I Showed Up -- Reflections on the "Nash-ional" Conference

[Fly by night]

It is twenty minutes 'til Sunday midnight, here in my Tennessee holler home. It is quiet and dark and I'm not keeping track of timing any more presentations. The "Nash-ional" has come and gone, and yet it still resonates (down deep, and with what feels like forever).

I will post more tomorrow, but speaking for us Orange Staters, we are very pleased. It was all good.

So, who showed up?

People from 30 states showed up.
The Nashville paper showed up (and stayed for two days).
The NBC affiliate showed up (and broadcast stories on the conference at noon, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 pm on Friday).
The speakers showed up early and stayed late. And they gave us a remarkable post-graduate course in election fraud and the needed remedies.
David Cobb showed up (as did R. Lee Wrights, the Vice-Chair for the Libertarian National Committee) and they received a standing ovation before they reached the stage.
Civil rights leaders showed up, and shared.
High school girls with voices of sweetness and strength showed up.
And more musicians showed up, at every break.
The warriors from Ohio and Florida and Alabama and Pennsylvania and Arizona and Oregon and Washington and Georgia and California and New Jersey -- from all those places where warriors must now come together -- showed up.
The documentarians and videographers showed up (in spades).
Patriots with smarts and skill and stamina and soul showed up.
The "early innovators" in this Second American Revolution showed up.
Brad and Mary Beth and Clint and Judith and berniew1 and Kat and Cliff and Lara and Bob and Joanne and Josh and Kathy and R.H. showed up.
Dancers and physicians and truck drivers and astrophysicists, election fraud-busters all, showed up.
Nine political parties showed up.
Common Cause and the People for the American Way Foundation showed up.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney showed up.
So many proud and patriotic people showed up.
Fifteen year olds and 70+ year olds showed up.
A Pacifica radio producer showed up (after driving non-stop from Arizona to join us just for the Sunday discussion groups only.)
And many of you showed up.

While I try to get some sleep (having had 9 1/2 hours in the past 100+), I'll be forever thankful to everyone who showed up. And for those of you here on DU who have impatiently waited for word. I look forward to hearing what others will have to say about the past three days -- about spring-time in the South, talking election reform and demanding election justice. Putting faces with names, aligning hearts and minds.

Five pieces of news for those of you following the "Nash-ional" conference from afar:

1) This Tennessee Independent Media Center article is a good one, and shows the first pictures of our group shot with Congresswoman McKinney.

http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/4960/index.php

2) The Nashville Tennessean (whose reporter stayed 15+ hours at the conference, and who we arranged to join us for the ride in from the airport with the Congresswoman) plans to do a "long" story that will appear tomorrow.

3) Robert Koehler (of the Chicago Tribune Media Services syndicate) plans to do his next nationally syndicated column on the conference. It will be released on Wednesday.

4) Brad Friedman plans to blog his impressions shortly on BradBlog.

5) Our late-arriving Pacifica producer will send the entirety of the plenary audio to all 84 Pacifica affiliates (in one hour segments) as soon as we get him the audio. And he will help us in posting the entire 14 hours of the plenary sessions soon on the internet -- probably within a week or two. And will help us create CDs to distribute to anyone who wants to "show up" in cyberspace or in a CD player, our conference suspended in time, waiting for them.

We all showed up, and wish more of you could have too. But don't despair -- we may just Gather together again in Philadelphia sometime soon. Seems to us that re-visiting Independence Hall to start re-taking our country with another (larger) national rally for democracy might be a good chance for more of us to suit up and "show up" next time. After all, why wait any longer?

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Now Karyn and Kat and Kathy; Kip and berniew1 and Dan and Andy -- and all you other DU-gooders who attended or supported our Gathering. Check in and share your reflections of the "Nash-ional" conference. I'll write more tomorrow. But for now ....

I'm going to bed.