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 It’s
11:07am, I’m at my house, and outside it’s bright,
sunny, and nice and breezy.
Ten hours later and I feel different about the world than
I did before. Somehow yesterday appears like a weird sci-fi
movie replaying in my head. It seems like one of those movies
you go to and wish you hadn’t, but yet I’m glad
for the experience. All of the interesting people I met
yesterday added a perspective to my life that I had not
seen before. Yesterday I went to the Republican National
Convention at Madison Square Garden.
Everyone from the Protesters down to the Conventioneers
seemed to have their own idea about what was going on in
the country, and how the Republican Party influenced it.
Growing up in America, I learned early that everyone has
different views. I never thought different views meant totally
different stories though. What struck me was, that each
one of the people I met during the convention fully believed
in what he or she was saying; yet I had no idea who was
right. Even though it’s not a journalist’s job
to define who is right and who is wrong, as a young adult
I would like to know the truth. I just want the facts, facts
that not one of the people I met yesterday could provide.
Every last one of them was deaf to the other’s perspective.
I guess they don’t agree with the old saying that
two heads are better than one.
When we arrived at the convention, a man walked by covered
in an American flag chanting that Bush and Cheney must go.
As I tried to get an interview with him, police shuffled
us abruptly down the street. By we, I mean Kody Emmanuel
and myself. (Kody is the adult advisor of journalism at
Harlem Live.) Tired of being treated like we were not citizens
of New York City, we decided to enter the Convention.
Just past the second checkpoint, Kody pointed out a colorfully
dressed old white lady who used a walker. She turned out
to be Margaret Ann Tabor, a delegate from Bowling Green,
Kentucky. Ms. Tabor, who also mentioned that she’d
been a delegate in the previous election, said that all
she did as a delegate was “…. be a leader”
and “…get sent special places.” The way
she put it, I wanted to be a delegate as well! After interviewing
Ms. Tabor, we proceeded towards the entrance. 
At the entrance, I was a little frightened by a dog that
snapped at the officer holding it and the machine beeping
when I went through it. My bag was searched and I had to
drink some of the water that I’d left in my bag. After
those experiences, we were in!
Once we finally went up to the sixth floor, the night really
took an interesting turn. While walking the floor outside
the actual convention area, I met a black woman also very
colorful in dress. I just could not resist talking to her
to find out why she was a Republican. After all, in the
past I’d heard of black Republicans in not so great
a light. Lucy “W,” from Haiti, who lives in
Western Florida, claimed that Bush saved her country from
a dictator, and gave her plenty over the last four years.
Lucy also affirmed that “she didn’t put any
mind to the protesters because they were empty in the brain.”
After walking around quite a bit more, we decided to leave
the convention for a moment and grab a bite to eat. After
eating, we couldn’t resist trying to find a few more
protesters. We did eventually find some Drag Queens with
signs held high containing slogans like “Bush is a
drag” and the “Republican potty stinks.”
Lady Simpson said that she/he was against Pres. Bush because
she thought he was a terrible president who’d lied
to America, and that he was a creep. Simpson also remarked
on the convention attendees saying “more power to
them.” She/he just wished they weren’t in New
York because, as she/he said, “we don’t need
em.”
Along the way, I also met the most hostile Jewish people
I’ve ever seen. The minute I mentioned WBAI the man
I had decided to interview overstepped his bounds. WBAI
is a public radio station that helped get Kody and me into
the Republican National Convention. I’ll admit, I
didn’t know that WBAI headlined the Palestinian cause
until after Kody told me; but regardless, the wise crack
one of them made by calling WBAI WB-Ass was quite uncalled
for. In talking to them, I found out that they were supporting
Bush because they expected him to take their side in the
whole Israeli and Palestinian conflict. The thing that didn’t
make sense to me was the fact that one of the men stated
that our commander-in-chief hadn’t sided with he Israelis
in the past four years. When we entered the convention later
on, I met another Jewish supporter of Pres. Bush. The thing
that really stood out about him was the fact the he was
a journalist who sat in the media section clapping during
Vice President Cheney’s speech. In a way, I respected
him because he admitted his bias unlike a lot of other journalists.
Inside the convention, it soon became a lively affair. Music
played, and women waved colorful signs as they shook their
hips most vivaciously from side to side. Eventually, Dick
Cheney spoke and the people clapped and cheered when he
would pause, as if on cue. It felt all like a well-performed
show. Cheney’s speech was being read from a teleprompter
and the crowd automatically clapped when he paused, they
even chanted the same thing all at once without the mantra
starting somewhere.
Out of all of the people and different views on the republican
convention and its nominees, I found hypocrisy. Conventioneers
claimed that the protesters had been flown in and had been
well paid. Yet, besides the Republican delegates from New
York, every other delegate and delegate alternate, just
as Ms. Tabor mentioned, had also been sent to the Convention.
Of all things, it amazed me that the delegate who had made
the claim didn’t acknowledge that they were flown
in the way they claimed the protesters were flown in to
New York. In the end, it came down to a lot of people smiling,
screaming, chanting, laughing, and expressing their opinions.
Summing up the event to my mother, the only word that came
to mind was surreal. If the streets surrounding Madison
Square Garden had been put on a split screen with the convention
itself, one might have asked from what universe or decade
each had come. The streets were dark, helicopters flew overhead
and the police held up plastic fences, which they used to
control the movements of pedestrians. All these events took
place as one of the major TV stations broadcasted from a
small park yards away. While inside the convention, people
laughed, danced, drank, ate and cheered in unison.
We all must wonder how any of this makes a difference when
the popular vote did not decide the president in the last
election. What does any of it amount to?
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