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--Seriously? Aborted-fetus placards outside the stadium entrance? That's really what you're going with? Could you possibly be any more tacky?
--The event itself was uplifting and wonderful, and remarkably well-ordered for something involving that many people that was obviously thrown together in the space of a day or three. We didn't make it early enough to get a seat in the hall, but they put the overflow in the stadium and live-fed the event to the Jumbotron there. And while I was disappointed not to see the President's speech in person, there was something undeniably special about watching it in real-time with a crowd of thousands.
--There was also something undeniably interesting about seeing all these faces whom I normally only see in photos on Slate.com actually moving around and talking. Attorney General Eric Holder sounded almost exactly as I would have imagine. Jan Brewer, on the other hand, not so much...and honestly, I felt like her speech had a smarmy tinge to it. But I realize that could just be my personal biases talking.
--Which doesn't stop me from indulging in a certain amount of schadenfreude when comparing the fairly tame applause she got with the wild cheers Janet Napolitano elicited (along with calls of "We miss you, Janet!), just afterward.
--The line (I can't recall who said it - Hernandez maybe?) about how "Saturday we all became Tucsonans, we all became Arizonans" stuck with me. Possibly because I'd had that exact thought - somehow this was the first time I'd actually seriously thought of myself as being an Arizonan, rather than just a displaced Alaskan.
--Daniel Hernandez's speech was touching in its earnestness. I guess these days, getting the seat next to the President and getting to talk on national TV is the equivalent of being gifted the key to the city.
--Obama's speech was excellent, more or less as expected. And while I'm cynical enough not to believe it will have a lasting effect (adversarialism just seems too engrained into human nature), I appreciate both the truth of it and his sincerity in saying it. I just wish more people engaged in the endless shit-stirring that is our government would stop and listen.
I took some pictures of the crowd, so I may put those up later. But for now I wanted to get down the impressions while they were fresh. Many thanks to Niki for driving us from SV to Tucson and back - gas saved aside, the company made the trip a lot shorter than it would otherwise have been.
--The event itself was uplifting and wonderful, and remarkably well-ordered for something involving that many people that was obviously thrown together in the space of a day or three. We didn't make it early enough to get a seat in the hall, but they put the overflow in the stadium and live-fed the event to the Jumbotron there. And while I was disappointed not to see the President's speech in person, there was something undeniably special about watching it in real-time with a crowd of thousands.
--There was also something undeniably interesting about seeing all these faces whom I normally only see in photos on Slate.com actually moving around and talking. Attorney General Eric Holder sounded almost exactly as I would have imagine. Jan Brewer, on the other hand, not so much...and honestly, I felt like her speech had a smarmy tinge to it. But I realize that could just be my personal biases talking.
--Which doesn't stop me from indulging in a certain amount of schadenfreude when comparing the fairly tame applause she got with the wild cheers Janet Napolitano elicited (along with calls of "We miss you, Janet!), just afterward.
--The line (I can't recall who said it - Hernandez maybe?) about how "Saturday we all became Tucsonans, we all became Arizonans" stuck with me. Possibly because I'd had that exact thought - somehow this was the first time I'd actually seriously thought of myself as being an Arizonan, rather than just a displaced Alaskan.
--Daniel Hernandez's speech was touching in its earnestness. I guess these days, getting the seat next to the President and getting to talk on national TV is the equivalent of being gifted the key to the city.
--Obama's speech was excellent, more or less as expected. And while I'm cynical enough not to believe it will have a lasting effect (adversarialism just seems too engrained into human nature), I appreciate both the truth of it and his sincerity in saying it. I just wish more people engaged in the endless shit-stirring that is our government would stop and listen.
I took some pictures of the crowd, so I may put those up later. But for now I wanted to get down the impressions while they were fresh. Many thanks to Niki for driving us from SV to Tucson and back - gas saved aside, the company made the trip a lot shorter than it would otherwise have been.