My Report From St. Louis - Democratic Underground

Darkhawk32

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Oct-18-08 09:52 PM
Original message

My Report From St. Louis

First off, let me start with a little background. I am the father of two wonderful little girls; sweet, caring and hopeful. I try to teach them that government is supposed to be run by the people and for the benefit of every citizen. I've taken them to various rallies: Kerry at the Missouri State Capitol Building in 2004, Howard Dean in Columbia just a few weeks ago, among others, but nothing compares to what we observed, lived and experienced today.

On Thursday night, I got an email from the Obama Campaign that stated that Barack was going to be in St. Louis on Saturday afternoon. I live in Columbia which is a two-hour drive from the Gateway Arch. Needless to say, a decision to go to St. Louis on my constrained budget is not one I take lightly. But, I had a feeling that history was going to be made on November 4 and I wanted my girls to feel a part of that history. I wanted them to see what true patriotism is, what true caring and compassion for their fellow American sounds and looks like. I wanted my girls to know that people of all walks of life can get together and celebrate their common dreams and hopes. So this morning, I packed the kids into my Focus and off we went.

Along the way, we chanted "Obama! Obama!" and other similar sayings. We talked about what the girls thought the government was for and was pleased by their responses. "Daddy, government should help people stop being poor.", "It should help people go to the doctor." and "Help keep the streets clean." If only it would do that, right?

After what seemed like 276 versions of the question "Are we there yet?", we arrived in downtown St. Louis. After parking the car at Union Station, we took the MetroLink to the station closest to the arch. After what seemed like forever, we traversed the thousands that were already gathered near Laclede's Landing. Once we arrived near the Arch, I was absolutely stunned by the turnout. I texted a friend that there had to be 100,000 people there at the very least. I never managed to get close to the stage, especially with two little ones in tow nor did I even get a good look from a far. Once in a while, a six-foot four-inch man would move his head and I'd get a look at him from very far away.

As a member of DU and peruser of other blogs and such, I've heard the campaign stump speeches many times and was not surprised by what he said. But what I was surprised by was the attentiveness of the crowd, the smiles, the tears, the politeness and true desire for change. There was not a single negative utterance made by anybody that I heard and the girls and I wandered around quite a bit.

The only person on the other side of the political spectrum that I saw was a man wearing stop sign reading "Stop Abortion, No Obama". Not one single person raised their voice, made fun or even looked at the person cross-eyed. After the speech, the girls and I waited a few minutes as people slowly made their way away from the Arch. We meandered our way to the stage and took in the atmosphere. We waved "Hi" to the staffers, police, Senator Claire McCaskill and even the Secret Service agents. Eventually, the agents started telling people that the event was over and asked everyone to leave.

On our way out of the area, we ran into the man with the stop sign again and this time, he was in a conversation with a couple of Obama supporters. I stood there and watched as my girls were doing cartwheels and round-offs. It was a cordial exchange, no name-calling, no yelling or screaming but rather a "Let's work together to reduce the number of abortions...." and it ended quite pleasantly with a handshake. I don't think anybody's minds were changed but it's certainly a dichotomy from the reports of McCain/Palin rallies over the past few weeks. Needless to say, I was very proud to be a Democrat on this day.