Valentina Pasquali

Denver, CO – Some of the most respected Foreign Policy experts in America, from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, came together on Wednesday to discuss the future of international relations and a new direction for American Foreign Policy.

“I think the next President will inherit the worst first day in office in the history of any American President, except maybe for Lincoln,” Richard Holbrooke said, sending the message that the world is at a crossroads and the upcoming Presidential election will be of historical significance. The panel of thinkers aligned with the Democratic party agreed that eight years of the Bush Administration have spoiled America’s moral standing in the world, causing a deterioration in relations with many of its closest allies, and put at risk global stability.

“The US today is not in a position to lead,” Jessica Tuchman Mathews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the audience. According to her, the US has fallen behind because of the way it has dealt with important domestic and international issues, from climate change to energy to non-proliferation. “I think President Obama is going to have to climb out of a hole back to the ground before we can lead again at the international level,” Dr. Mathews said.

The speakers then took turn in offering advices and solutions to the next President, from strengthening the economy, to improving international cooperation and polishing American public diplomacy, with the aim of undoing the damages of the last decade, and re-establishing America’s role as the world leader.

Madeleine Albright pushed for the establishment of an “internal team” within the new White House, comprising of advisors that “can present a variety of different views,” so as to avoid the mistakes traditionally made by a President who never had to listen to a divergent opinion. “I would look very closely to how the next President puts together his cabinet,” Albright said. Richard Holbrooke, instead, focused on the economy. “After all nations rise and fall on the basis of their economic strength,” he argued. Hence the economy should be the next Administration’s first priority, since it is what will give the US the means to reassert its leadership on the international stage.

There was much talk as well on the idea of democracy promotion: “American promotion of democracy has a bad name around the world, but it is not always like Bush’s invasion of Iraq,” Vince Weber, Chair of the National Endowment for Democracy, said. “Democracy is a part of our Foreign Policy and it shouldn’t be thrown out like the baby with the dirty water,” Weber continued, advocating for a new, softer approach to this policy, one that relies more heavily on local people and NGOs on the ground, and that follows more gradual steps towards the achievement of the end goal, which is – according to those attending the CFR forum in Denver – not democracy per se, but human rights and rule of law.

Whatever new direction the next President of the United States will embark upon, he will have to do so in the face of a changing world, an aspect that was emphasized by all panelists. The US must confront a reality “where India and Brazil recently determined the faith of global trade at the latest Doha Round,” Madeleine Albright reminded the audience, “where France brokered the truce between Georgia and Russia; where Iran, a government we are trying so hard to isolate, hosted a meeting with representatives from over a 100 non-aligned countries, comprising the majority of the world’s population.”

In this regard, former World Bank President James Wolfensohn offered the most shocking picture of how the global balance of power is shifting away from the West when he pointed to a few key economic figures. OECD countries control today close to 75% of the world’s GDP; in 2050 this number is expected to drop to 30%. In just a few years, China will become the largest economy in the world, with India in the second spot and the US coming only third. Japan is predicted to rise to number four or five, and South Korea will get up there too. Even Vietnam should climb up the ranking and into the top 10. Thinking of the world in these terms necessarily requires a new Foreign Policy paradigm, while institutions such as the G8 – for what they are today – seem to be losing significance.

In short, the US faces a world that is as interconnected as ever, where the important players are numerous and where, like Carnegie Endowment’s Tuchman Mathews pointed out, “what happened to the poor in Pakistan directly affects us here in America.”

The poor, how poverty needs to be confronted and the role it might play in US foreign policy decision-making was also a central part of Wednesday’s discussion. Combating it, many speakers argued, should not be seen anymore simply as a humanitarian issue and a matter of charity of the rich towards the poor. Today more than ever, global poverty directly affects America’s economic and national security. Bringing wealth to the rest of the world translates, first and foremost, into new markets and new costumers for US goods — an effective way to address the challenges of a dwindling economy. Moreover, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor creates instability. Fighting global poverty is, according to Madeleine Albright, a way to prevent “the recruitment of the disillusioned by those who hate us.”

One practical suggestion for the next Administration on fighting global poverty came from Nancy Birdsall, the President of the Center for Global Development: “The new President should simply say, let’s take the fifteen poorest countries in the world and guarantee them full and permanent access to the US market, with no tariffs or duties.”

After all, “the world wants US leadership,” Richard Holbrooke said, “look at Germany, they might have a 30% approval of the job of President Bush but when Obama went to Berlin he took 200,000 people to the streets. And he could have done the same in London.” It was a view shared by all speakers today — that exercising leadership in the right fashion will be the key to a new American Foreign Policy.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Denver, CO – This year’s Democratic National Convention ended Thursday night in fireworks, white-red-blue confetti and a perfectly orchestrated event that resembled more the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games than that of a political convention. 80,000 people celebrated the nomination of the Democratic candidate for the White House Barack Obama, while some of the biggest names in today’s Party, from Gov. Howard Dea to Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, took the stage along with pop singers and regular people telling the audience about their personal stories of struggles. Barack Obama, now officially the first African-American to run for President for one of the two major parties, accepted the nomination with a speech that was aimed at laying out his policies, reassuring the country about his lack of experience, attacking the Republicans, and touching the hearts of those watching with rhetoric soaked in symbolism, on the 45^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech.

The event was so carefully orchestrated that one must wonder if the excitement of the crowd inside the stadium was simply the result of ingenious PR machinations, or genuinely heartfelt. The question is whether or not Barack Obama represents a new kind of politician, the proud son of the civil rights movement that the Rev. Martin Luther King led, or if he is only another establishment candidate that happens to have a darker skin-tone, an African-American exception along the lines of Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell, and not the symbol of a new era in American politics.

Speaking with a few African-Americans on the streets of Denver — the kind of people that were not able to make it inside the stadium and who are only indirect spectators of the political show coming out of Washington DC — it appears that Obama is succeeding in reaching out to constituencies normally disenfranchised from the mainstream political process, some of whom will vote this year for the first time.

Dedrick Simmons is a bus driver in Denver, where he relocated a few months ago following the separation from his wife and after a five-year stint in Northern California as a stone-polisher. A middle-aged African American man born and raised in Colorado, he was working his night shift at the time of Obama’s acceptance speech. He insisted that the Senator from Illinois would really keep his promise of change once in office. “He’s a very intelligent man,” Mr. Simmons told me, “and in those areas with which he might not be too familiar, I’m sure he will just ask for the help and expertise of his closest advisors.” As Mr. Simmons explained, with some passion, that the exclusive focus on the “President” is politically naïve: “If I was a mechanic working in an auto plant and knew everything about brakes but didn’t know the least bit about the design of the driver’s seat, well, there would be someone in my company that would take care of that.”

“I like Obama because he will bring change,” Richard Pennick told me on Thursday morning. Pennick is a middle-school teacher from Chicago, a divorced father of two boys who could be a spitting image for actor Samuel L. Jackson. A former military man, Pennick confessed to have never voted in his almost 54 years on the planet, but he is already registered to go to the polls in November. “The fact that Obama is black doesn’t matter to me, he could have very well been white. But he is new and he has fresh ideas,” Mr. Pennick said, although the T-shirt he wore, with an image of Barack Obama imposed on one of Martin Luther King hints that he might not be all that race-blind.

Obama’s message then seems to be getting across to people like Mr. Pennick and Mr. Simmons — not the upper-income, highly-educated Democrat, who flocked the INVESCO Field on Thursday night. In fact, Dedrick Simmons makes no mystery of his contempt for such kind of people: “I visited Berkeley when I lived in California and I only found a bunch of rich white kids with nothing to do. And so they do a lot of tree-hugging, and they defend the most useless causes just to feel part of something, but only because they’ve got nothing to really worry about,” he said forcefully, “it must be nice to be a white rich kid for once… just part of the status-quo.”

Mr. Simmons, like Mr. Pennick, is an African-American socially and culturally a generation older than Barack and Michelle Obama, even though age-wise they are probably very close. His voice raged with frustration towards a country and a system that always found new and different ways to discriminate against its black minority. “The hate that led people to enforce slavery or segregation, that made it illegal for so many years to teach a young African-American child to read, is beyond everything I can imagine,” Mr. Simmons believes. “Do I think that all that hate all of a sudden disappeared…pouf,” he said, gesticulating with his hands, “Of course not, they still hate us.”

Despite the grievances of somebody who had to drop out of college after only two years because he couldn’t afford it; of someone who’s struggling to pay child support and to fly his two children to Denver as often as possible on a bus-driver’s salary; despite being one of those that politics has probably never helped out too much, he told me that he trusts Obama and he really has faith that he can turn things around for the least fortunate. And to those who claim that Obama is an elitist, with the prestigious degrees of any other white politician, Mr. Simmons says: “In the sixties they just used to call those uppity niggers. Now they have found a more politically correct term: elitist. It just shows their unease with a successful black man.”

Whether or not Barack Obama will keep his campaign promises and will open up the political process to those that have never been invited in, we will only find out much later. It is likely that, even in the most optimistic case, a President Obama will be able to achieve some of his stated goals while compromising on others. The reality for now is that at least his well-crafted message is reaching out to groups of Americans that are normally very distrustful of politics, even Democratic politics. John McCain is pursuing a similar campaign strategy, a strategy of inclusion that is meant to bring to his party the votes of moderates and independents that might be put off by more traditional Republican politics. The announcement of Friday morning that McCain picked first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a forty-four year-old mother of five, indicates for example that the Republican nominee is going after women, and possibly after those frustrated supporters of Hillary Clinton that are still unhappy with Obama’s victory. Just like Obama, the question remains whether this is just beautifully crafted PR or if there is any substance to it as well.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Washington DC – In April 1968 Washington DC was burning. As the word spread that Martin Luther King had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, street violence broke out in the Shaw/U Street neighborhood, heart of the African American community. Rioters stormed through the area for four consecutive days, leaving twelve dead, 1,097 injured and over 6,100 arrested. During the unrest, 1,200 buildings were set on fire, including 900 stores. Most businesses never reopened again. Only one, small, family-owned restaurant decided to keep serving its chiliburgers in spite of the fires; Ben’s Chili Bowl emerged from the smoke on April 8^th 1968 and is still running today, forty years later.

Ben and Virginia Ali, who opened up shop at the intersection between U Street and 14^th Street on August 22^nd 1958, celebrated the fiftieth birthday of the restaurant last week, surrounded by a cheering crowd of supporters, long-time costumers, local notables and politicians. “Ben loves his hometown more than many of us,” Eleanor Holmes Norton, Congresswoman for the District of Columbia, said Friday morning at a press conference. “This is not just a eating place, or a business, this is a family eating place and a family business, and families don’t go out of business…Long live Ben!” Rep. Norton continued. The Mayor of DC Adrian Fenty was also in attendance. “It doesn’t take long to realize that this is an institution of Washington DC,” Mr. Fenty said and then, reading a resolution of the DC City Council, he proclaimed August 22^nd Ben’s Chili Bowl Day, while entrusting the Alis with the symbolic key to the national capital.

The most remarkable aspect of this 1950s-style deli – which now appears on all travel guides as a must-see in Washington – even more than the food itself, is the determination and dedication with which Virginia and Ben have kept it up through some of the roughest moments of the recent history of Washington DC — a history that closely resemble that of contemporary America. The Alis, graduates of all-black Howard University, started Ben’s Chili Bowl in the segregated United States. The restaurant soon became the center of a lively African-American community lined with jazz bars and theaters that became known as “Black Broadway.” It was the regular hangout for celebrities like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessi Smith, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole and Bill Cosby.

In the following decades Ben’s Chili Bowl lived through the civil rights movement, the assassinations of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy; it survived a recession that battered the national capital in the early 1970s, days when U Street turned into a dodgy area populated by crack-dealers and plagued by unemployment and boarded houses. Finally, the long and narrow restaurant famous for its half-smoked hot dogs made it through five years of construction work when, in the late 1980s, an additional line to the Washington DC metro system was built underneath U Street, turning it into a big dusty hole in the ground. And yet again, while all the other businesses were shutting down, the Alis kept a side door to the restaurant open and kept serving chilidogs to a few regulars and the many on-site workers.

It is no surprise, then, that the U Street community joined Ben’s Chili Bowl’s 50^th Anniversary so enthusiastically. The festivity kicked off on Thursday night, with a VIP reception for local celebrities, at which chilidogs and champagne were served, and a gala at the nearby Lincoln Theater, both of which the Alis offered for free to all of their affectionate costumers.

I spoke to a few of them queued up outside of the Lincoln Theater waiting to take their seats. Jakob and Gwendolyn Adams have been going to Ben’s for 38 years. They belong to the Breakfast Club, a group of residents originally from Saint Louis, Missouri. “We meet up at Ben’s for breakfast every other Saturday,” they told me. Barbara King moved to Washington DC in 1960; “I went to school on 9^th and U Street and I used to eat lunch at Ben’s everyday; that is why I’m here.”

The Master of Ceremony was also a long-time friend of Virginia and Ben, actor Bill Cosby. “Even the foreigners now come to DC for Ben’s,” Mr. Crosby said. “And they can’t even say half-smoked, and then they go back to their buses smelling like one,” the internationally known comedian joked to an animated crowd.

The simple fact, beyond the glamour, is that Ben’s Chili Bowl remained the center of a community through the neighborhood’s few ups and many downs, providing local residents not only food, but comfort, jobs and financial help in case of need and becoming a social, cultural and economic pillar for the local residents.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Denver, CO – The economy was the main theme of Day Two at the Democratic National Convention, with speakers ranging from an unemployed and indebted textile worker from North Carolina, a victim of the Iowa flood, union representatives and a number of Congressmen and Senators from some of the states that have been hit the hardest by the crisis. And of course Hillary Clinton, who made the economy one of the central issues of her primary campaign.

The recession is by far the biggest worry for most Democrats in Denver. “I would say the economy is pretty lousy,” Anne Hatfield said. Anne is a delegate and a retired senior from Pennsylvania who has been witnessing the impact of rising prices of food and gas on her life and that of her community. “The state of the economy is horrible,” Tiffany Powers agreed. An African-American lawyer and delegate from North Carolina Tiffany explained: “I come from a rural community that relied heavily on the textile industry. But now our plants have closed, jobs have been shipped overseas, people lost their homes.” She believes that middle-class Democrats would want a tax-cut and better public education from President Obama.   read more

“The economy is definitely the most important issue today,” Angie Cruise, a political analyst from Tempe, Arizona said. “There have been a huge number of foreclosures in my community. And then I speak with people every day who tell me they have to choose between food and medicines,” Ms. Cruise added. Democrats want a stable economy, Angie believes, where they can find a job and stay in their homes. And they would want better health care and more investments in public schools.

Beyond the delegates, a large crowd of politically active Democrats flocked Denver to attend the DNC. “Everything is more expensive,” Lynda Clark from Maryland told me, “while salaries are not keeping up with the spike in prices.” Ms. Clark is a single woman who works in public broadcasting in Washington DC and is in Denver because the Obama campaign decided to reward her many months of volunteering with a ticket to the Pepsi Center. “My daughter is in college up in Massachusetts. She is at a state school, but even state schools these days are not that cheap,” Ms. Clark continues. Her daughter is working to help support herself and has taken out loans to pay for her studies: “She is going to graduate soon and she will be in debt. And so will I, since I also gave her money to put her through school.”

Donors are also among the thousands of guests, and probably some of the most important. Brett Hughes, an investments manager from Oklahoma, came here at the invitation of the party that wanted to thank him for his contributions. “Personally I’ve done extremely well in recent years,” Mr. Hughes said, “but I very well know that for most people the economy is a problem.”
He says he came here to help support the change that Sen. Obama promises as President: “Obama needs to have people like me paying higher taxes,” concluded Mr. Hughes, expressing no doubts about Sen Obama’s promise to raise taxes for rich Americans.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Denver, CO – Denver is bustling with political activity this week, well beyond the walls of the Pepsi Center where the Democratic Party is holding its National Convention. Many organizations, advocacy groups and activists from around the country arrived here to take advantage of the spotlight to advance their causes and make their voices heard. Iranian-Americans are among them, although, as a sign of how little common political engagement the most affluent immigrant community in the United States still displays, only the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) has a presence, and an informal one at that.

NIAC Legislative Director Emily Blout and West Coast Director Sara Shokravi  met Tuesday night with a few members and a couple more people interested in hearing about the organization in an unofficial gathering organized at a café’ in downtown Denver. “It is the first time that we take on the initiative of coming to the national conventions,” Sara Shokravi  said, “and we’re still trying to figure things out.” Two other staffers from NIAC will be in Minneapolis next week during the Republican National Convention.

NIAC was created in 2002, primarily as a response to what happened in America after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, when people at all connected with the Middle East often suffered discrimination in the midst of the government crackdown on immigration and national security-related issues. NIAC is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works with politicians, as well as other organizations, on both sides of the aisle. “We are equal opportunity and we work with both conservative and liberal groups,” Emily Blout explained.

In Washington DC – where it is headquartered – NIAC talks to members of Congress about Iranian American issues, educates both the political class and regular citizens about the Iranian American community, while it strives to enhance Iranian Americans’ participation in civil life throughout the country. “We fly in relevant speakers from across the country and the world, we put out briefs and hold workshops for our members teaching them how to become more politically engaged,” Ms. Shokravil said.

In the ongoing Presidential Campaign, NIAC has made contact with both the Obama and the McCain campaigns and is focusing specifically on talking to Republican and Democratic candidates running for Senate and House seats. In Denver NIAC is also informally mingling with other organizations and meeting members and interested parties from Colorado or who might have traveled here for the DNC.

Born with the goal of giving better representation to the Iranian American community in politics like in business and society as a whole, during its first few years NIAC exclusively focused on domestic issues and primarily immigration. In 2006, after conducting a survey among its members – the main fashion in which NIAC establishes its official stances -, Foreign Policy was also included, with the mission of promoting diplomacy, negotiations and dialogue with Iran. “It is incredible how little Americans know about the Middle East,” Ms. Blout, an Irish Jewish American with no ethnic or cultural ties with Iran, said at the meeting. “And it’s incredible that such a successful community of immigrants is so poorly organized,” she noted. NIAC tries to bridge such gap.

Recently, another organization was created, with a similar aim of representing the domestic interests of the Iranian American community. PAAIA (The Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans) is still at the initial stage of its activities and, to our knowledge, does not have a presence in Denver.

Good news for the Iranian American community came recently from the McCain camp, which announced the appointment of a full time staffer as a liaison with the Iranian American Community. Raymond Rahbar is the McCain’s Director of Iranian-American outreach and will conduct conference calls and meetings with Iranian Americans until Election Day. A similar move might be in the making within the Obama camp as well.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Denver, CO – The most progressive wing of the Democratic Party gathered at the Central Presbyterian Church in Denver on Tuesday morning to discuss the war in Iraq, withdrawal of the US troops and the ongoing Presidential campaign.

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WASH) and peace activist Tom Hayden revisited and harshly criticized the decisions that the Bush Administration made in the months following the terrorist attacks of September 11 and that led to the war in Afghanistan first and then the one in Iraq, while pressing the disillusioned members of the anti-war movement to continue participating in mainstream politics and to support the Democratic candidate Barack Obama, or else risking giving up hopes for their cause all together.

“People get discouraged,” Rep. McDermott said, “but the anti-war effort keeps this thing from drifting all the way to the right.” Mr. Hayden echoed him: “If the anti-war movement is seen relevant to a Democratic success in November, then people will pay attention to it.”

In short, the message was directed to those members of the peace movement, like the activists who demonstrated in Denver on Sunday, that feel that there is no real difference between Barack Obama and John McCain and, hence, will either not vote or vote for third party candidates, potentially undermining Obama’s chances of victory.

“Barack Obama, in my view, is a transformational president who’s coming into the 21^st Century looking at what the world really is,” Rep. McDermott said. Nevertheless, encouraging the same activists to keep making their voices heard, McDormett emphasized that in a true democracy people must always petition their leaders if they want to be part of the decision-making process: “Democracy is not a practice where people gather once every so often to elect a dictator and then go home. They elect a leader that they continue to press on the issues they care about,” the Congressman from Washington State concluded.

The event was organized by the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) in partnership with The Nation, the country’s oldest progressive magazine, and was part of a weeklong effort to bring the causes of the progressive movement in the forefront of the public debate.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Denver, CO – The Pepsi Center, home of the 2008 Democratic National Convention and under siege by a colorful and picturesque circus of activists, protesters, politicians and journalists, opened its doors on Monday. The first day of the DNC went by in the anticipation of the evening’s keynote address by Michelle Obama, introducing her husband and Democratic nominee for the Presidency Barack Obama.
Speaking to a jam-packed audience from a stage that looks just out of a Sci-Fi movie, Michelle talked about her parents, the sacrifices they made to give their children a better future, the values that they instilled in her and her brother Craig and that she shares with her husband. It was a celebration of the American dream and a pledge to continue working – from the White House – to perpetuate the idea that everybody, and not just the wealthy, can make it in America.
It was yet another attempt by the Democratic Party to shape its message of unity and hope and to rally its supporters behind the Senator from Illinois. Nevertheless, many are awaiting Tuesday night’s speech by Hillary Clinton and Wednesday afternoon’s roll call, when the delegates will symbolically vote for their candidate in what is expected to be the crowning of Barack Obama.

A number of Hillary supporters are still bitter about how the primaries ended and convinced that the ex-First Lady was the victim of an unfair treatment by the media and the Party. Some fear that these die-hard Hillary delegates might ruin the DNC celebration plans.

“I’ve come here as a Hillary delegate,” Betty Wilson, from Columbia, Missouri, told me as she made her way to the Pepsi Center, “and I want to see it through the end.” The fact that Hillary herself has asked her delegates to support Obama, in a meeting she held with her own state delegation from New York on Monday morning, and that, furthermore, she is expected to officially release them on Wednesday afternoon, doesn’t seem enough to convince some. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t vote for whomever we want,” Ms. Wilson said. Asked whether she was worried that such behavior could jeopardize the chances of a Democratic President in November, Betty Wilson responded; “this is a democracy! I’m not worried at all. We were elected and sent here to be Clinton delegates and that’s what we are going to do.”

Nevertheless, the number of such hard-core delegates appears to be diminishing by the day. According to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted on August 25th, only 5% of those sent to the Convention with Clinton say they still don’t support Obama; over 30% supports him with some reservation, while two-thirds are now enthusiastic about the Democratic nominee.

Beyond the numbers, a simple look at the steady stream of delegates arriving at the Pepsi Center on Monday afternoon reveals a decreasing presence of Hillary Clinton for President buttons, while Barack Obama’s gear abounds.

“I’m excited that Obama picked Biden as VP, he really knows his Foreign Policy” Linnette Garber, from Laguna Niguel, California, told me. She still wears Clinton pins and she will be voting for Hillary on Wednesday. But she is slowly coming around to appreciate the Democratic Presidential ticket: “I really like the fact that he might be able to turn out the young people’s vote.”

Anne Morgan, instead, has been a supporter of Obama from the start. She is a delegate from Florida, the state that has been crucial in the last two Presidential Elections, and the delegation of which was first suspended and fully reinstated only in the last few days. Ms. Morgan is positive that the Democrats can take the Sunshine State. “If we keep working hard and talk to the people, we can definitely win,” she told me. Digging a little deeper, I discovered that Ms. Morgan is from a rural area in Central Florida, traditionally a Republican stronghold. Beyond the optimism typical of someone attending her second national convention, Ms. Morgan acknowledged that it might not be so easy to win crucial areas of the state, such as her county: “We’ll have to see about that,” she confessed.

While the women of the Democratic Party are under scrutiny by observers around the country, and the world, a host of curious characters use the Convention to display their sometime odd talents, beliefs and ideas. Lined up on the side-walk leading to the Pepsi Center one can find the Rednecks for Obama — a group that Toni Viessman from Missouri created with the goal of reassuring all those Americans “that Obama won’t take away their hunting guns” –, the grandparents for Obama, those-that-want-to-reclaim-the-Constitution for Obama, a clown dressed in the American flag, and the ever present pro-life activists with their gruesome photos of aborted fetuses. Somehow assessing a direct causal relationship between abortion rights and a declining population, their leader was shouting today: “If you want a preview of what will happen to us if we continue down this road, go to Europe. There are many towns in Italy, France and Germany, with no children. Europe is dead!”

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Denver, CO – In an election year when both the Republican and the Democratic parties are courting religious voters, the first ever Democratic Interfaith Gathering officially kicked off the week of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Sunday.

In a carefully orchestrated display of party unity and simultaneous acceptance of divergent world-views, a remarkable line-up of speakers, from imams to rabbis to pastors to nuns, took the stage to talk about the sacred responsibilities that the American people have today towards their children, their neighbors, the world and their nation. Readings from the holy texts of all religions, from the Koran to the Bible and including one delivered by a student at the University of Denver from the Metta Sutra – a Buddhist scripture – eased the transitions from one speaker to the next, while interludes of musical performances by Emmy Award winner Richard Smallwood & Vision reminded the audience of America’s long-lasting gospel tradition.

“Democrats are, have been and continue to be people of faith,” Reverend Leah D. Daughtry, CEO of the 2008 DNC, said opening the meeting. “People of faith are, have been, and continue to be Democrats,” she continued, reclaiming the right for her party to cater to faith-based voters. Most speakers stirred away from controversies and focused on those principles that run common through all religious traditions, such as love and service. “What we’re celebrating today is that there absolutely is in our party an intersection between faith and politics,” Colorado Governor Bill Ritter pointed out in his welcome address. Govt. Ritter then read a passage by prominent Czech human rights activists turned President Vaclav Havel; “Genuine politics — even politics worthy of the name — the only politics I am willing to devote myself to — is simply a matter of serving those around us.”

Nonetheless, a few speakers – all of whom had been given a blank slate to discuss the issues that are dearest to them – addressed without hesitation more controversial points, such as abortion. Bishop Charles E. Blake, of The Church of God in Christ, didn’t hide his struggle of conscience as a pro-life Democrat and acknowledged the fact that his view on the topic are divergent from those officially sanctioned by the party. “I’m sure our party understands our pain,” Bishop Blake told the audience, but then proceeded to explain that, despite these differences, he stands with the Democratic Party as the one that better serves the interest of the people, of all those who have already been born. He also highlighted his hope that Barack Obama will keep the promise to try reducing the number of abortions by offering alternatives to struggling mothers.

Dr. Ingrid Mattson, the Director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian Muslim Relations and the first woman ever to become President of the Islamic Society of North America, speaking about America’s sacred responsibility to the world, emphasized the need for humility, but wasn’t shy of praise for America. “This is still the best place in the world to practice our faith,” Dr. Mattson said. She also addressed openly issues of radical Islam and terrorism; “I acknowledge that much evil in this world is done in the name of my religion.” In denouncing the crimes that have been committed instrumentally under the banner of Islam, Dr. Mattson also talked about her pride in the American-Muslim community, for how hard it strives to defend the security of the United States, through dedicated work in local communities and by serving in the US Army at home and abroad.

The loudest applause came when Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book Dead Man Walking from which the homonymous movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn was adapted, took the stage. “Isn’t it the time for our nation to be converted from violence to dialogue and diplomacy with our adversaries? Isn’t it the time that we institute a Peace Academy alongside all of our military academies, that our children learn in school about non-violent conflict resolution?” she asked rousing the audience’s enthusiasm. More skepticism, however, surrounded her long and passionate advocacy against the death penalty, the trademark of her activism, and her ardent criticism of those traits of the American mind that make the death penalty still legal. “It is in our country’s DNA to kill the enemy as the only way to be secure,” Sister Prejean said. “We must take the death penalty entirely off the table as a punishment,” she pledged extending to everyone her invitation to become a nation of peace. After all, one needs to remember that, to this day, over sixty percent of Americans support the capital punishment and they are not exclusively Republicans.

In faith-based issues as in most other areas, the Democratic Party is trying to adhere to Barack Obama’s message of unity and dialogue, displaying intensely an image of harmonious diversity. Walking outside the Wells Fargo Theater, Betty Vanderkooi from Denver told me; “If only the world were always this way.” The question still stands if the country as a whole is ready to embrace the same ideals.

In the meanwhile, right-wing pro-life activists crashed the beginning of the meeting to protest Barack Obama’s position on abortion; “Barack Obama is a baby killer,” screamed a young man from the audience, before being escorted out by the police. More pro-life activists stood outside the Colorado Convention Center, where the Interfaith Gathering took place, and held large banners displaying extremely graphic photos of the corpses of late-term aborted babies while calling abortion a modern holocaust on their loudspeakers.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Denver, CO – “We are not going to go silently into the American dark night,” Ron Kovic screamed from his wheelchair on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol. Mr. Kovic is a Vietnam Veteran and the author and protagonist of the book Born on the 4^th of July, which inspired a homonymous movie starring Tom Cruise. “I’m here to end this war,” he told me afterwards. “I know what war is, I’ve dealt with the effects of war for over forty years, that’s how long I’ve been in this wheelchair.” A scattered crowd of around 700 listened intently. They were members of a variety of activist groups, from environmentalists to women’s advocacy organizations, with the opposition to the war in Iraq as the main unifying theme of the rally.

An organization called Recreate ’68, initiated with the goal of reignite the passions that made the students movement of 1968 famous world-wide, was behind the protest. Mark Cohen, one of the organizers, explained to the crowd the need to recreate ’68; “In 1968 people understood that the choice between a Republican and a Democrat is no choice. The lesser of two evil is still evil,” he told the people assembled at the bottom of the steps of the Capitol. Celeste Kindler works for a marketing firm in Denver. She is here because she thinks this is a very important election. “The choices we have are not very good,” Ms. Kindler told me. “The people really need to come out and take back our government.” According to her, both Obama and McCain are sell-outs. During the primaries she supported Libertarian candidate Ron Paul, a choice indicative of the eclecticism of the political views of the people here.

Only a few feet away, a sign lying on the ground says; Muqtada Al Sadr – Anti-imperialist Solidarity. Jeff Berryhill, a student from Olympia, Washington, is among those who carried it here. They are the Students for a Democratic Society, a distant heir to a group of radical left-wingers that became very popular in the 1960s. “As citizens of a country that’s occupying a foreign land, it’s important to support the global fight for the self-determination of the South,” Jeff explained to me. “Muqtada Al-Sadr is one of the strongest opponent of the US occupation and that’s why we support him.”

Other activists, who belong to the group The World Can’t Wait, wore orange shirts and carried orange banners that say; No Attack on Iran. The group started about two years ago as a response to the ongoing conflict in Iraq, Ashley Parada, a student from Chicago and a member, explained to me. “We now feel that the US is targeting Iran cause it’s one of the biggest powers in the region and we don’t think that is a legitimate reason.” Ms. Parada said she came here to inform the people that bombing Iran is actually an option on the table; “Not many people know that Barack Obama has not excluded this possibility.” She told me she’s planning on voting in November, “but most likely not for Obama, and precisely because of the views he holds in Foreign Policy.”

Beyond those activists that continue to be receptive of the message of Recreate ’68 and choose not to take part in mainstream politics, a surprising number of people gathered at the rally today has all intentions of casting their ballot for Barack Obama. Sandy Szewczyk is a middle-aged woman originally from Ukraine; “I also agree that we should be against the war,” Ms. Szewczyk told me. “But the only way to do something about it is to vote for Obama, because he didn’t want this war in the first place.” Joan Spero is here with the Loretto Community, a group of socially conscious and politically engaged Catholic nuns. “I’m here because I’m opposed to war and violence in all form,” she said. “We should withdraw from Iraq and return that country to the people who own it.” She also will vote for Obama in November. “I think he’s a fresh start, one that we desperately need today.” A few other women belonged to Code Pink, one of the most vocal, at times disruptive, anti-war organizations in America. Edwina Vogan, an employee of the Environment Protection Agency from Phoenix, AZ, is among them and she was very pleased with how the day turned out; “I think is great to give room for people to speak out against the war.” Ms. Vogan is for Barack Obama, “I’ve got great hopes for him,” she told me.

None of the Obama supporters who participated in the rally seemed particularly worried that those activists that will not to vote or will vote for third parties candidates might undermine Obama’s chances to be elected President in November. Almost everybody I talked to said that this was a good way to remind the Democratic Party not to forget about the issues that are dear to its most left-wing members. “The more the people speak up, the more politicians will listen,” Code Pink Edwina Vogan said. “Democracy is not made from the top down, but from the bottom up.” Of all the different views and perspectives that try to own, in one way or another, the Democratic Party, it remains to be seen how many Barack Obama will be able to accommodate in his political platform without disappointing one or the other.

Following several speeches, a crowd that had grown to over a thousand, marched toward the Pepsi Center, where the Democratic National Convention kicks off on Monday. Police in riot gear watched over the demonstrators. The march was mostly peaceful, even when the protesters walked by a group of about 30 counter-demonstrators who were holding signs remembering 9/11 and praising war veterans. One sign said; “Sometimes war is the answer,” another echoed, “War is bad, terrorism is worse.” The only minor incident occurred when a crew from Fox News tried to film the demonstration and a few activists aggressively chased the reporters away. Conservative-leaning Fox News is very ill received by progressive activists.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism

Washington DC – Forget New York City, London and Tokyo. The world’s most bustling and expensive housing market is Denver, Colorado. Or at least it will be so during next week. With the Democratic National Convention coming to town, 50,000 extra residents are expected to flock the “mile high city” from August 25^th through the 28^th. Among them 5,000 delegates, over 15,000 members of a ballooning press corps (which includes, this year, new media and bloggers), activists, curious visitors and the ever growing crowd of Barack Obama’s personal fans.

“The Democratic Party alone reserved 17,000 hotel rooms,” Communications Director for the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau Richard Grant told me on the phone. Unfortunately, downtown Denver only offers 8,000. “These were sold out almost immediately,” Mr. Grant says. “But we are not fully booked yet. There are some rooms still available, although you have to look at the mileage of those hotels from Denver.” In fact, the other 34,000 rooms listed on travel websites are scattered all across the metropolitan area, a region that is as big as Connecticut. As a result, people will end up staying as far as Boulder, approximately 30 miles from the city. Some venues have resorted to creating a system of waiting lists to accommodate late-comers in case of last minute cancellations.

In the meanwhile, of course, prices for the five-day stay have spiraled out of control. As of Monday evening, a double-room at one of the Super 8 Motels around town — Super 8 is one of the cheapest and least fancy motel chains in the US — costs $175 a night during the convention, plus taxes. The same room during the rest of the year is $69 per night. Note that the hotel is nowhere near the Pepsi Center where the convention will be held. Not even the Olympic Games cause this much clamor.

As a consequence, and with demand for short-term sublets that doesn’t seem to recede despite the spike in prices, home-owners jumped on the Dem Convention bandwagon and started renting out their own places to the desperate outsiders. Craigslist.com, a popular website for free classified advertisements, is listing over 200 new properties for lease each day. In the midst of an economic recession and during one the worst housing crisis in the nation’s history, having a piece of real-estate in Denver next week, even just a couch, is an incredibly lucrative asset and residents are trying their utmost to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

On the cheap end of things, one can find a room in a one-bedroom apartment for $70 per night. Relax and enjoy lakeside suburb style and still be a short drive to downtown, the online ad says. As a minor side-detail, the owner notes; I will be using my couch in the living room still. In an egregious public relations spin, this translates into; dinner at least and sometimes breakfast is included every day. For the lovers of Victorian-style houses, Burt is advertising a property that sits on 5 city-lots, 8 minutes from downtown, and closed behind 6’ gates. The cost is a mere $20,000 for the week. If one would rather go for minimalism, Rachel listed a beautiful downtown loft for $200 per night. The only drawback, looking at the attached photos, is that the minimalist in the post’s heading really means completely unfurnished. Finally, for those who would like to discover Colorado’s wilderness in their off-hours between midnight and 8am, one can stay at a horse boarding facility 40 minutes away from Denver and at 8500 feet above sea-level. $200/night gets you a room for 2 with a king sized log bed and feather mattress, your own bathroom, free Wireless internet, full use of the kitchen and I’ll let you help me shovel manure out of the barn (haha), the ad says.

In between extremes and exotic oddities, there are hundreds of regular people that are subletting their studios, 1 or 2 bedroom apartments to strangers, for an average price of between $1,000 and $3,500 for the week. Robert decided to offer the centrally located one bedroom apartment he bought last February for $2,000 for the week. “I normally travel during work days and I’ll be gone next week as well.” So far he has received only one response, from someone who was interested in the apartment for two nights at $700 total. “I don’t think it’s worth my time. Because I have to prepare the apartment for it and doing that for only two nights is not worth it,” Robert told me on the phone.

For those traveling on a budget, such as many of the younger bloggers, the only affordable alternatives are the floors of former college friends or renting a room in a house faraway from the city. Unless a stroke of luck happens, such as calling an inexpensive accommodation downtown a minute after a cancellation has been made. Sometimes it happens and, personally, I will be staying at the Hostel of the Rockies for a miraculous $41 per night.

Originally reported and written for Washington Prism