Washington Comes to Denver: Part 4, old blog number two

Oh, this just in: my blogs are actually posted on the other site. But they've posted so many blogs at once that they've already been booted to the second page. Here's another blog I wrote regarding political anniversaries:

It was recently brought to my attention that Senator Obama will be making his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Let’s jog some memories here, folks – that is if we can even call them memories since I’m pretty sure we 18-22 year olds weren’t around 45 years ago (although I could be wrong, I’m a writer not a mathematician.)

Straight from the ever-so-accurate Wikipedia – the March on Washington took place on August 28th, 1963. The march itself, organized by civil rights leaders, went from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial and included over 300,000 people. Then, naturally, came Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Purely coincidental? You mean that on the very anniversary of a major event in the civil rights movement a black man will accept the presidential nomination? I doubt it.

While I think it’s powerful to use the date to mark just how far the country has come as far as civil rights, I think some people might be put off by the date selection. Will this be seen as Obama comparing himself to Dr. King? I doubt that’s his intent. But intentions mean nothing – it’s perceptions that matter. On the other side of the coin, maybe many citizens don’t consider the civil rights movement to be over, and see this as just another step in the right direction.

Since we’re on the subject of anniversaries already, let’s also mention that it’s been exactly 100 years since Denver has hosted the Democratic National Convention. Last time it was 1908 and William Jennings Bryan from Nebraska was the nominee. Thinking about 1908 is astounding to me. Think about it – that was the time when rich white guys really did run this country. And all of it. Forget about women, and don’t even consider African-Americans.

According to the Denver Post, Denver was selected in 1908 “in hopes of securing the western vote.” As far as far as we’ve come in 100 years, I think that may still be the theory here. Today Colorado governor Bill Ritter came to speak to us and he spoke of a “Democratic West” which includes Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, (and some others – cut me some slack, he was speaking fast). All those states have typically been red in the past, but with Colorado leading as example by electing a Democratic governor, I can’t help but feel like that may be part of the motive.

Who the heck knows? I certainly don’t, and am certainly not pretending like I do.

Overall I think it’s rather interesting to see both the progress and the cyclic pattern of things throughout history. Heck – maybe it’ll even be the Cubs’ year.