The day of the nomination . . . after two full days of workshops and meetings, we are finally at the point where we are packing into the Chicago Symphony Center for a day of voting and speeches!
We kicked it off with a roll call and credentialing of our delegates. We were skillfully guided through the day by
With assistance from Lynn Serpe
and Ruth Weill who did a ton of work to plan this whole event. (Sorry, no picture of Ruth)
Our first speaker was Cliff Thornton
Followed by Kathy Kelly
We then had our platform vote . . . ’nuff said about that.
Then I had the great pleasure of introducing Malik Rahim
We had a quick fundraising pitch from David Cobb
and then we then had speeches by our candidates for president. Jesse Johnson
Followed by Cynthia McKinney, who I thought I would get picture of later . . . except my batteries died.
Then Kent Mesplay, who I completely forgot to take a picture of . . . ugh . . . . followed by Kat Swift.
We took a QUICK break for lunch and came back for more speeches by
Jill Stein
And Omar Lopez
And then we went on to our presidential voting. Pictures here.
After Cynthia McKinney won in the first round, we took a hand vote for her chosen running mate Rosa Clemente (by this point, my batteries in my camera were dead and my cell phone couldn’t take pictures due to the lighting.) The vote was unanimous except for one abstention by our very own Ben Manski.
The speeches that followed were truly remarkable. More on that in a bit.
After the convention, I went to dinner with Rob and back for more celebrating at the Palmer House Hilton.
A remarkable, remarkable day. I’ll get you more on the chosen President and Vice President candidates as soon as I catch up on the rest of my blogging.
Note: I intend to put in links to the amazing people who spoke at our convention, so check back in a day or two for more information.
