I feel like a groupie.

I am reflecting about hearing/seeing Senator John Kerry speak about an hour ago, on campus. It was pretty flippin' cool because he was (like it or not) almost our president and I kind of got the impression that he would try again.

They've been announcing for a couple of months now and I debated on not even going. My mom was a dedicated and unwavering democrat (who threatened to disown me if I voted Republican). I thought about her all weekend- if she had been alive and able, she would have tried to see John Kerry speak. She would have been disappointed in me if I didn't go, only because I was feeling lazy.

I went, underdressed and without a camera, mainly because I was surprised that they would let me in and surprised to have the time to go. He walked in, right passed me, looking pretty much like he does on TV (so no surprises. Well, I did guess that he probably wears ALOT of hairspray. but that's pretty much it.) He spoke about how important it is for college students to get involved in politics, which I agreed on. He talked to the people who are so upset about the war that they think Bush should be impeached, explaining that it would be better to vote for people in the government who one supports as the process of impeaching someone DOES take up a lot of time and money. He didn't talk about religion, which is unfortunate, and he didn't talk about immigration.

This one guy from some 3rd party (what party? the Green party?) tried to get him to talk about Lopez-Obrador, kind of, because Obrador similarly lost the Mexican presidential election by a small amount of votes. Obrador is protesting and calling fraud. Kerry very wisely steered away from getting into that. (and I rolled my eyes because yes, the guy had every right to bring up Obrador. BUT the way that he did it made him sound pretty radical and not really educated on the reason why Obrador is fighting Mexico/Calderon/to some extent Fox.) My one Mexican friend who went to Tijuana and who voted for Obrador but who wants him to kind of back off now, explained that she was mostly against the general, constant corruption of Mexican voting, which Obrador spoke out against. She doesn't mind if Calderon is president as long as he changes things. If it's the same stupid circus, only with a different clown, it isn't working. I know that I am VERY gringa but I have a feeling (and I'm also being kind of smug right now), that I know a little more perhaps because I actually watch spanish news. (implying that this guy didn't. if he did and I'm wrong, I apologize. I realize I'm being unfairly critical.)

It was interesting to note, also, that the one woman democrat that I talked to absolutely does not support Hillary Clinton. (Kerry didn't talk about her possibly running for president either.)

I got "Sooooo" close to just being able to shake his hand (and I started to feel like it was ridiculous because he's a senator and not a movie star). And I moped about not having a camera and begged people who did have cameras to send me copies of their photos. (I also, shame on me, told the Dean, who helped organize this and who also goes to my church, that I would give a sermon on the apocalypse and/or proclaim the supremity of the male gender, if he could figure out how to get me and John Kerry in a photograph together.) I'm not giving a sermon nor am I denying my rights as a woman, which is actually good. And at the end of the day, I think my mom would have been pretty proud.

I guess if there was any kind of side note to all of this reflecting, it would have to be "why was this so important"? yes, he could have been our president. But, is my relationship with God more important than my affiliation to the democratic party? John Kerry, after all, is just a man. And I don't know that I do agree with necessarily all that the democratic party/John Kerry promote. (I still feel like he needed to speak more on faith, but authentically and not just because he knew he was at a Christian university.) I can't think that one man/one political party would magically make the war end or make poverty go away, create peace and equality, etc. The only absolute confidence that I have is in my faith that God has the last word and that God is the one who is capable of creating "shalom".