I’ve finally managed to get more than three hours sleep and can process some of what happened yesterday at Mile High Stadium on the anniversary of the, “I have a dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther Kings Jr.

General Tony McPeak, a fellow Oregonian, spoke to us about why he supports Obama.  McPeak went through all the reasons why he believes Obama will be a great commander-in-chief. General McPeak certainly made the strongest case possible for supporting Obama.

After breakfast, I checked my email to find a particularly important email in my spam filtered bulk mail file.  I  was really pretty shocked and thought at first it was just some sort of gimmick. As it turned out, it was by no means a joke. There’s an old saying, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t”. Well that saying was proven wrong.  I showed my friend and convention companion, KC Hanson, the email to make sure I was reading it correctly.

I had received an invitation to be seated with the Obama and Biden family at Invesco that evening. Also in the same area of seating were Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid.

We went to the Westin Tabor hotel to pick up my special credentials. While we there we ran into Terry Bean. We chatted a bit with Terry while waiting to get some directions and short briefing. It was true. I was going to  be seated within a secured area closest to the podium where Barack Obama would make his acceptance speech that night.

Still in a bit of shock and having some time before the shuttle busses started to run we found a little place to have a celebratory bloody mary.

As our bus approached the stadium we could see the massively long lines of people waiting to get through some of the most stringent security I have ever seen for an event.  Think of airport security, multiply by a factor of 10, add snipers, bomb squads, SWAT teams, and what we could not see, you’ll begin to get the picture.

As convention delegates we got through to one of the shortest lines and made it through security. But it still took a good twenty minutes of waiting in a crush of people all waiting to get into Invesco.

Invesco, home of the Denver Broncos, is a football stadium. All of the delegates were seated by state delegations on the actual playing field which had been covered by metal plates. The elaborate stage was impressive. The media areas were everywhere. We made it down several ramps deep in the bowels of the arena into the service areas hidden from the public veiw normally. We made our way past the teams of fire marshalls, police officers and secret service agents and onto the field. We made our way to where the Oregon delegation was seated. Since I had the VIP credential, I gave my delegate credential to Meridith Wood-Smith, the chair of Democratic Party of Oregon and our leader at the convention, so that other folks from Oreegon could be on the floor of the convention.

It was only 3pm when KC and I made our way through the other state delegations towards the podium area and another level of security staffed by Secret Service people.  Once they confirmed my credentials were OK I was told to go into the ara of seats and look for my name on one of the seats. As I walked around looking for my name among the three rows of seats, I was amazed at the scale of the stage and podiums. Among the names on the seats were other people I had come to know from other parts of the country. Among the dozen or so names I recognized was Rick Stafford, the chair of the DNC LGBT caucus, and Shannon Minter, from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Shannon was he task force attorney who had litigated the case for marriage equality in the California Supreme Court. Shannon, a transman, also recently testified in congress at the transgender work place discrimination hearing.

Other seats were were reserved for MSNC, CBS, CNN, ABC, and Fox News to name a few. What really hit me was when I saw seats reserved with the names Obama and Biden in the front row directly in front of the main podium which sat atop a cascade of democratic blue carpeted steps.

A little further down the line was the name Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. My name was another six seats further down the line. Next to me was Fox News which was staffed by Chris Wallace and his assistant. Candy Crowley from CNN was a couple of seats away. Ann Curry and her crew were close by too.

Waiting for the convention to start, I got to talk with Candy Crowley. She’s one of my favorite reporters on CNN.  candy has to leave later that night to be at her son’s wedding. Her assistant takes a couple of pictures of us. Chris Wallace looks like he is wearing more make up than any one there. Really, I mean it’s plastered on with a trowel. Fuax News, why not faux reporters? Besides that, he’s a bit rude about taking up space next to me. I tripped over his microphone on the way to the bathroom.

Nancy Pelosi came in and sat down with her assistant. We said hello to each other and chatted briefly. I’m thinking it probably not a great time to give some advice on how I think congress should be run. Instead we talked about San Francisco and the days of Harvey Milk. My friend Rick Stafford joins us as we chat. A few more seats away sits Jill Biden. Harry Comes in with his staff people. He has seats next to Pelosi.

Michelle Obama comes in with her daughters. All of them looking so lovely. The youngest daughter seems totally iuntouched by the enormity of what’s going on with daddy and Michelle tends to her youngest daughter as any mom does.  If we all weren’t in the middle of 80,000 people, it might feel like a chapel filling with wedding guests. Over here is the grooms family and freinds. Over there is the is bride’s side of the family. It was so surreal.

The program started, but the excitement just ratcheted another notch.  From where I was sitting at ground level the stage and main podium, about six to  eight feet high, was connected by a runway. Just beneath the runway and on ground level was a doorway. I couldn’t help but notice that DNC staff and secret Service people were coming in and out of the door under the runway.

When Stevie Wonder came on stage, I noticed a group of older men in black suits came drifting out from under the runway seemingly to watch Stevie Wonder perform.  It’s the dozen or so Generals and Admirals supporting Obama. They came out to watch Stevie Wonder sing, “Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours.”  I noticed that General Wes Clark is swaying to the music. Actually the entire stadium was up on their feet dancing and singing along.  I yelled out to General Clark. He turned and waved hello. I motioned for him to come to me. I almost dropped dead right there when he walked the 10 to 15 feet across the blue carpet to speak to me. We talked briefly. I’ve always liked General Clark. I had my picture taken with him. I also recognized General Tony McPeak. He’s from Oregon. Mcpeak used to live in the Grants Pass area when I lived there and he now lives in Lake Oswego.  He had spoke about his support for Barack Obama at our delegation breakfast that morning.  So I gave a shout out to General Tony. when he came over we talked about having lived in Grants Pass and now in the Portland area.  I had my picture taken with him too.

I was watching Michelle and the girls during the program. Sasha, the youngest sat next to Michelle with her sister Malia to her right. During the program, you could see that Sasha was a little restless. Michelle quitely put her hand on the cholds knee and she immediately settled a bit. Later in the evening I looked over to see Sasha sprawled with boredom across Michelle’s lap.

As the big finale of the evening came with fireworks and confetti, the Bidens and the Obamas climbed up the stepps to join Barack. As they walked back towards the exit from the stage, little Sasha and one of the little Biden family girls, maybe a little older than Sasha,  bent down to pick up the confetti and throw it back up in the air.  As I wathced these two little girls, I could see they were having fun, but on their own terms. It was really great to see them there and how their families interacted with them. It is very plain to see that the Obamas are loving, caring, parents. I’m pretty sure the other little girl was one of Joe Biden’s grandaughters. I was struck with just how the two families seemd to mesh together so well.

After they left the stage, it really hit me. Tears ran down my face and I had to sit for a moment to collect myself. I must have looked a wreck as Ann Curry leaned over in my direction to ask if I was alright.

KC and found each other in the crowd as we left the arena. After a lot of confusion we found a bus that would take us back to where we ahd parked. By the time we got back to our hotel, we were both hungry and tired. We joined the party in the hotel bar, got something to eat and went to bed exhausted.

I can not recall feeling such a strong sense of community with so many people. It was alomost like having 80,000+ brothers and sisters. There was no squabling or discourse anywhere to be found. The protesters, which really didn’t factor in anything serious, did have a few arrests.