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I posted this first on the SmirkingChimp.com, my usual home. Thought I would share it with you guys also :). Anyone have some pics?
Went to Kerry's rally. First rally I've ever intentionally gone to (the first one was Bush I in 1988 at the VP Fair in St. Louis, I went to the fair and coincidentally caught Bush).
I didn't even know about it until like 2:30, the gates opened up at 3:30. I was rushing around, made a sandwich and headed out the door after printing off a ticket from johnkerry.com.
Since I thought I was gonna be cutting it close, I had the route all planned out in my head before I headed out. I knew that most folks would be parking on the west side of the capitol where all the big capitol parking lots are, I figured I could get a good parking spot on the east side by the library. And I did.
I didn't know what to expect at all, considering this state.
I started walking west towards the capitol down High street. I found myself right behind three very nice looking, perfumed, professional-looking (and good looking!) ladies heading the same direction. Considering thats very commonplace there, I thought they probably weren't heading there. Silly me.
We stopped at a light. While waiting for traffic, this huge box truck passed through the interesection. The three ladies were still in front of me, having some conversation about who knows what, but really weren't watching what was going on. I see the boxtruck coming and watched as it slowed to a halt at the light. The conversation in front of me had reached a stopping point and the three ladies just naturally looked up to gaze upon the boxtruck that appeared there without them noticing it. Upon all its three sides was a huge, very graphic depiction of a bloody fetus, embossed with the words, "KERRY EDWARDS". They all gasped, one remarked "Wow, didn't even see that thing pull up."
So we crossed and on the other side was the first Button vendor. They stopped to check it out, and so did I, mostly because I was interested to hear their remarks.
One pointed to a "Too Stupid to Be President Button" and loudly proclaimed, "Oh, I have a T-Shirt with that on it." Blew me away, to hear that conversation between such fine professional hotties on High street. Who woulda thunk it?
So I lose those ladies, because quite frankly, they were walking too slow, and I thought I was going to miss the speeches for some reason heh.
Up to that point, I hadn't seen any activity out of the usual, with respects to numbers of people. For some reason I expected the whole damn downtown to be blocked off with drug sniffing dogs, crowds of freepers yelling and throwing rocks blah blah blah.
Oh, and did I mention it was A Beautiful Day? It was A Beautiful Day. You couldn't have asked for better weather. High of around 78, low humidity, almost totally sunny except for an occasional puffy cloud that would sneak over the sun every 30 minutes. I was so psyched. This was the best experience I've ever had on a day off.
So I am nearing the rally. At this point its quite evident there is something going on. I wish I could describe the geography here better, but here is the gist. Coming from the east, from where I parked, is atop a ridge that is level where most of the business district is and then descends sharply to where the capitol building is at. Until this point I hadn't seen really anything more than the usual population of High Street. But as I descended, I saw the gathering. Tons of people standing in a lines. Press vans and busses. People with stickers and buttons plastered on them.
So I found the right line at about 3:25ish. They had three lines, depending on the color of your ticket, red, white and blue, each of which went down different sidewalks that converged on the entrance... quite a good organizational tactic. It moved slowly, I stood in it for about an hour before I finally got to go through security. The line I stood in was almost a 1/4 mile long.
Thats when I started to case the joint. You know, check out who is there. Quite a diverse crowd, considering it is Missouri. A white mother and her mulatto 3rd grader child were behind me, they travelled an hour from Hermann, Missouri to be there. In front of me was some kind of youth group with some adult chaperones, I got the impression that they were some kind of troubled youth organization, going to see democracy in action. Beside me, were some upper-middle aged folks, one of which I came to find out was an administrator of a rival of my high school in NE Missouri. That was a great conversation. I could see the gleam in his eye that he was very happy that someone voting for Kerry just told him, "Man, we used to whip your ass in football!".
So I get through security, which was basically dumping your pockets into a bowl and someone inspected them. I think there might have been some kind of magnetic detection stall, but I didn't notice it, I just heard someone remark about it. Overall I thought the security was really good, but not so good that it encumbered us.
I get in, wind my way up through the people, wishing I had brought something to drink. Voila, there is a young Muslim woman there, with a hijab and a smile, loading up a huge ice-filled bin with free bottled water. The whole scene made me happy. It is A Beautiful Day.
I find my place in the crowd, about 60-70 yards from the stage. The capitol steps to my left were already filled with people. Incidentally, I noticed that one of my bosses (2nd in command at my work) was there. He was standing out like the big dork that he is. "Wow". I had that guy pegged as a Freeper. Gonna hafta let him know of my newfound respect for him.
There was a band playing there. I couldn't see it, and could barely hear it because they were using their own amp system, not the rally's.
Within 10 minutes of me getting into place, 3 feet behind me, I heard somebody fall on the ground. I turn around and see this woman who had fallen, clutching onto a stranger. It was a small commotion in a big mass. She was having a seizure. I'd never seen one before. Within seconds, the guards were on the scene helping her. Within about three minutes, there was a stretcher there (which I don't think was used because she was coming out of it). I last saw her standing and walking off with the help of the paramedics.
So then the waiting begins. We wait, wait wait. And waited some more. It was ok with me though, because I wanted to soak the whole thing in. It was an interracial mix, if there ever was one in the middle of Missouri. I'd say about 10-15% non-whites versus the rest of the white, cornfed hicks. One of the best things was, the amount of young people there. Tons of young people. High schoolers, college folks. It was awesome. As well as middle-aged and the elderly. And hotties. I couldn't believe the hotties that were there. Did I mention it was A Beautiful Day?
Around 5:30ish or so (I forget exactly), the Missouri State Democrats get onstage. Roger Wilson, Bob Holden, Claire McCaskill (shes awesome, spoke very well, trashed the Republicans on fiscal responsibility), Nancy Farmer, and some others. They gave some short speeches on unity after the primaries, they were well-received.
So we wait some more. The band is no longer playing, there is some uppity house music playing, which we had to listen to like three rounds with. Note to Kerry campaign, get more songs to play because I listened to that stupid Rocky theme music three times, and I wasn't the only one laughing at the absurdity.
However, there was something cool they played that I could've listened to more than once. It was some kind of Kerry voice-over, using selected parts of his speeches, voiced over some kick ass 70's tunes. It was fooking awesome, and the crowd clearly loved it. I wanna say one of them was CCR. Not sure... If anyone knows what I'm talking about and has a downloadable link, lemme know. I'm gonna check the Kerry site after I post this heh.
So we are waiting and waiting. A few elderly left because they couldnt stand any longer. But for the most part, everyone was very patient, smiling, enthusiastic and carrying on in conversations with their new-found strangers about how bad Bush (and the Republicans) suck.
So the moment comes. They arrive. I mean all of them. John Kerry, Theresa, John Edwards, Elizabeth, and all their children. The crowd roars. Signs waving so hard I could barely see the damn stage. I'm yelling at the top of my lungs.
Around me, were women of various ages, like 15-50. When John Kerry Junior (don't know his real name heh) in his white T-shirt and dark sunglasses took the stage, they all gasped. They were struggling to find a spot in which to view him better. Giggling comments like, "He has my vote!". I was amazed. He very much reminds me of a 20-something John F. Kennedy Jr, and well, he freakin' looks like him too. He's got the single woman vote, thats for damn sure.
So to the speeches. Started off with Ike Skelton, who spoke very very slowly, but was received very very well. He introduced the families, and introduced Elizabeth Edwards to speak first.
Just some itemized notes on the speeches.
1. Elizabeth Edwards wasn't overtly impressive but the crowd did receive her well. It looked like she was really tired, but tired in a good way from doing hard work.
2. Theresa Heinz Kerry. Wow. She got a great reception, and her speech was fantastic. It wasn't booming, thundering or whatever. It was pensive, cosmopolitan and filled with common sense. I loved it, as well as everyone else. That gal is intelligent. I was so totally impressed. The freepers, unable to comprehend her syllables, will write her off as that hateful french bitch.
3. John Edwards. Much better looking in real life than on TV. I thought he was good looking on TV, but when I saw him on stage, I get what people were saying about him. He gave his regular stump speech, I've heard it all before, as I'm sure you have, so no need to elaborate. And he delivered it very well.
4. Kerry. Wow. Super-impressed with actually seeing him in real life, rather than on CSPAN streaming video. He made one really funny joke, at the expense of his daughter who was standing on stage behind him, about the guys she dates needing to grow up or whatever. This was in response (I think, I couldn't actually tell, but from what he was saying in context) to a couple of guys in the front yelling they wanted to date his daughter. The whole thing was funny, it was so ad-libbed/nonscripted. After he made the joke he says something like, "Well, thats not really true, I was just saying it for a funny" (paraphrased), and then he and his daughter hugged and kissed and laughed about it. ON STAGE. It was so awesome.
He also pointed out a few local references, to Arriz Pizza and Central Dairy, which was awesome. He didn't mess up anything, he got it all right on the money. Central Dairy is a local Dairy that actually still has an old time Dairy, you know, you can go in to the store and order cream, or a milkshake or milk or a banana split etc. And they have kick ass ice-cream. He definitely resonated on these points. The crowd loved it.
So he moved to his stump. I've heard it all before, just like with Edwards. But this time it was different. It was live. And it was more powerful than Edwards. It was incredible.
He was slightly hoarse from delivering that same stump speech many times this week. But his voice was booming, absolutely booming. I had no idea he could give a speech like that, even with a hoarse voice. It was echoing off the capitol building walls in a very profound fashion. I had goosebumps. Oh yea, he also stopped to translate the Missouri motto, embossed in Latin on the entrance to the capitol steps, while pointing at it. "The Health of the People is the Supreme Law". (Which is funny because I was always told that it was, "The Will of the People Shall Be Supreme Law", but his was more of a literal translation. The crowd loved it. I loved it.
Its impossible to put into words what you experience, even though you can come damn close. I didn't even come close, much less damn close. But thought I'd share what I could with yall.
It was A Beautiful Day.
/cue Bono
-Safi
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