John Kerry in Akron, OH (Sept. 6)
I saw John Kerry speak in Akron, OH on Sept. 4 2004. The rally was held at Firestone Stadium and I heard about it when listening to NPR. Tickets were free on the internet and my mother-in-law practically forced us to go. Not that I'm bitter. I like John Kerry and all but I started to wonder if I wanted to stand in the middle of a baseball field all morning with threats of rain and thunder storms. But really... did I have anything better to do?
We left around 9:00 in the morning and headed downtown. We don't live that far from the stadium so it only took us about 5 minutes to get there. Kerry was supposed to speak at 10:30 but the gates were closing at 10:00. I wanted to get some photography in, knowing that there would be plenty of protesters and funny signs and t-shirts, so we went a little early.
As we neared the stadium, we started seeing signs saying "$10 Parking Here". This shocked me. We both looked at each other thinking the same thing, "Maybe we should just go home." We finally drove past the stadium and noticed why they were charging for parking, the parking lot of the stadium was closed and being used as a large security checkpoint. We drove down Firestone Boulevard and got to Firestone Park and parked in their parking lot, which was free. It was also a half mile from the stadium. But we're in good shape and it let us walk through the protesters, vendors and traffic. And it saved us ten bucks.
Aside. Everything in Akron is called Firestone. This can get very confusing. There's Firestone Stadium, that's off Firestone Parkway. If you take Firestone Boulevard from Firestone Stadium you get to Firestone Park where the boulevard forks into Firestone North and Firestone South. This shouldn't be confused with Firestone Metro Park which is actually over near Firestone Country Club. Now that that's out of the way...
So we walked down Firestone Boulevard from Firestone Park past unusually opulent homes. You don't see a lot of nice houses in Akron unless you go looking for them. Most of what you drive by, and most of what people will see driving through town, are the low income houses with old faded plastic siding and overgrown lawns. Actually driving on some of the freeways, you'll see actual burned out houses with black smoke stains on the siding that have just never been repaired. If the city looks like a waste land when you drive through, that's only because it is.
Nearing the stadium, you could hear music from a band called the North Coast Trio. At first I didn't think it was a band playing, I just figured they were piping some music out over the speakers, but as you got closer you could tell it was live. They were playing BNL and U2. They were actually pretty good, especially the bassist.
Bush supporters were out on South Main St., although not many. I always think of Akron, and Ohio in general, as pretty Republican type of places; stodgy, a little backward, and losing lots of jobs. Considering that, there really weren't many Bush supporters out there. There where plenty of religious right with their abortion pictures though. That didn't surprise me.
My favorite Bush supporters were the Flip Floppers. Two people actually came wearing giant flip flops and it was hilarious. These two had probably spent the whole night working on these costumes, large foam rubber ovals with large straps on them, one saying Kerry Flips and the other saying Kerry Flops. It's not This Land Is Your Land, but I still respect them for it. Well, as much as you can respect two giant flip flops.
We started heading into the security check line and it was around this time that I noticed it was getting really hot. I had brought a jacket thinking it was going to rain. By 9:15 in the morning, I was sweating. It was only about 75 degrees but 100% humidity.
I now want to explain something for those that don't live in the Ohio rain forest. I didn't say "like 100% humidity". I said 100% humidity. Akron, OH it seems, is one of those strange places where you don't have to be drowning to have the air holding 100% water. 100% humidity makes it very hot when it's only 75 degrees out. Especially when there's no breeze to speak of.
There were about 10 security lines and manning each line were two, what I can only assume, Secret Service agents examining carry items and one police officer from Maryland manning the metal detector. Why from Maryland? I don't know, I've always found it safe to not ask questions during security checks. Basically, you walked up with all of your metal objects in hand, gave them to the Secret Service guys walked through the metal detector and got your stuff back after they gave it the once over. It was actually a lot faster than airport security, and it seemed more thorough.
So I get up there with my phone, camera, batteries, and spare memory card. The guy presses some buttons on the phone, looks at the batteries, and then asks me to turn the camera on. I turn it on, take his picture and show it to him. He looks at it, looks at me and says "Did you just take my picture?"
This wasn't a question.
I say "Yes, do you want me to delete it?" He stares. I delete it and walk through.
I want to add that I was shaking after that. You might think I'm a wimp, but you also didn't nearly get beat up by an angry rhinoceros. Needless to say, I don't have the picture.
The rally began with a lot of talk of labor unions. Akron is what is usually called a Blue Collar Town. A lot of manufacturing jobs are what made this town. Back in the industrial days, people would come from all over to work at Akron's factories; Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, etc. There's actually an old joke that illustrates this, What's the capitol of West Virginia? ... Akron! Yeah, I know, real funny.
Anyway, there are a lot of unions in town that are supporting Kerry, Teamsters, teacher's unions, metal worker's unions and all of them seemed to be there that day. There were a lot of people with union shirts on and the head of the AFL-CIO was one of the speakers.
Of course, I rarely knew who was speaking as I was a White Ticket holder. The rally was held in a baseball stadium with the stage in the infield and the speakers facing the outfield. There where three levels of tickets, Gold Tickets were the privileged group, probably big contributors and die hard supporters. They sat in the stands behind home plate. They could be counted on to cheer the most. Since the press cameras were on the first to second base line, they would be behind Kerry for any pictures taken. Then there were the Blue Ticket holders. They were also in the stands, but off to the side, and with no shade. Then there were the White Ticket holders. We were the unwashed masses, and it smelled like it as the day went on. We were regulated to the outfield and fenced into a small enclosure with only one Port-o-Let. Considering there were about 12,000 (I've seen a couple of numbers on this, some say 20,000, some say 10,000, I'm going with 12,000, just because) of us, one Port-o-Let for three hours wasn't cutting it. Also from out there, you couldn't see the stage, the band, or the speakers unless you pushed your way up to the front, and it was way to hot to be touching anyone. Every once in a while, as heads moved or people in front slumped over from the heat, I caught a glimpse of someone on stage, and that was enough for me.
Then there were the support personnel; snipers were positioned on the roof above the Gold Ticket holders, police would walk around the outfield looking for ... mischief, paramedics where helping heatstroke victims, and there were quite a few, mostly elderly. Secret service were about. You could tell because they were the only ones crazy enough to wear ill-fitting, black suits.
Now, I can't say I caught everyone's name that spoke. There were actually quite a few people who spoke before Kerry even ever got there, most Democrats running for something in Akron elections. There were some memorable quotes but I couldn't really tell you who said them. One was "While Elephants in New York dine on caviar and champagne, we have to live on peanuts." The same guy, while talking about Bush's statements on how he was committed to Iraq, said, "If you look at a chicken and a pig, and then a plate of ham and eggs, you can tell the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed." I think this analogy flew over most peoples heads. My wife turned to me and said, "So, did he just call Bush a chicken and Kerry a pig?" I said, "No, he's calling our troops pigs, I think. But yes, Bush is a chicken." I'm not even sure if that's right anymore, but whatever.
Afterwards, Eric Fingerhut pulled a Dean. I couldn't see him but I can only assume he ran out onto the stage and grabbed the microphone and yelled, nay screamed, "I'm Eric Fingerhut and I'm going to be your next U.S. Senatooooooooooooor!!" He then went on with, "I say finger, you say hut!" And then the whole crowd, excluding me and my wife as we were too busy staring at each other, went on to yell hut when he yelled finger. I kid you not. This really happened. I was immediately shocked and embarrassed to be a part of this. I knew this guy was a little crazy as he had walked from the Ohio River to Lake Erie, which to a certain degree is a noble act, but I think something happened on the way that made him think he was a high school cheerleader.
After his little personal pep rally, he went into his speech about how he's sure to win because of the walk. Now, again, I respect the walk. Getting out and meeting people, and being that dedicated to doing it, is good. But don't tell me you're going to win because you can walk farther than your opponent. Sore feet does not a Senator make.
He talked about how Ohio needs a change to get it's manufacturing jobs back and that's why Ohio's youth are leaving. No, it's not. Ohio's youth are leaving because there are only manufacturing jobs in Ohio and Ohio shouldn't be trying to get those back, those jobs are going over seas and they aren't coming back. Ohio can't sustain a manufacturing base and keep it's people above the poverty line. Of course, Akron lives on manufacturing and he might get votes by saying he'll bring the jobs back, but the jobs aren't coming back. And even if they do, they'll pay a lot less than they did before.
It was around this time that people started collapsing from heat stroke. There were a number of older people that were being helped out of the crowd by paramedics. These people looked very pale and you could tell that they didn't know where they were. It was kind of scary and considering it was only about 10:00, I was only going to get worse. It did, of course, but not as bad as I thought.
Next up was Tim Ryan. He was also crazy. It was around this time that I figured out that this is what a rally is supposed to be like. I'd never been to one before and I was hoping to hear about issues. Instead it was, duh, a pep rally. It was an event to get a bunch of Democrats together and whoop and holler. I was a little disappointed in general, but I guess that's why I had the White Ticket.
After him, a little girl sang God Bless America. When it first started, they were playing the national anthem music so everyone in the bleachers stood up and took their hats off. Then she started singing God Bless America and everyone looked around and decided to keep standing since everyone else was.
It was around this time that I started to notice that the Gold Ticket people had way more signs then they used to. Instead of one sign per every ten people, there were now about 1.3 signs per person. Some people actually had two signs and a little flag. Looking around the White Ticket area, I noticed we had more signs too and there were volunteers handing out more. On the actual ticket when we got them, it said that there would be no signs from home and now I saw it was because you needed to hold their signs. Some of the signs they were handing out really bothered me, too. They were handing "Teamsters for Kerry" signs out to little old ladies who were definitely not teamsters and "Firefighters for Kerry" to a couple of teenage girls. Is this how it's always done? It seems strangely dishonorable to me. I know that the teamsters might support Kerry, but don't act like there are teamsters in the crowd when there might not be.
Also most of the signs were given to the people up against the fence in front of us, so now what we could see before was blocked whenever the signs went up. Any attempt to see the speaker would be made that much harder.
Kerry's bus arrived around 10:45. I was told earlier that he would speak at 10:30 but I don't know how they were planning on fitting all of the speakers in the time they alloted. It was around this time the the President of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney, started talking. When they introduced him everyone was sure they were introducing John Kerry. "And now, I'd like to introduce John ... Sweeney!" Needless to say, John Sweeney got a very warm welcome.
John Sweeney actually had a lot of good things to say and he was a very persuasive speaker. You don't really realize how much the Bush administration has screwed up working class America until you hear it from the president of a large worker's union. I really wish these people would post their speech somewhere on the internet, but they don't so you'll just have to take my word for how good it was. Or not.
Then it was Kerry's turn. By this time everyone had a sign except me. I was to busy taking notes and pictures. He started his speech with a lot of local talk, like how he always wanted to run in the Soap Box Derby (Cheering), how great the burgers are at IDO (Cheering), and all that Rubber Capitol of the World stuff. I'm amazed he didn't mention how he listens to Devo on his plane trips.
He talked about how he wants drug shipments from Canada to be legal and how he wants the medicare drug bill to be recalled, as privatizing a major government function is a really bad idea when there's not a lot of forethought put into it, which I agree with. But, and here is my big problem with Kerry, he didn't vote on the medicare bill. Why not? Does he think that one vote doesn't matter? If you get elected by a group of people to represent them in the government, you better damn well vote on every issue on the floor, especially if you really believe in the issue at hand. He talks so much about healthcare and medicare, but he didn't even vote on it. I usually tell people that unless they vote, they aren't allowed to complain about who's president. They had their chance to have their voice heard and they let it go by, so shut up. If you're not going to stand up for what you believe in, then don't complain when things don't go your way.
Kerry made a point about there being nothing conservative about running up the national debt. The more I think about it, the more Bush embodies all of the bad points of Republicans and Democrats. He runs up huge debts to pay for a unneeded war while growing the government and at the same time making huge tax cuts, part of them, like the dividend tax cut, having nothing to do with stimulating the economy. I think this is why people see him as a puppet; no one man would think that doing all of these things at the same time was a good idea.
Kerry also talked about lower health care costs via several government programs. One would be a system where children entering public school would automatically get health care. Considering that 20% of uninsured people in America are children, this seems like a really good idea. If he can figure out how to cover the costs, I'm all for it.
Another was lower the cost of health care in general. This would save businesses money and help those business create jobs, either by hiring more people or using more services to grow the business. Of course he didn't mention many specifics.
He then talked about a program where college students who spend a large amount of their time volunteering would get a big discount or a free ride through college. Again, damn good idea if he can pull it off. It reminded me of something Bush proposed during the 2002 State of the Union Address, shortly after the 9/11 disaster. He said, "We want to be a nation that serves goals larger than self. We've been offered a unique opportunity, and we must not let this moment pass. My call tonight is for every American to commit at least two years -- 4,000 hours over the rest of your lifetime -- to the service of your neighbors and your nation." I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Here was a president that understood the value, to the individual and to the nation, of a volunteering public. Of course he was lying at the time. He later cut funding for Americorp and other volunteering programs and I thought he was a complete jerk for getting me all excited, but the idea still stuck in my head. I'm glad to see that someone is picking up the ball again. Hopefully he doesn't fumble it too.
Which brings me to a thought: Can you really back up anything you say during a speech? In writing, it's easy; you just point people to a bibliography or link them to the real facts. But when you're giving a speech which already takes two hours, can you really throw the facts and specifics in there with what you're saying, or do you just throw ideas at people and hope they shake their heads? I would hope most people went home and started checking up on what he was saying, but I doubt anyone did. I'm apt to write things down and reread them when I get home, which is another reason I wish people would post their speeches online. Actually, I was taking notes during the rally and an older gentleman came up to me and said, in a wry sort of way, "Are you gonna check up on him when you get home?" Well, yes. And I hope we all would. Since when did politics become a spectator sport? Am I just supposed to sit on the couch, randomly pick a team and then bad-mouth anyone that says my team sucks without ever really knowing what they did or what they stand for? Didn't Eve eat that God damned apple so that we wouldn't have to be ignorant anymore?
Anyway, Kerry talked about his plan for the future and how he had a book, A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, and his Plan on his website. I like that he posted all of this information on the web site and that it's really easy to get to and browse. Bush has the same idea, but I just feel like he's told us all this before and then actually did the opposite.
My general, overall impression was a good one. Kerry seemed articulate and had some good ideas that I mostly agree with. The only real problem I see is that he's a politician. If he can get over that, he'd get two thumbs up from me.
Well, after all of this, we went home. We left with the amps blaring Beautiful Day by U2, our clothing firmly stuck to our backs and a nice sun burn on our necks. Remind me to wear a hat next time. It was 12:00 by the time we got to our car. We got home and promptly feel asleep from exhaustion. To a certain degree, I hope another presidential candidate never come to Akron again. Or at least have the rally indoors with air conditioning.
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