Stand for Change Rally

Today, Em and I went to Reunion Arena for the Stand for Change Rally.

We took the TRE to Union Station and walked half a block or so to the Arena.



Once at the Arena, we were directed to the end of the line. I think someone said there were 17 lines (one for every entrance), but our line snaked up into the parking lot. We walked 25 minutes before we got to the end of it. We'd been told that the doors opened at 10:30, so we took the train that got us there at 10:31. Obama was to speak at 12 noon. Heh. We were still in line in the parking garage at 12 noon, so didn't know if we'd miss the rally or not.

We met lots of nice people in line, so we weren't bored at all. The crowd had LOTS of young people, but there were other boomers and even people older than us. We talked to these two girls and ran into them again when we got to the TRE to go back home.



It might have been 12:30 when the line REALLY began moving. In fact, we were encouraged to not run, but walk VERY fast the last 500 feet or so before the entrance to the Arena, as Obama would be speaking soon. Em's knees were about to give out at that point, and the volunteers were just about cheering us on, thanking us for coming to the rally.

Once inside, we found our way to some seats in the nosebleed section after stopping to catch our breath sitting on some steps which we (of course) couldn't block. We listened to the last bit of a speech by a previous Dallas mayor, some inspiration from Emmitt Smith (who I think plays football down here), and then about 1pm someone introduced Obama.

We hadn't been through security, because we were absolutely no threat at this distance from the stage.

By 1:30pm, it was all over. We left and followed the crowds back to Union Station where we talked to the girls again. TRE (as well as DART ) scheduled extra trains; we were very appreciative, as we'd just missed one.

It was a LOT of work to go through to attend a live rally for Obama, we discussed on the way home from the TRE station afterward. We could have seen HIM better from a chair in front of the TV at home, but (much like viewing live sporting events) we wouldn't have experienced the passion of the crowd. Doubt there'll be too many more years of political activism for us, though. Time for all those youngsters to pick up the torch.

UPDATE 2/23/08: Here's a video made by some folks we know about their experience (pretty much identical to ours) at the Stand for Change Rally:



Since this is "pay attention to Texas" week,



Chelsea Clinton (the blonde walking up the steps) held a question/answer session on the campus of UTA today. No. 1 took the photos and said that she really isn't a very good speaker. She also said that the crowd was mixed, with one "fan" sporting a sign that said, "Stop Hillary; Save America".



We didn't see anyone in opposition to Obama at Reunion Arena, but it's not like any of us felt that Reunion Arena was our home turf, either.

No. 1 stopped by tonight to get her voter's card and looked so cute I took a picture.



When she read this entry (which I'd just finished) she said, "You should know that Emmitt Smith is a football player! When we went to Norway, people learned that we were from Dallas and thought Em was the Dallas football player!" Heh. I've slept a few times since then.