It came in the newspaper, on the Internet, and the TV screen. News of the election season was everywhere this summer, climaxing in the Democratic and Republican conventions in July and August.
Wesleyan students, befitting the school’s political reputation, were present at both conventions in one capacity or another. Some students worked for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, get-out-the-vote groups, the Democratic National Committee, or progressive coalitions, and made it to Boston to take part in the Democratic Convention. Others partook in demonstrations in New York City, the site of the Republican Convention.
Students from both conventions reported feeling excited, and at times sour, about their experiences.
Larissa Slovin ’08 interned for Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) for two years prior to her attendance at the Democratic National Convention this July. Raised outside of the city, Slovin spent the entire week of the convention in Boston.
“Never before had I felt such concentrated political excitement,” Slovin said. “The Celtics would be jealous of how packed the Fleet Center was.”
Slovin said she felt a certain air of superiority when she watched President Bush address the Republican National Convention during Orientation week as other students made sarcastic comments about the Republicans cheering in unison.
She said the Democratic convention was equally strange.
“But since we agree, we overlook that aspect,” she said.
Betti Packman ’07, president of the Wesleyan Democrats, also attended the convention in Boston.
“It was the most amazing experience of my life,” Packman said. “I’m not normally patriotic, but the red, white and blue everywhere gave me an amazing feeling.”
Packman also commented on the prominent presence of celebrities at the convention.
“The night that Kerry spoke, I was standing below Ben Affleck, John Cusak, Leonardo DiCaprio, P-Diddy, and Hillary Rodham Clinton,” she said.
Like Slovin, Packman said that the convention seemed “orchestrated,” as ushers quickly rushed down the aisles to pass out signs for blatant TV friendly appearances. Packman returned home with 31 signs with the now famous slogans such as “A Stronger America” and “Hope is on the Way.”
A month after the Democratic National Convention, President Bush formally accepted his party’s nomination for re-election at Madison Square Garden, only several miles away from Ground Zero. In the weeks leading up to the RNC, news reports estimated an influx of hundreds of thousands of protestors against the Bush administration. Wesleyan students took their turn in mass dissent.
B Lake ’06, who spent the entire week of the convention in New York City, reported that, although he came to protest and work as a street medic, he spent the week defending his liberties in a battle between demonstrators and the NYPD.
“I certainly felt very encroached upon,” Lake said. “I never got near to the convention center.”
Lake, who attended the protests with fellow medics, can claim to be one of nearly two thousand citizens arrested during the week the Republicans came to town.
Matt Montesano ’05 also worked as a medic. He described the scene at Pier 57, an old motor pool, where arrested protesters were taken.
“I treated people after their release that came out with chemical burns from sleeping in motor oil, severe infections, which led to surgery in two cases,” Montesano said.
Police arrived in stampedes to contain protestors and took over city blocks using orange construction tape.
“Yet they never ordered us to disperse,” Lake said. “After they ordered for all press to leave, the police started smashing instruments of the [street musician coalitions] Infernal Noise Brigade and the Rude Music Orchestra.”
The arrests were mostly for disorderly conduct.
“When I was in my cell, there was a hand count of who was arrested while standing on the sidewalk and only several people did not raise their hand,” Lake said.
“I think it’s indicative of a wide spread resistance to various elements of the conservative agenda,” Montesano said.
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