My Report from the 2004 Texas Democrats Convention

The Convention was incredible! Exciting, fascinating, informative, fun...Not only were 70-80% of the delegates and alternates in attendance NEWBIES, there were also folks ranging in age from 18 to at least 70-80 -- maybe even older -- all of whom were extremely motivated to get rid of Bush, whatever it takes. Many Kucinich supporters of all ages, from all parts of Texas, too! Probably would've been more delegates signed in for Kucinich, but technicalities required you to sign in for Kerry if you wanted to vote for the delegates who would go on to the National Convention. Well, I came to support Kucinich, so that's who I signed in for...

I arrived in Houston just after the Kucinich Caucus, and got my credentials. I was able to attend the Progressive Populist and Peace and Justice caucuses on Friday, both of which were great! Lost my credentials somewhere between the Peace and Justice Caucus room at the far SE corner of the 3rd floor, and the display area at the far NW corner of the 1st floor -- as far apart as they could possibly be. They eventually gave me new ones, but they weren't happy about it.

The Travis County (Austin and surrounds) Caucus was quite large, and we elected many, if not mostly, progressive folks to the various committees (resolutions, platform, rules, etc.) and also many progressive delegates to the National Convention.

Edwards really ignited the crowd with his speech Friday night. The longtime Dem. Party folks were so blown away -- they really weren't expecting the level of enthusiasm that people had. It seems the Dem. Party in Texas is really being rejuvenated (thanks in part to all of Kucinich's and Dean's dedicated supporters). I predict we'll turn this red state blue -- maybe not this year, but soon!

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Part of the presentation on Friday night was a slide show of all the fallen 'heroes' of Iraq and Afghanistan from Texas, with name, rank, age, and city of origin. When the slide show started, it was accompanied by "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," but the sound was funky, and only every other note was coming out, so they shut down the sound.

Then people all around the convention floor started singing it. I'm not usually one that appreciates patriotic fanfare, folderol, and so on, but the incredible beauty of all the soft voices from all over the convention floor singing "mine eyes have seen the glory..." was eerily chilling, and coupled with the extremely sad visuals of all those young boys and girls who died for a lie had me and many others nearly sobbing. It was so moving!

There were parties Friday night hosted by the fantastic, beautiful and oh-so smart Sheila Jackson Lee (who surprised me when she walked right up to me and introduced herself) and a crawfish boil put on by Texas Senator Rodney Ellis and the brave US Congressman Chris Bell (the one who has brought the ethics charges against Delay).

Saturday morning, Kucinich came and greeted his supporters, gave a rousing mini-speech, signed many autographs and he even shook my hand (woo-hoo! ).

Then the Convention reconvened, and we greeted all the Killer D's with much enthusiasm and support; then Kucinich came out and gave such an amazingly rousing speech (he really impressed those who have not been made very aware of him prior to now - no thanks to the corporate-controlled media). Then hours and hours and hours of speeches by every pol in the vicinity, while the resolutions and platform committees were upstairs working out their respective tasks. Standing, sitting, clapping, cheering, waving signs...it was exciting, but also quite tiring - my ears even got tired! But it was all for such a good cause -- the return of democracy to America.

At around 5, we heard the gist of the new Texas platform. Oh my god, it is about as good as it can be! When it gets published on the website, I highly suggest sending the link to it along with the link to the Texas Republicans' ridiculous new platform to anyone you know who isn't yet convinced which way to vote in November! I am so proud of the platform committee and what an inclusive the new platform they've developed!

Then we started voting on resolutions (some of the ones not able to be handled by the resolutions committee in the 7 hours they spent working them out). I was so impressed by the chairman -- Bob Slagle. He seemed to do everything in his power to make sure that nothing was shut down at this stage of the process. We passed Kucinich's resolution to create a department of Peace, a Medical Marijuana resolution, a resolution to place a moratorium on the death penalty, and many other progressive resolutions. There was a large contingent of bikers also in attendance as delegates, and we even passed a resolution that they had brought forward.

All in all, it was an amazing experience!