Stories from the line

While waiting in line for Barack Obama's appearance at CSU yesterday, I stood directly in front of a guy who was arrested at
the '68 DNC in Chicago, and I was directly behind a woman
who went to this year's DNC in Denver. (Perfect juxtaposition,
come to think of it.) And though I didn't attend either event, I was within five to 60 miles of each of them.

Chicago DNC, 1968:






















Denver DNC, 2008:





















And Sunday night I watched "The Shoes of the Fisherman" again (made in 1968, BTW), and was struck by the similarities -- at first, the newsreel of the thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square in Rome, the shots of the massive crowd in Denver, and the throng I was in. And then I was struck by the affirmative roar of the crowd at the end of the movie when Anthony Quinn, the new (Ukrainian) pope, pledges the wealth of the Vatican to feed the world's hungry, and how it echoed with Obama's plan (that he reiterated today) to
re-grow our country's wealth from the bottom up, while calling upon everyone with resources to help. Again, this is the very essence of servant leadership and mutual responsibility, and also what
State Rep. (D) John Kefalas described by quoting Jim Hightower:
"We all do better when we all do better."
(And John is one man who is destined to work with Obama.)

Nine days till Christmas... -- KT