Some photos from the March 4 Our Lives (Monday 7-25-16) and some commentary from Ohio Bernie delegates Barb McMillen and Dennis Slotnick...
Thoughts on the DNC
by Barb McMillen, Bernie delegate Ohio 5th congressional district
Was watching the DNC last night and the tapes from the day before and started to think that the problem with the DNC goes beyond what we talk about - money, corruption, keeping people out. I took pride in being a Democrat my entire life. I fought for Kennedy, and Obama, Johnson, Robert Kennedy, Carter.
The party itself is also made up of civil rights superstars and the convention itself is filled with people the party has advocated for - people with disabilities, poverty, absent social justice. So why did the parade of the vulnerable bother me? Why was my pride and spirit not raised?
So I began to think about the super stars - Barney Frank, Lewis,
Cummings, the Clintons, whomever, and I wondered... They are all my age
or older. Their issues are issues that permeated and defined the
sixties. They made Change, were social and cultural warriors. They
formed a team, a group of warriors who bonded themselves to the cause.
Think about that. Fifty to sixty years dealing with social issues successfully?
They come to rely on each other, trust each other. They covet their
power to define what issues get covered, who is meaningful and whom is
not.
They became institutionalized. Though they continue to fight the good fight, they became a closed system. And they fail to see how the world has changed. They fail to see they have narrowed the field of interest by aging commitments. The tower is no longer a tree. All fluidity is absent. The focus is to keep us going. And exclusion rather than inclusion becomes increasingly the order of the day.
So, here we are today. Corporatism is not an issue despite its ties to the party structure. Black Lives Matter is not an issue because All Lives Matter since we've been recognizing and handling civil rights issues for years. And the money we were grateful for to keep us going has become the money we demand to keep us going.
The danger of this
televised truly Orwellian evangelical parade of the saved--disabled,
women, people of color that marches across the screen like Jerry
Lewis's Muscular Dystrophy patients--is that all these wonderful people
have become the "objects" of the Dems intention and the visual proof of
the demonstrable power they have to save you.
They are all too invested. They need to find a way to become inclusive and alive to new issues. They are like that line from Fitzgerald describing Gatsby himself: "He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty."
An update from Delegate Dennis Slotnick, Ohio 5th congressional district
I cant believe I am at the same convention that the press was. Don't trust anything on the mass media. It's all stacked against Bernie. He was not booed this Monday afternoon. His comment was about supporting Hillary but that was not booing him. The crowd was not raucous. It was loving and energized and calmly and deeply appreciative of him. He did not struggle to get the attention to start speaking. He was humbly recognizing our reception.
There as no unruly outbursts at all. There was no contention.There was some disagreement, but not chaos as media has suggested. More later.
They became institutionalized. Though they continue to fight the good fight, they became a closed system. And they fail to see how the world has changed. They fail to see they have narrowed the field of interest by aging commitments. The tower is no longer a tree. All fluidity is absent. The focus is to keep us going. And exclusion rather than inclusion becomes increasingly the order of the day.
So, here we are today. Corporatism is not an issue despite its ties to the party structure. Black Lives Matter is not an issue because All Lives Matter since we've been recognizing and handling civil rights issues for years. And the money we were grateful for to keep us going has become the money we demand to keep us going.
The danger of this
televised truly Orwellian evangelical parade of the saved--disabled,
women, people of color that marches across the screen like Jerry
Lewis's Muscular Dystrophy patients--is that all these wonderful people
have become the "objects" of the Dems intention and the visual proof of
the demonstrable power they have to save you. They are all too invested. They need to find a way to become inclusive and alive to new issues. They are like that line from Fitzgerald describing Gatsby himself: "He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty."
An update from Delegate Dennis Slotnick, Ohio 5th congressional district
I cant believe I am at the same convention that the press was. Don't trust anything on the mass media. It's all stacked against Bernie. He was not booed this Monday afternoon. His comment was about supporting Hillary but that was not booing him. The crowd was not raucous. It was loving and energized and calmly and deeply appreciative of him. He did not struggle to get the attention to start speaking. He was humbly recognizing our reception.
There as no unruly outbursts at all. There was no contention.There was some disagreement, but not chaos as media has suggested. More later.
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| Beautiful chalk art outside of FDR Park |
Protesters at the fence leading to the Wells Fargo convention area.
"Bernie" marches with us!
Protesting the Confederate (Mississippi state) flag hanging along Broad Street.
