Hope And Distress In Kentucky – The Bernie Sanders Rally
BY MICK PARSONS
If the passion and focus of the organizers, volunteers and performers wasn’t an indication of the push behind Sunday’s rally at the Tim Faulkner Gallery in Portland, the banner certainly was. Local artist Mathieu Blake explained that the decision he and the other artists — Alexandra Pavek, Angela Ramsey and Eclus — made to depict the American flag upside down was not meant as a sign of disrespect.
“It’s a sign of distress,” he said. “It means ‘Save us Bernie Sanders.’”
Rally organizer Daniel Sherrill admitted he was surprised how quickly the event grew in such a short amount of time. “I expected maybe a hundred people and maybe three bands,” he told the audience that came out to support a presidential candidate who, according to conventional wisdom and mainstream media, does not have a chance.
One thing that resonated throughout the day, besides the heat, was the sense of optimism among the volunteers, organizers and attendees. The other thing that resonated was the fact that most of the key organizers had little or no political campaign experience before the rally. Organizers were expecting around 1,600 people, based on the number of Facebook RSVPs. Volunteer coordinator Tom Stevens — who was one of the couple of people with political campaign experience — said the event was really organized at the last minute. Within a week of the event being posted on Facebook, he said, it was clear that it could be much bigger than anyone was planning.
Of course, anyone who has used Facebook understands and has probably contributed to the phenomenon of Facebook inflation — the tendency for people to indicate they will attend events and then not show up. This did not dissuade any of the organizers, volunteers or performers, however. Volunteer sign-up coordinator and Kentucky for Bernie Sanders Facebook page administrator Scott Lee was on point to answer questions and to take down information for people interested in volunteering for future events. Attendees were asked to sign in at one of three tables so that an accurate count could be kept. Food trucks were set up in the back parking lot to accommodate anyone’s hunger and the bar was open to quench people’s thirst. A table was set up in the middle of the main gallery for those who either needed to register to vote or those who wanted to switch their party affiliation.
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http://www.leoweekly.com/2015/07/hope-and-distress-in-kentucky-the-bernie-sanders-rally/
= new reply since forum marked as read
help , and I will give what I can to get him into office
Honk ----------for a political revolution Bernie 2016
Bernie!!
voters.
I read the article twice and I must be too tired or something. Does it say how many actually showed up?
