Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Dean Was In Town Yesterday



69 Photos.

I just got back from my sister's. The event was on the West Side on the 85th Street, and she does not live that far north from there, and so I decided to drop by her place: I had not in months. I just wanted to drop by for dinner. I would have had to go back to my place and cook anyways, so why not let her do it, she is better at it. But then I ended up spending the night on her living room couch. And this morning over leisurely coffee, as we were talking, she proceeded to talk about my car and, bam, it hit me: my car was parked on the wrong side of the street. Today was Wednesday, cleaning day. I hurried back up. At least it did not get towed, but there was a ticket and a big, fat, ugly sticker on the side window that basically said, don't you want a cleaner New York, and you can remove this big, fat, ugly sticker with warm water and a scraper.

Dean was in town yesterday. Tracey introduced me to him. Tracey, you have no idea how much this means to me. She must have known. As soon as I spotted her, tapped her on her left shoulder and said, "Hey Tracey," she was like, "Here, let me introduce you to the Governor .... Governor, this is the guy who started Democracy For Nepal." She reads my face. It is speed reading. I was actually resigned to just taking Dean's photos from a distance. I did not expect to say a few words to him. Who was I? Nobody.

"I am a Dean veteran from 2004. I was in Indiana. I am already working on Dean 2008."

And then we stepped back from the spotlight. A handler then gave us this look and pushed herself between us and Dean. I was about to say, "Lady, this is Tracey Denton, Campaign Chair of Dean 2008. And I am Senior Advisor to Dean 2008. You mind?" But I let it pass. Howard Dean was working hard to keep the spotlight on Fernando Ferrer and I did not want to shift it to Tracey, even if momentarily, even if only in the background.

Big power and big money come up with turf wars. Nowhere truer than on Capitol Hill and Wall Street. When you go swimming, you get wet. When you politic, you deal with turfwater. It comes with the territory.

Yesterday morning I woke up to an unhooked computer. Usually I am online before I go to sleep, and online right after I wake up. The night before I had done the unplugging to change the routine. But a few hours later, I was back online. And I am glad I did. There was an email from Tracey saying Howard Dean was in town to do an event for Ferrer. I was psyched. You mean I finally get to see the guy?

So what is he like in person? He is almost my height. He is very plain. His honesty just exudes. This is not your calculating, scheming, posturing politician. But then I knew that. He is vastly inspirational for some unmistakable personal qualities. That lack of evil also prevents him from seeing evil in others to an extent. But then having some good, loyal staffers can rectify that. Face it, the guy is a doctor. He is not trying to impress you when he looks in your eyes. Or when he shakes your hand. He almost takes a childlike pleasure in the banter or the handshake ritual. A kid and his candy.

I was even more impressed than I was all this time before I met him. He is a plain, normal guy. But he does need to be immunized against distortions and demonizations. The image factory has to be countered with an image industry.

I actually showed up half an hour early. The first event was at 4:30. I showed up at four. I first went to the elementary school right across the street. Then I went to the high school I was supposed to go to. Can't get in early, I was told. This was my first time inside a New York City public high schoool, if the foyer can be called "inside." I did not see any guns! Although there were lots of security officers.

So I walked over to a nearby pizza joint and treated myself to a slice and a can of pepsi. Then I walked back and spent some time watching some soccer. Must have been students from the same school. I like soccer so much, I actually look down upon baseball and football. There is sports, and there is the real stuff: soccer. At my very first MeetUp in town - Brooklyn Friends - a Bostonian had to give me a short intro talk on the Red Sox. "In Boston, we have T-pass."

"Don't root for the Yankees. Red Sox are better. More chutzpah." In Africa they have ethnic wars, in America they have baseball.

Finally I showed up at 4:30, and I was told the event is on the other side of the building. I hurried. But the governor was running late. I saw all these old media TV cameras. The audience was mostly the local media. With my digital camera, even I looked like one of them. The scene got me thinking about how best to blog events and beat old media at the game. Bloggers can blog events more richly than old media can cover events. Bloggers have literally limitless space to say what they want to say. Old media has teeny weeny time slots.

I must not have been reading the local news much. Looked like Ferrer was feeling the heat. One was about some post on his blog, later I learned he was also under fire for some comment he made at some church. That got me a little pumped. Immediately I was thinking punch lines.

Bloomberg is so rich, he is practically a carpetbagger in this city of the poor, the lower middle class, the middle class, the upper middle class, and the rich. Don't vote for him. He is not one of you.

That's one. How do you like that?

The media kept gravitating towards Dean and Dean kept pushing the attention back on Ferrer. Ferrer got all these questions about his blog, and it was so obvious to me the media was responding to the presence of the blogman: Dean. Ferrer does not even blog, his staffers do, although he does submit "drafts and ideas," he said.

The first event was in front of a public school so as to draw attention to the education issue. Then we walked over to a nearby subway station. It was during that walk that I spotted Tracey. And after Dean departed, I stuck around. And Norman Siegel showed up. And Tracey introduced me to him. "You went to school in Georgia, I went to school in Kentucky." Golley, it was like meeting the Who's Who of local New York City politics. Another mayoral candidate has-been was there. Scott Stringer was there. He is running for Manhattan Borough President. He is just such an affable guy with an easy smile, real friendly demeanor. Tracey also introduced me to a whole lot of others, like a "Siegel bodyman, sorry, person," and the guy behind the New Democratic Majority. He is from Seattle. "When I think Seattle, I think Bill Gates. I have not been to the city, but I have been to the state." An anti-war activist: "How long have you been in the country? Now you know we are not all bad."

The subway station event was fun. It is like there are all these animals deep in the burrows. And you throw smoke down one end, and they all show up at the other end, and you catch them. At least one out of 20 acted like it too: "I just want to go home." I-want-to-go-home-to-mommy look on their faces, all these middle age guys. Those must be card-holding members of Billionaires For Bush. And a few at the other end: "Give 'em hell, Howard." Some thanked the "welcoming committee."

The most interesting character of the entire evening was this girl, probably 10. She showed up next to me, on my right, and she was not talking to anyone in particular. She is like,"Where is the TV camera? I am an actress. I am going to be famous one day." I pointed to one camera that seemed to be pointing in our general direction. She made her way to the front. And then threw this high voltage Julia Roberts smile. She was going to be on the evening news, and you and I were not going to get in the way, that's for sure. I thought she had her 15 seconds of fame, and then forgot about her. A little later, boom, she emerges from the underground. She must have crossed the street, then crossed the platform, and then emerged like she were getting off the train. But Dean and Ferrer were busy talking among themselves because a train had not stopped in a little while and there was this lull. No animals were getting smoked out.

"Shoot," she said. And walked away. And then I forgot about her. And then she did it all over again. This time she got to shake hands, and I took a few pictures.

If anyone who knows her - family, family friend, school teacher - that might run into this blog entry, please pass these photos onto her: this is a public service announcement. I do think she is an actress of great potential, and I think she is going to be famous some day. Aspiring actresses who want to shake Dean's hand deserve to go all the way!

Later in the evening, I also gave some thought to my career path. I am a little on the scattered side right now. I need to focus. I am gearing towards public service. Dean 2008 might end up defining me.

Theoretical work in group dynamics is to do with learning some serious maths. The IC idea is not an idea for one company, but two different industries, maybe three, and it is happening in fits and bounds. Google just made a breakthrough with the free, wireless broadband idea: companies will do it better than city governments. If I could focus on my online retail marketing for the money, and then focus on Dean 2008 for the politics, that would be great. Dean 2008 might be the best way to participate in a total spread of democracy worldwide, the best gift to the dollar a day people, my "constituency" of choice. Even my corporate visions have always been about public service: the IC idea is to reach out to the dollar a day crowd. But technology is at best a means. Technology is not the solution. Social and political challenges have social and political solutions. Although internet access helps greatly. No need to ditch anything, just prioritize, and focus on one thing for now. That might be Dean 2008.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the photo you linked to as Manhattan BeeP to be Scott Stringer is actually a photo of State Senate Supah-star Eric Schneiderman.

Anonymous said...

Why do you equate being rich to being evil? don't you realize how much corporate america and capitalism has done to improve the lives of the masses? do you really think that more government (as most democrats like howard dean advocate), pouring more and more money in, is the solution? look at all the money that was poured in over the years in new orleans. the public schools are a failutre, they have one of the highest crime rates in the country, the levees were never fixed (and that was long before bush went into office, so don't put the onus on him). I always hear the democrats complaining about Walmart. You know what? I love walmart! Why? because in my state of wyoming (and in vermont, where i used to live) a lot of people don't make a lot of money. And they get stuff cheaper at walmart than anywhere! So what if it is made in china! just about EVERYTHING is made in china these days, even if you shop at Macys! if you have a choice of chinese made socks and underwear from macys or walmart, where they are tons cheaper, where would you go? Walmart has given so many jobs in those countries, where otherwise most of those people would be unemployed. Of course there are abuses! There are tons of abuses! that is life. Walmart and all corporations in the usa do the best they can to monitor them! of course, small local business will get wiped out if walmart comes (not all but some). but that is called COMPETITION. And it makes people work harder!! The USA has the highest deficit EVER. We American tax payers do not need to continue paying for more social service programs which clearly are not working. Dean needs to look around his own home state of Vermont (a TINY one, by the way, with only 600,000 people) and see that his own programs have not helped. it is ultimately INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMS, churches, private enterprise, private schools and less government, that is going to make the difference, as it always has in this great country of ours. The liberals are always so angry all the time! But what is wrong with individual responsiblity and not expecting your government to do everything for you? Of course there are some roles the government should play, but in limited ways. You cannot give a government a little bit of power, just like you cannot be a little bit pregnant! It won't work!! I recommend instead of dismissing what us libertarians and conservatives think as automatically being uncompassionate (as if somehow only republica ns are rich. My god, look at all those hollywood liberals!! they earned their money from their movies because of something called CAPITALISM!!)... by the way, arnold Schwarzenneger is Republican. One of the reasons he is is because he remembers what it wa slike to grow up in a socialist country where they were taxed up to fIFTY PERCENT to pay for all those programs!! Guess what? He believes people need to keep their hard earned money and invest it privately!!