Travis's blog 8/24/2008

Greetings from Denver!!!!

I have arrived for this historic convention in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I will be keeping all those back in Kentucky informed on my experience over the next six days.

In a very interesting way to begin my trip, my first encounter that spurred interest came actually at the Midway airport in Chicago. As I found a place to wait out a short layover, I saw people watching the news that Barrack Obama had chosen Veteran Senator Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential Candidate. A woman sitting nearby proclaimed “Biddin’ and Obama just sounds scary.” I was quick to tell her it is pronounced Biden. She looked puzzled, as if the name had never come across her. Then I told her he has been in the Senate for 35 years and had run for President in 1988. She seemed to not care, all she saw was some reference to Osama Bin Ladin with her pronunciation of Obama and Biden.

While this does not surprise me, as much of the electorate in this country is oblivious to politics, but this woman was sitting there looking over law books. It is sad that people can be that ignorant about events that can shape the future of not only their own life, but also the country as a whole, and possibly the world.

The conversation continued as she exclaimed that the only things that concerned her about this election, was for the country to continue to provide safety from the “Dangerous Way of Life in the Middle East” and to not allow the government to continue to take her money away.

These two points need to be addressed separately. First, the Middle East. The conception that the Middle East is a barbaric culture that is backwards and dangerous is entirely false. Over the years, many people have socially constructed the notion of Western Elitism. My issue is that while there have been a select group of Radical Extremists that have caused harm to the world; it is not a majority at all. Edward Said has documented this misconception in a great book I could recommend called Orientalism. I was introduced to this literature in Dr. Kiasatpour in his Politics of the Middle East Class (It is highly recommended).

The second issue is one that must be looked at very carefully. People that do not follow politics closely or prescribe to a personal ideology tend to end up voting with their pocket book. The average person, and one cannot blame them, tend to look at things in a very personal and short term way. So ultimately, they are looking for a quick fix to their own economic issues. Here is my problem with this, it is true that low taxes will allow for people to take more of their money home with them, but if the Federal and State governments begin to hit economic crisis, as they seem to be, programs that have helped the well being of these same people will begin to crumble and ultimately be cut. The money saved from lower taxes, cannot allow for personal funding of things such as Local Infrastructure, Affordable Child Care, Affordable Health Care with programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

This occurrence put me in the mood for the rest of my trip and I had yet to even cross the Mississippi River yet.

As far as our first day in Denver, I noticed that security is out in a big way. It appeared that there was a police officer on every corner and two on most. The city is vibrant, ready for a great convention, and also prepared to for whatever protests or riots that have been seen at Conventions of the past. However, I am an optimist, I am ready for a great and historical convention that will lead the Democratic Party to retake our country for the electorate and working people and elect Barrack Obama as the President of the United States.

TM