Sanders delegates could find any common ground with Hillary during her speech. They did clap at her mention of Sanders and her point of overturning Citizens United. I hope they realize that the best chance of getting rid of Citizens United will be the election of a Democrat.
A lot of us Clinton delegates. were very angry about the disruptions. But we were still joyful at the nomination of our candidate. I felt sorry for some of them, especially one skinny young African American woman who was sobbing at the end.
My understanding was that Bernie Sanders did ask his delegates to stop the interruptions. But some wouldn't listen. The "Revolution" had become more important than the candidate.
They did walk out Tuesday night after Bernie asked that the convention ratify the nomination of Hillary Clinton by acclamation. Honestly, we were happy to see them go. But they did come back. Some had taped their mouths shut. I guess that symbolized they had been quieted. The Clinton delegates were happy - no more interruptions! But some were talking through the tape.
The final night of the convention, the fringe Sanders supporters appeared in day glow shirts, ensuring that they stand out in the crowd.
I did notice the Sanders supporter behind me had a cowbell in her lap. Oh now, I thought to myself, the last thing I wanted to hear was a cowbell in my ear during Hillary's speech. I sent a text to two of my contacts with the TDP. OK - they were watching. Was cowbell on the banned list? We weren't sure.
Our instructions were texted to us by our Whip. Hold our signs high to cover any anti-Hillary signs and shout over any anti-Hillary chants with our own chants. The disruptions came during Leon Panetta's speech "No more wars" to which we chanted over "USA". It was silly. Nobody wants any more wars. During Bloomberg's speech, people were chanting "Stop and Frisk" I can't remember what we said to drown that out. James turned around and said de Blassio got rid of it. Maybe we should have yelled "Super Gulp!"
Unlike people watching at home, it was often difficult the hear the speeches well.
During Hillary's speeches, chanting was coming from the California delegation. Our Sanders supporters were relatively quiet. An out burst here and there, not when you expected it. A young man with a beard was very angry. Others look resigned. When the anti-Hillary chanting occurred, we changed back Hill-a-ry. I know we missed a lot of the speech. When I have time, I will need to watch the speeches on You Tube.
I did turn around several times to see if the Sanders delegates could find any common ground with Hillary during her speech. They did clap at her mention of Sanders and her point of overturning Citizens United. I hope they realize that the best chance of getting rid of Citizens United will be the election of a Democrat.
A lot of us Clinton delegates. were very angry about the disruptions. But we were still joyful at the nomination of our candidate. I felt sorry for some of them, especially one skinny young African American woman who was sobbing at the end.
My understanding was that Bernie Sanders did ask his delegates to stop the interruptions. But some wouldn't listen. The "Revolution" had become more important than the candidate.
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Strater
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Saturday, July 30, 2016
The Bernie Delegates - Part 1
Unlike the 2008 convention, Hillary and Bernie delegates seemed to be in distinct separate camps. Perhaps it was the fact that the Bernie delegates were new people, most of us didn't know them . The two Bernie delegates from my district were both in their 20's. I had only met one of them at the SD-16 Senatorial Convention and the other after she was elected at State Convention. I do have a lot of friends in my activist circles that did support Bernie over Hillary. But they didn't run for National Delegate.
I knew only a couple of folks in the Bernie camp, Jacob Limon, the state leader and Kathleen Thompson, who I got to know eight years ago in Denver and have gotten to know better since we served on the SDEC together. It seems that all of my other SDEC friends were pledged to Clinton. Every elected official that I personally knew was pledged to Clinton.
The Hillary camp has bent over backwards to engage all of the Bernie supporters. The only thing that would have made some of this extreme element happy would have been for Hillary to step down and given the nomination to Bernie. That's it. Personally, I think she gave away too much and I consider myself to be very liberal.
It seems that only two of Bernie's platform proposals were not accepted - a proposal against the TPP and one for Palestinian Rights. I am personally against the TPP and would have liked to have seen that on the platform. Hillary Clinton has come out against the TPP. However, President Obama is for the TPP and it would have been a personal affront to him had it been included. The other was Palestinian Rights (I will be writing a separate post on anti-Semitism).
My friend Katherine saved a bunch of seats for us at the convention. She specifically said, "I don't want to sit near Sanders supporters." She grabbed two rows of seats. The aisle seats were already taken. Unfortunately, I wound up directly in front of a Bernie fringe supporter.
To clarify, not all Sanders supporters were the fringe supporters. The disruptive ones were definitely in the minority. But those were trying to do whatever they could without having their credentials pulled.
The first evening was embarrassing. There were boos even during the invocation. A frequent chant was "No TPP". Speakers were disrupted. It was awful and embarrassing. Staff members had to come up and tell them to stop. This was after our first delegation breakfast when we were clearly told that booing etc. would be grounds for removal of credentials.
Tuesday night was calmer. After the breakdown at the Tuesday morning breakfast and the removal of the leader's credentials, there seemed to be a calm down.
Tuesday at the convention I wound up talking to another Bernie delegate at one of the many charging stations in the arena. Cliff from the TDP also joined us. He was from Arkansas and very involved with the party. Although he was a Sanders delegate, he was fully supporting Clinton and would be working for her. He shared that the Sanders delegates were planning to behave the next two days and then be disruptive the final night of the convention. He refused to be part of that. I was cringing just thinking about them.
To be continued......
I knew only a couple of folks in the Bernie camp, Jacob Limon, the state leader and Kathleen Thompson, who I got to know eight years ago in Denver and have gotten to know better since we served on the SDEC together. It seems that all of my other SDEC friends were pledged to Clinton. Every elected official that I personally knew was pledged to Clinton.
The Hillary camp has bent over backwards to engage all of the Bernie supporters. The only thing that would have made some of this extreme element happy would have been for Hillary to step down and given the nomination to Bernie. That's it. Personally, I think she gave away too much and I consider myself to be very liberal.
It seems that only two of Bernie's platform proposals were not accepted - a proposal against the TPP and one for Palestinian Rights. I am personally against the TPP and would have liked to have seen that on the platform. Hillary Clinton has come out against the TPP. However, President Obama is for the TPP and it would have been a personal affront to him had it been included. The other was Palestinian Rights (I will be writing a separate post on anti-Semitism).
My friend Katherine saved a bunch of seats for us at the convention. She specifically said, "I don't want to sit near Sanders supporters." She grabbed two rows of seats. The aisle seats were already taken. Unfortunately, I wound up directly in front of a Bernie fringe supporter.
To clarify, not all Sanders supporters were the fringe supporters. The disruptive ones were definitely in the minority. But those were trying to do whatever they could without having their credentials pulled.
The first evening was embarrassing. There were boos even during the invocation. A frequent chant was "No TPP". Speakers were disrupted. It was awful and embarrassing. Staff members had to come up and tell them to stop. This was after our first delegation breakfast when we were clearly told that booing etc. would be grounds for removal of credentials.
Tuesday night was calmer. After the breakdown at the Tuesday morning breakfast and the removal of the leader's credentials, there seemed to be a calm down.
Tuesday at the convention I wound up talking to another Bernie delegate at one of the many charging stations in the arena. Cliff from the TDP also joined us. He was from Arkansas and very involved with the party. Although he was a Sanders delegate, he was fully supporting Clinton and would be working for her. He shared that the Sanders delegates were planning to behave the next two days and then be disruptive the final night of the convention. He refused to be part of that. I was cringing just thinking about them.
To be continued......
Flags
We were so very busy that it was difficult to keep up with the news. However, I did hear that the Right Wing Media (aka Fox) was also complaining that there weren't any American Flags on the stage. Seriously? We displayed the flag during Pledge of Allegiance and on the jumbo tron on stage.
Well the flags appeared. Just like when Candidate Obama started wearing a flag pin in response to complaints that he was not patriotic.
Wearing flag pins and putting flags on stage doesn't make you patriotic. Do you know what makes you patriotic? Voting each and every election. And knowing who you are voting for. It is not patriotic to vote for Grady Yarbrough thinking he is a relative of Ralph Yarborough. Knowing what each candidate stands for and voting for the one that most closely aligns with your principals. Visiting or writing to your elected representatives also makes you patriotic. Volunteering on campaigns is patriotic.
That is how democracy works. That is what democracy looks like. Flags are a symbol. The person with the flag pin is not more patriotic than anyone else. The people in this country that PARTICIPATE in the democratic process are the patriotic ones.
But they looked great at the convention when everyone was waiving them.
https://youtu.be/_IK7ZLcy5HE
Well the flags appeared. Just like when Candidate Obama started wearing a flag pin in response to complaints that he was not patriotic.
Wearing flag pins and putting flags on stage doesn't make you patriotic. Do you know what makes you patriotic? Voting each and every election. And knowing who you are voting for. It is not patriotic to vote for Grady Yarbrough thinking he is a relative of Ralph Yarborough. Knowing what each candidate stands for and voting for the one that most closely aligns with your principals. Visiting or writing to your elected representatives also makes you patriotic. Volunteering on campaigns is patriotic.
That is how democracy works. That is what democracy looks like. Flags are a symbol. The person with the flag pin is not more patriotic than anyone else. The people in this country that PARTICIPATE in the democratic process are the patriotic ones.
But they looked great at the convention when everyone was waiving them.
https://youtu.be/_IK7ZLcy5HE
Friday, July 29, 2016
The Mystery Whip
In the Clinton delegation, each member is assigned to a Whip. A Whip's responsibility is to ensure his or her delegates are present when important votes come to the floor. We expected several potentially contentious votes, therefore it was important that we had enough delegates on the floor for the vote.
A group of Dallas delegates were assigned to "Kebran Alexander". Our form of communication was through a group text message. Kebran tested our response time to ensure that we were continuously responding to our cell phones.
I knew a couple of the other whips. Pam Dunham was a Tarrant County Whip and sat directly behind me. Another Whip was a good friend of one of my roommates. I told them both that I never met our Whip. They were quite surprised.
Each night we were getting orders via text message from our Whip. We were asked to check in when we arrived at the convention and were seated. We were given instructions on how to vote.
Unlike other delegates, our group had never met our Whip. This was quite odd. The Texas delegation wasn't that big that our Whip couldn't reach out to each of the 15 delegates he was responsible for directly.
My seat was surrounded by several of us who had Kebran as our Whip - James, Lynn, Becky, Katherine and Kenneth. None of us had met him. On Wednesday I added to the group text "We are sitting on rows 19 and 20 in section 118. No word. No "I'll try to stop by" or "I want to meet you too". It became a running joke between us. Every morning the delegation was together for breakfast and every evening at the Wells Fargo Center. Certainly our Whip could have made the effort to meet us.
Becky also wanted to find out what was going on. She asked him to send a picture of himself so that we could recognize him if we saw him. He did send a picture. We joked that maybe it was photo shopped, or someone else stood in and took a picture. Here is what he sent.
I still think it was someone sending texts from the Clinton campaign. Nothing has proved me wrong. See below for photos of some of the group texts. One thing for sure, other delegates got better more concise instructions than we did.
A group of Dallas delegates were assigned to "Kebran Alexander". Our form of communication was through a group text message. Kebran tested our response time to ensure that we were continuously responding to our cell phones.
I knew a couple of the other whips. Pam Dunham was a Tarrant County Whip and sat directly behind me. Another Whip was a good friend of one of my roommates. I told them both that I never met our Whip. They were quite surprised.
Each night we were getting orders via text message from our Whip. We were asked to check in when we arrived at the convention and were seated. We were given instructions on how to vote.
Unlike other delegates, our group had never met our Whip. This was quite odd. The Texas delegation wasn't that big that our Whip couldn't reach out to each of the 15 delegates he was responsible for directly.
My seat was surrounded by several of us who had Kebran as our Whip - James, Lynn, Becky, Katherine and Kenneth. None of us had met him. On Wednesday I added to the group text "We are sitting on rows 19 and 20 in section 118. No word. No "I'll try to stop by" or "I want to meet you too". It became a running joke between us. Every morning the delegation was together for breakfast and every evening at the Wells Fargo Center. Certainly our Whip could have made the effort to meet us.
Becky also wanted to find out what was going on. She asked him to send a picture of himself so that we could recognize him if we saw him. He did send a picture. We joked that maybe it was photo shopped, or someone else stood in and took a picture. Here is what he sent.
I still think it was someone sending texts from the Clinton campaign. Nothing has proved me wrong. See below for photos of some of the group texts. One thing for sure, other delegates got better more concise instructions than we did.
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