Cheryl reports from the national DNC meeting
Marcia Moody and I are in Phoenix attending the national meeting of the DNC. It has been quite an education. We started with a reception Thursday evening hosted by PDA (Progressives Democrats of America). We got to listen to true progressives like Mimi Kennedy (actress, activist and PDA board member) Tom Hayden, and our own Deaniac, Terry Lierman, now chair of the Democratic Party in Maryland. Terry was the one helping Dean at the March for Women's Lives in 2004 and he also was Dean's campaign manager for Maryland during the campaign.
Yesterday, we attended a series of caucuses. The Hispanic Caucus was the best, as the issues they discussed are near and dear to me living in Arizona. Very powerful speakers really kept me alert. The Republicans are trying to pass an initiative that would amend the Colorado constitution to basically create a Nazi system of spying on your neighbor and reporting them to authorities...like if you suspect someone is an undocumented immigrant because they check out a Spanish language book in the library. In Arizona, we passed prop 200 which is a racist proposition and an attempt to hurt Democrats. Turns out at least in the last City Council race it actually inadvertantly hurt Republicans just as much.
We were blessed to have Howard speak at both our Western Regional caucus and Hispanic caucus. It turns out he also spoke at the Women's caucus which Marcia attended (I missed it).
In the evening, the Arizona Democratic Party sponsored a reception. This was a great opportunity to mingle. Governor Dean was just standing there talking to one person, so Marcia headed over to chat with him. She was a little mad at me because I chose the food buffet instead.
Later, a few of the Tucson original Deaniacs got a chance to get our picture taken with Howard. I feel for his handler, Fred, because everyone was bombarding him to try and get a pic with Howard. I really didn't know what to say to Howard. He never really remembers me, and was struggling to read my upsidedown name tag as I negated to introduce myself again. All I could think of to say was to tell him about the good news of Melissa Taylor getting hired as the Executive Director for Harris county in Texas. I guess I shouldn't feel badly because he didn't recognize her name either until I mentioned the Morrison campaign and then it seemed to trigger that recognition. Of course, he ALWAYS remembers Marcia. Marcia told me not to feel badly, that she had to meet him 13 times before she was sure he remembered her...and I have only met him 7 now. :)
The one oddity of the evening is that three times they tried to get us to move over to a local casino where they were partying or something. Most of us had no desire to go but it came across as an 'order'. I finally asked the speaker why they were telling us to go over to a casino when we were happy at the reception talking with one another. I think it was sponsored by the Young Democrats of America and it sounded like a lot of 'fun' to them, lol. I am not sure if anyone actually went to the casino or if they had a separate reception there because we ended up having a mini-meeting on women's issues in the political sphere.
This morning I am at the General Session, and guess who is the main speaker? Yes, you got it. He is now speaking to non-stop standing ovations. He is really *on*. Renee, you should be thrilled that I am blogging here with wifi instead of intently listening to Howard. Don't worry...I am hearing the main points.
Later today I will see him again at the volunteer awards dinner. I am trying to get into the pre-session to take pictures for people. I hope to have more reports to follow.
cHeRyL!
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