There’s a display up at my campus right now as a memorial to the war, a multimedia event including army boots to represent each Oregonian killed in Iraq, hardhats (which I have not found; they may be indoors somewhere close) for Oregon contractors, an prayer flags for American service people. There were also poster stands telling facts about the war, such as what life would be like if America were in Iraq’s place- thousands killed daily, NYC would have four hours of electricity a day, etc. Somewhere they also are playing videos for the event.
As usual, I will let the pictures do the speaking for me.
104 pairs of boots in the EMU amphitheater surrounded by civilian shoes.
Many had photos, flowers, or other keepsakes around them.
These represented Iraqi civilians killed.
Although far from the youngest, this pair disturbed me the most.
Also poignant. The youngest I saw was 18 months.
There were thousands of prayer flags, flapping wildly…
Each was personalized with dates, pictures, RIP, etc.
I don’t know why this one effected me so, but it did.
So I was in line for food on campus, and the two guys in front of me, obviously friends, were named Luke and Han. Not EVEN kidding. I thought that the sheets they filled out for their meals might have had aliases, but those were the names on their student ID cards.
By now you should have guessed that I’m at least politically aware enough to believe my vote counts and to pay attention to what the candidates are up to. If you read my last post, you could guess that I’m a pretty big Obama fan (much like the Fish himself). However, that wouldn’t stop me from going to a Hillary rally Monday night …or more specifically, a rally for the woman that has someone else speaking in her place. And who would be best at that? Why, her husband Bill, of course! So tonight myself and my friends Marie and Jess waited in line for about two and a half hours for the rally – it was supposed to be one, but he got caught up in traffic coming down from Corvallis (home of our rivals, the Beavers of Oregon State).
The crowd wasn’t quite as big as Obama’s, reaching between 2,300 and 3,200 attendees, but it was still so much larger than expecte that we had to forfeit the right for it to occur at the EMU Ballroom (largest room of the building in the center of campus) — instead when the line finally moved we snaked our way through the building and back out the other side, finding ourselves in the outside amphitheater, pushed together like we were ready to mosh. Not that it was a bad thing – it was getting pretty cold by then (around 9:40), so all the body heat was fantastic. Unfortunately, although I was only about 20-30 feet from the stage the tallest guys near the front were directly in front of us. So any pics that I have to offer are blurry for a number of reasons- limited chances to get a view above swaying, tall heads, twilight dark and bad stage lighting, a shifting crowd overall…and not necessarily the best shutter speed on my camera. Oh well, it worked well enough to make memories. <3
Crowd.
Bill.
Terrible Youtube I made of him speaking for about 40 seconds about the environment- only clear thing about it is the sound. At least it tells you pretty well how ticked off I was getting at people Fish’s height or more (6-foot-something) who couldn’t stand still and couldn’t understand that 95% of the people behind them couldn’t see. XD That’s alright, I enjoyed the experience all the same. By seven seconds in you also realize that it’s not my fault that the man is completely dark- his secret service agent to the left side is lit up like a lightbulb. Someone even made a shout in the crowd for them to move the spotlight, heh.
Now I’ll get the rest of my two cents on politics for the time being out of the way. If anyone wants to read more about the Obama rally at UofO that I went to on Friday night, go here. l About 8,000 attended the rally, and an estimated 7,000 new individuals in Lane County (here) registered as democrats specifically to vote in the Primaries.
Among items mentioned in the article include that he attempted to appear more casual for the student population by appearing without a tie, the man visited a track meet unannounced beforehand, two Oregon super delegates already support him openly while shouting how “McCain’s four more years of Bush!” — I think that this has become one of the new slogans of the campaign season, as this is the second or third time I’ve heard it so far (the first was Michael Moore, not surprisingly).
He wants 25% of energy used in the USA to be solar by the year 2025, plans to expand AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps and establish a tax credit of $4,000 annually for students who perform 100 hours of public service a year.
As a folklore student, I get a kick out of discovering that there was a banner hanging from a window above that said “Folklorists 4 Change” (actually, the real text was Folklorists 4 Continuity and Change, but I guess the irony of that didn’t seem as pro-Obama to the newspaper). Speaking of, the head of the department is actually teaching a course on Tracktown traditions and running culture this summer. And on that note, the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials will be happening this June on my campus, and Eugene is going crazy preparing for it. The trials will only last ten days, but millions of bucks are being put into renovating bits of the town- hotels, touristy areas, etc. Hayward Field on campus has a nice new digital scoreboard, and has the occasional sign already of who they’ll be catering to….
Starting this last Friday and lasting through the weekend was the annual Pow Wow on campus, as I mentioned in the last post. To read more about the 40th annual event, go to the Daily Emerald’s article… Just too bad the Obama bit overshadowed the beginnings of it. Also unfortunate that there aren’t clearer representations of Native American culture in the area, as the campus used to be tribal territory not so long ago. We do have a Natural and Cultural History museum and a longhouse behind it, and I’ve heard that there’s a statue somewhere of a Native American girl with a deer, but it’s apparently a bit hidden in the bushes. Unlike the Pioneer statue and Pioneer mother, the former of which might look a little familiar to Simpsons fans….
Well, it’s University Day, the time we celebrate by planting trees and bark-dusting flowerbeds. I’ve got all my day’s errands run- including putting my ballot in the mail, so here’s to a relaxing day after a long and exciting weekend!
So Friday was fun. Come midnight an Indian pow-wow took place in Mac Court (MacArthur Basketball Court at UofO for those who aren’t in the know), Friday was also the last of our campus semi-annual Street Faire (which I’ll talk about more in my next post), and biggest of all- Obama was coming to town.
Here was the dilemma for me. I had to clock on for work at 5:30 (a three hour shift at one of the school cafeterias- not hard work and not long, but I get a free meal every shift and I like the people), and the Obama rally started seating at 5:45. I got off work at (the latest) 8:30, and he’d begun to speak at 7:30. There was no way I would get to see the candidate that I have every intention of voting for as my president.
The line was intense. The sign may say “Do not enter” for vehilcles, but there were hundreds of human bodies that I could see as I walked just to my dorm, and I knew that thousands more were behind them and heading toward the throng. They had blankets, books, and poker cards at the ready to entertain themselves for the next few hours- and they had definitely started gathering several hours ahead of time.
The security was also fitting for a presidential candidate: a straight line of courthouse/airline worthy security checkpoints, each manned with the Secret Service Police and other officials. After the event had started, they penned all those who entered into a metal fenced area, after which there was a line of officers patrolling the flock, then another fence behind them. Those who came late had to watch from afar. Made sense, of course- couldn’t let knives/guns/bombs close to the stage.
So I had a terrible time at work, depressed that I’d missed Obama, and short of staff – myself and someone who had never done the work station before were together, and the language barrier of trying to explain things to a Hong Kong kid was…less than stellar. You know what it’s like when someone tries with all their might to help you, but they only make things more complicated. You just smile and thank them all the same. Anywho. Myself and another coworker rushed off as soon as we’d clocked out at about 8:15, hoping that it might still be going.
And was it. We were a few blocks still off the main campus when I heard the boom of loudspeakers, clear as day from hundreds of feet away. He was still going strong (later I heard that the last part of his performance was the best anyway). I took a while trying to get anything that even resembled a view, moving to the edge of the hundreds gated out to look into the main crowd…
…then I wandered like a hungry jackal to the other end, convinced that there was no way I was going to see the man. Finally I got up on a little bit of raised ground beneath a tree where the roots had pushed up the soil, and there he was- pacing on stage, laughing loud and joking. It was too dark and faaaaar too distant to get a good picture, but hey, at least I tried.
He discussed fair trade agreements, the price of oil, being proud when he had refused to personally respond to his opponents and regretful of when he’d taken a swing, said we need to raise the salary of schoolteachers, and praised his mother for raising him well after at age two his father left them and she had to at times depend on Food Stamps. He felt like real America- certainly at least the type of person that Oregon wanted to hear from. And he wasn’t just coming to my campus- his website showed three or more other locations in the state that he was to visit in the next couple days. It was so big and so sudden that even one of my professors had to at the last minute send out an email saying she couldn’t come to her office on her day off to drop off our papers — because the campaign had been given her parking spot.
It was certainly a fun event- and Obama continued speaking until nearly 9pm, a full hour and a half after he’d begun. He was coughing from an obvious dry throat long before he stepped down from the stage. It was riveting. I hope the man wins, because he certainly knows how to make a girl swoon.
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