DNC Day 4 Report From the Streets

Wednesday August 28th- The forth day of the DNC was very loud but peaceful. Many events were happening as Barack Obama finally arrived into town." The biggest celebrity in the world," as he has been called by some, stayed quiet most of the day where many people and police stood ground at the front of his hotel.

The day started on the 16th street mall which is the central ground of downtown. 16th Street mall was packed with everyone from supporters to performers, and of course anti abortion/anti gay groups. As I came upon the first anti abortion group I walked up the line of activists where they were holding signs talking about abortion. By the time I had gotten closer to the guy with the mega phone yelling about his anti abortion speech I came upon a situation. The man with the mega phone was holding a sign that said " Barack Obama" at the top. In the middle of the sign was an aborted baby's severed head. The bottom simply read, " Change This". A young man in his 20's was very upset with what was going on and removed his shirt to stand in front of the picture and use it as a censor. The young man was almost in tears at times and as the man with the mega phone spoke of the picture the young man yelled out to women and children walking by to not "look at this picture." Many people were getting into yelling matches with the anti abortion activists, where police lingered near by. Just down the street a little were some anti gay activists where much of the same situation was unfolding. A group in protest of the messages simply stood in front of the sign that said " homo sex is a sin" and chanted " Obama, Obama...". The whole scene of all this lead me to want to get away and gave me a horrible felling inside. Free speech is of course what our country was founded upon but it was still concerning on a personal level for me.

Next I lingered up into Recreate 68 territory where the presence was very small. After I realized that a huge rally about 8 miles from inter downtown was underway, I started head that way. On my way there I got word that the rally at the Denver Collisium, where Rage Against the Machine had just finished playing their show, had just let out and a group of about 12,000 people led by 50 to 100 war veterans were leading a rally 8 miles down to the Pepsi Center. I started to head uptown to try to find the mass, but was mostly about 1 mile behind them the whole time. Finally after walking about 5 miles myself I was able to locate them where they had reached the Pepsi Center close in proximity. To get to the protesters I had to walk through a huge police state who were concerned the protesters might get violent. The "anti war" protesters came in peace and wanted to march by the Pepsi Center where the events for the evening were just getting underway. The huge line of protesters were able to negotiate to the police several times to keep inching closer and closer. Once the crowd had finally reached the limit to how close they could get, we got word that Barack Obama had heard of all the protesters. The war veterans, who were dressed fully in their gear and who also lead the rally the whole way, had secured a meeting with Obama and his staff to negotiate how they can accommodate them and the other 12,000 into the "Obama Platform". Shorty after the crowd was told to disperse, and they did just that. Clearing a path first for the war vets as they marched out of crowd and getting applause as they went. The protesters considered the march a success and were happy they finally were able to make the connection to Obama and gang,

After the sun dropped into the Rocky Mountains it was all celebration from there, where mostly everyone in the city was finally figuring out how to get along. Everyone tuned into the Biden speech where he mostly spoke of lifetime stories to inspire the American people. With all eyes on the last day of the convention, the stage is set for one final bang. Recreate 68 is still calling off the truce between them and police. Anti war activist went home with a glimmer of hope that Obama may really care about the American peoples interest, but wont let up for the final day. Obama and gang were treated to what most consider another solid night of speeches, but all of them know that tomorrow will be the true night for their candidate. Stay Tuned.