Last Sunday I was one of the 75,000 people who gathered around to see Barack Obama in Portland. What an incredible day. I went with my friends Dori and Brent. The plan was for them to park at my place, since I’m so close to where the rally was being held, and we’d walk down to the waterfront. When Dori said they’d be here at 9:45 or earlier, I thought she was being a bit zealous to think we had to get there that early but I agreed. And was she ever right! The gates opened at 12:30, Obama was to speak at 2:30. We were there at 10:00 and the line already had wound itself down to 3rd and Jefferson. One of the volunteers told us that people began lining up at four in the morning. I will never doubt Dori again! We had fun sitting on the sidewalk talking to people around us and watching all of the politicians and their groups solicit votes. And of course my conversation with Greg MacPhearson on his negative campaign ads. Thank you to the others who agreed with me and told him so. The couple behind us were so much fun. And as others quickly learned, don’t even think about cutting in line; the guy behind us was having no part of it. Never piss off a former Marine! I wish I knew their names, they had us laughing and were so much fun.
Once we got through the gates (if TSA would only be that quick and efficient at the airport) we made a beeline to the stage in order to get as close as possible. We were so lucky, we found a spot about 50 feet in front of the stage. The Decemberists played for about and hour before Obama spoke. They were great, as always. When Obama came out with his wife and daughters the crowd went wild. He was visibly stunned by the amount of people and said it was the largest crowd ever. It was incredible to look around and see this mass of people gathered on the banks of the Willamette. The water was filled with boats of all sizes, people in canoes, kayaks and jet-skis.
One article on The Huffington post called us ‘latte liberals’ and CNN referred to us as ‘earthy people’. Damn right…and proud of it!
The pictures in this post were taken by my friend Brent, with the exception of the last one which is from The Oregonian (click on that one to see the magnitude of the crowd).
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