Pacific Views

Charged Up

On Sunday, I woke up at 3:30 am EST, well in advance of my wake up call. I was still buzzing from the Milwaukee rally, and I didn't get to head home until 8:30 pm PST. (A special thanks to the Moon Gypsies for entertaining us in Milwaukee until the governor's plane arrived.) When I did finally get back, my voice was gone and my feet were killing me.

We left the hotel very early Sunday, and the whole day was a flurry of talking to people, moving through crowds, getting checked through security several times, hauling things around, and finding my way in unfamiliar circumstances. Our environment was noisy, sometimes hot and stuffy, frequently close, rarely private, and filled with very busy people going in all directions.

I was worried it would be tiring, and I didn't get a single nap. Instead the trip on the Grassroots Express was energizing like few things I've ever experienced. I could barely bring myself to sleep Sunday night, even at one in the morning. It was one of the best times of my life, and I just wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Positive Attitudes

The staff and press were very courteous, and the flight attendants worked hard to keep the mood light. (Best of all, everybody was very indulgent of a probably too-often-underfoot blogger ;) The other guests and volunteers were sharing stories, talking about the experiences of the day, and enjoying the company of anyone else who had time to talk.

It was such a high pressure, time critical day, and it felt like several days. But I didn't see anyone at all taking out their stress on fellow travelers, no one being pushy or inflexible. Instead, everyone contributed in their own way to maintaining as pleasant and comfortable an environment as was possible.

Then the rallies were high-powered, even raucous. When I was writing my entries, I kept having to restrain myself from saying every time that the crowd 'went wild' or 'roared' repeatedly during the events, from saying over and over that the governor was as excited as they were.

But I was there, and they did go wild, they did roar. And the governor was as excited as they were.

What I Saw In Seattle

During the Seattle event I spent the last part of it standing up on a riser near a loudspeaker (all the better for my $20 tape recorder) and looking at the crowd. I couldn't see the governor from where I was standing, but I could see the faces of the crowd listening to him.

The vast majority of the faces I saw were hanging on every word. They were shouting, they were cheering like they were at a rock concert. They waved their Dean signs, some of them homemade, out in a part of the overflowing Westlake Plaza where the governor and the main press cameras couldn't see them. Many of them had been waiting there a long time, and they just didn't care.

I'll digress for a moment to say that the campaign stops taken in rapid succession can start to sound a bit alike. You get used to the speech pretty quickly, so the parts of the message that were geared to that particular event become easy to pick up. And about when the point came that Governor Dean usually wraps things up, something different happened.

When he thanked everyone for coming, doubtless overwhelmed by the crowd's energy and a day that had gotten better at every stop, he could hardly quit thanking them. The gratitude breaking through in his voice was impossible to miss. Unpolished, unplanned, unrestrained; the thousands who showed up to hear him speak returned the sentiment. They were electrified, and the noise was deafening.

Contagious Optimism

When I started this tour, my impression of the state of American politics was one that inclined me to despair. It seemed to me that not only were the politicians not listening, but that there were too many citizens who just didn't care.

But I talked to an awful lot of people who care a great deal, and who took the initiative to work on taking their country back. Bev Marcus, who introduced Governor Dean in Seattle, summed it up by saying that no one had needed to give her permission to work for Howard Dean.

I saw thousands of other people who cared enough to come to a presidential campaign rally on a beautiful summer weekend (the weather was clear and sunny at every stop.) And I heard someone running for office who talked like he's been listening to us, who knows our issues even if his answers aren't identical to ours.

People have said, including some people who are Democrats, that Howard Dean can't win because he has a negative message. But I saw a few thousand Dean supporters who seemed to think his message was very positive. By anyone's estimate, they were vocal about it.

I have a message for George W. Bush: Howard Dean is coming to town, and the American people are working to send you home to Crawford, Texas.

Posted by natasha at August 26, 2003 01:44 AM | TrackBack