| Well, the flight was uneventful on Saturday morning, and the public transit system isn't all that bad. I'm staying with my beloved's aunt, who lives in Denver, and is a Colorado State Representative. Mucho savings on hotel and transportation, plus she and her husband are just bang-up folks. We didn't do anything convention-related on Saturday, but we did manage to go dancing at the Turnervein, a really cool dance venue near the capitol building. Denver has a lovely capitol building (that is sadly closed to the public during the convention, or I'd have toured it), but I think I prefer Austin's...I'm totally biased.
Today, we went to Faith In Action, an interfaith service that was the first of its kind. It was amazing. More after the flip. |
| The CEO of the Convention is Leah D. Daughtry, who happens to be a Reverend as well. She arranged for this kickoff, the first of its kind at a DNC gathering. A powerful and moving speaker, she opened up by telling us that faith doesn't need to be brought to the Democratic Party because it's already here, and has always been there.
The structure of the event was to have an opening litany, with four religious leaders of different faiths, then Leah's opening speech that I referenced above. They had readings from the Torah, the Sutra Nipata, the Qur'an, and the Bible. After each reading, there were speeches/sermons about "Our Sacred Responsibility to Our..." Children, Neighbor, Nation, and World. Each speaker chose how to represent their views, but in such a diverse setting, they did a masterful job of appealing to everybody in the room. It was how faith touched their politics, shaped their activities, and altered the course of not only their lives, but their works.
This was the first time I ever saw Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, and she had me floored. She mentioned that the speakers today were given no guidelines, were not restricted at all in what they were able to say. She was celebrating that she was in a party that allowed for all the voices to be heard, even the ones we don't always agree with. She railed against the Death Penalty, and made my heart ache when she brought up that Texas has three observation rooms for the death chambers -- one for the press/legal folks, one for the family of the victim, and one for the family of the condemned. She was nearly in tears describing this, and as tears slid from my eyes, I was quietly ashamed that my home state has such an abysmal record in capital punishment. She told us that on the street, it's said that "Them that don't have the capital get the punishment."
I didn't know what to expect of the service, but I was glad to be there. What a way to start off the convention!
I pick up my Big Tent credentials in the morning, so I have to get my butt to bed. I'll try to blog about some of the parties later (including the one we crashed accidentally tonight!).
Denver is a great town, and I am really looking forward to the next few days. |
