A brief report on last night's Kucinich Meet-up in Berkeley --

[RichM]

It was the first such event I'd gone to, & it met in a local cafe. A hell of a lot of very eager people showed up - perhaps 50. The general spirit of the meeting was one of great enthusiasm. The vibes were very positive & comfortable -- people treated one another respectfully; there was little showboating or floor-hogging. People spoke of Dennis's appearance here last weekend with real sincerity.

The session leader got everyone into the discussion. He suggested different upcoming events at which volunteers might be needed; there was a generous spirit of volunteering. As it turned out, the cafe management had not been apprised of the meeting, & became vocally upset that the meeting was driving away possible customers. Finally they kicked us out, which of course produced an air of temporary confrontation & unpleasantness. What was striking, though, was that despite this, everyone just went out on the sidewalk right outside the cafe, & stayed there, & kept talking!

I was pretty encouraged by the general feel of this meeting & the quality of people that showed up. One would of course expect the DK campaign to do very well in the Bay Area, so it wasn't a total shock. Still, I left the meeting feeling better than when I'd arrived. On the faces of many at the meeting, you could see that many people understand that our country is in deep trouble -- and they want to do something to help.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. thanks for sharing & perhaps neat time buy some of the cafe's fare?

Kucinich ROCKS!

[RichM]

2. Yeah, that was the funny thing, we actually DID buy some of their fare.

The management was just very uptight & unpleasant. It didn't make any sense for them to behave like that -- they just got 50 people mad at them, & willing to tell their friends about it.

But we all did buy stuff - pizza, salads, sodas, etc. :shrug: