Janie and I decided to walk the four blocks from our 7th Street home in downtown Saint Paul, and welcome the visitors to our fine, economically stagnant backwater. Among other things, we wanted to invite them to enjoy all the empty retail spaces that were temporarily filled to look like viable businesses during their stay. Naively perhaps, I envisioned beig able to go right up to the doors of the hockey arena and get to know our fellow Americans.
I guess not. Rightly or wrongly, the Republicans consider the public far too dangerous to welcome in. Granted there was probably a bit of security surrounding the Democratic National Convention, but when John McCain accepts the nomination tonight, I don't think it will be before the eyes of tens of thousands of average Joes. It's a private party, and it's been a private party for the last eight years.
Let's digress here. A few years ago, Janie had the privelege of cornering then Saint Paul mayor Norm Coleman about snow being piled into the curb cuts. He said "I'm glad you brought that up . . . " and launched into all he was doing to ensure access to all citizens. I guess he didn't remember to pass her concerns along to his fellow Republicans - be aware of the value of curb cuts at this event.
Anyway.
Not daunted, I suggested we go around to the other side. Maybe the entrance was over there.
We followed a route marked by 8 1/2 X 11 sheets directing us to the West 7th Neighborhood.
There was a diversion or two here and there, but we persisted, until finally we had arrived at the other side, where we were greeted with . . .
We continued following the signs, which took us almost all the way up the hill to the cathedral, by the pizza place down 7th Street, around and down onto Shepard road by the river, and back up by the Union Depot. At the end of the day, it takes an hour and forty-five minutes to walk around this little tent of a fort that has been erected in our community.
And while the party leadership is focused on talking to the loyal within this little tent, we on the outside are still getting information on the Republican party, only it's being delivered by persons who are having a bit of trouble staying on message.
Unless you can get in to hear the kinder and gentler party line - why is it the Democratic party never needs to promise "to be kinder and gentler?" - you get the message that is available in places they don't bother to go.
This is the first post I'll be doing about the Republican National Convention. Our balcony overlooks the street leading to the hockey arena where the event was held, 4 blocks away.
The next post in this series, with photos and video of the protest marches, can be viewed by clicking here. By the way, we saw no marchers in support of the RNC. None. (Well, there was the one guy holding his "gay Obama is a murderer" sign . . .
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Comments: 31
I can't believe how down and dirty the Republicans really are.
Thanks for putting the pictures and words together so well for us!
Prime Donna, all can see my post, all can comment on my post. Thank you for sharing it with others.
Thank you, Jim. I know it sometimes feels like a police state right now, but on balance I thought they did a pretty good job. That's just my opinion of course. I might feel differently if I was one of the 800+ persons who were arrested.
Those posters implying Obama is gay are disturbing for a lot of reasons. There is so much negativity about gays and lesbians that it is hard to voice objections to the posters without dishonoring good people who happen to be gay. Maybe these accusations are the Republican's 'swiftboat' tactics for this election. Any lie that works to win an election is fine with some Republicans.
Recognizing the security issues, does this mean no delegates required accessibility features? If so, did the delegates represent the US citizenry?
St. Paul and Minneapolis are diverse populations. I also noticed little evidence of that in other coverage of the event. It makes me wonder how much the candidates from this convention can represent the country.
As for Coleman, every time I ask him/his office a question I, indeed, receive a reply, which is commendable. But the reply is always a list of self-accolades highlighting what the senator has done "for me." I'm not dissing him - I think he tries to do a good job and would give him credit for distancing himself from Bush if it proved to be a permanent distance. (That doesn't mean I'm voting for him!)
Debra makes an excellent point about diversity. My husband told me how low the percentage of registered African-American Republicans is - which is very, very low but the exact number escapes me at the moment - and definitely not representative of the percentage of African-American people living in the Twin Cities.
This just furthers my resolve thank you Ron and Jane.
Prima Donna, the "lie" I really don't like is their attempt to co-opt the mantle of change. If they were for change, they wouldn't be called conservatives.
Debra, I'm sure delegates with access needs had them met. It was the landscape outside the fort walls that was disrupted with no thought given to access.
Diana, I just loathe Coleman. He will do and say whatever is politically expedient from what I can tell. I would love to see Al Franken in the Senate; talk about someone with wits - perfectly able to think on his feet and give the right answer it takes the rest of us days to arrive at. . . .
Thank you Nippy, Sheila, Selene.
Sharon, we - liberals, Democrats, whatever - we don't have a script and as Americans who take our patriotism to heart, we honor our right to disagree. This gets out of hand though. Some of us may disagree on Obama (maybe), but we'll never get what we want if we keep sending our worst nightmares back to Washington for another power orgy.
Lisa, the signs were pretty disgusting, yes.
"What did you expect, an open house? Do you think John McCain planted or even
knew about that Obama gay sign? He knew before he rolled the 7 blocks he
wasn't going to get in or close. He went a long way to capture that "DRAMA"!
I'll bet he was really on the fence about voting also."
"this is self-pitying BS "
This from a minnesotan
-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Halloran
Sent: Sep 5, 2008 10:10 AM
To: dickt@nect.com
Subject: Re: Proud to be an American
800 arrested.
dickt@com wrote:
>The protests were significant and received no coverage.
Next they'll confine sex to "Erogenous Zones."
I already feel we have Erogenous Zones, in that sex is by and large supposed to be carried out behind closed doors, and we all walk around with clothes on regardless of how hot it is out. As Frank Zappa said, "Don't kid yourself; everyone in here is wearing a uniform." : )
Ted, thank you. I have been known to say some pretty obnoxious things when it comes to politics. I've tried to scale it back, for one thing I no longer use the word "fascist" if I can help it (even though Hitler outlawed abortion and was not exactly a champion of gays, minorities or women). So, I know how your friend feels. It's hard to not have a brain fart when discussing politics.