Almost Part of History

On Saturday, MJP and I tried to see Obama during his swing through Philly. Since we weren't V.I.Ps and we didn't get to the West Philadelphia venue before 6 freakin' a.m., we had no chance of getting a decent view of the senator. But, since Philly people will be Philly people, we did get to see some pretty interesting characters. A LaRouche supporter handing out pamphlets. Independent t-shirt salesmen. My favorite was a guy wearing an oil barrel and a McCain mask.

At first, most everyone was civil, but as noon approached, the unruly vibe grew. The atmosphere wasn't nearly as mellow as the spirit of the gathering outside the Constitution Center during the primary. Maybe the event should have been held someplace like Franklin Field, where everybody could probably get a seat. Maybe they could have had more cops throughout the crowd. Since I had volunteered to hand out stickers and sign up volunteers, I had a clipboard so people kept coming up to me and asking me questions, such as "Could you turn those speakers up a little louder?" Shortly before Obama was scheduled to speak, some barricades were being breached, reminding one guy of being at a "real" soccer match (by real, I guess he meant European). Since MJP was male, tall, and was standing next to me and my clipboard, other volunteers were starting to ask him to help with crowd control. At that point, we slipped out through a crack in the crowd to get some pizza and beer.