Kerry 'Solidarity' Night in Evanston

9th Congressional District State Senator Jeffrey Schoenberg Speaks to Crowd

Report from Susan Schell:

Speaking in a heartfelt manner to a crowd of at least 106 people (although, there could have been a few who slipped in without signing up!) that gathered at the Firehouse Grill in Evanston on Thursday night, for a "Kerry Solidarity Night," State Senator Jeffrey Schoenberg delivered an optimistic talk to the crowd regarding the importance of the upcoming election and the importance of Democrats' reclaiming, not only the Presidency, but also Congress.

Kerry Solidarity Night, was an effort to bring our volunteers together to watch in "solidarity" the last night of the convention, as we listened to the Republicans anoint their war president and continue to wrongly link the war in Iraq to the war on terrorism.

At 9 p.m., everyone watched one of two televisions tuned to C-Span and silence fell over the room. People wanted to hear what President Bush was going to say. Then, the quips and wisecracks began. Whenever a false or misleading statement was heard, someone in the room would retort with an uproariously snappy comment. Luckily, the TVs were set for the hearing impaired, so if you couldn't hear the volume over the laughter, you could still read what was being said. This pretty well describes the reception President Bush’s speech received at the Firehouse Grill. After speaking for nearly 70 minutes, many of us began complaining that it felt as if our faces were about to fall off from all of the laughing. Watching this type of Convention with like-minded people, needless to say, is highly recommended.

Earlier in the evening, Daniel Dennison also presented additional information about volunteering to travel to Wisconsin and explained to the crowd that during the remaining weeks of this campaign, we must all dig deep to find the energy that we started with, and then some.

This event attracted some first-time visitors, people signing up to go to Wisconsin and additional people joining our Illinois Ninth Congressional District Volunteer Kerry Media Corps.

It was a great night for building committed workers for our Party's upcoming efforts!