I will freely admit that I, in my usual non-political, don't-want-to-deal-with-it attitude, planned rather rebelliously to ignore the entire debate. The way I saw it, there was nothing that either candidate could say that would get me to change my vote. (And there wasn't.) But someone called me out on that being a crappy reason not to watch the debate and be an informed voter. He was right.
I had blissfully, defiantly not registered for DebateFest, the big party that DU was putting on rather than attempt to hold classes when the campus was swamped with security and press. I planned, instead to hole myself up in my apartment and merely watch the chaos unfold below. It was a plan I held onto happily right up until the fences started popping up. As you may imagine, an event featuring the President of the United States and his opponent needs to be a fairly secure deal. Not the type of thing that just any old mad man could wander into. For DU, this meant fences. Everywhere. Miles of fences went up all over campus a few days before the big event. Naturally, this meant that some of the campus footpaths were blocked and students would have to take different routes to class. I'm sure all of the good, sane people of DU didn't mind working around this minor inconvenience for a few days for the sake of the prestige of hosting the debate. It, however, drove me absolutely crazy. I think it started with a particularly trying fence experience I had when trying to get all the way across campus and into the Ritchie Center (the sports facility which housed the arena the debate was being held in) for curling practice. Despite the debate being nearly a week away at that point I had to circumnavigate one of the biggest buildings on campus several times, stopping and starting due to fences, and finally walk through a dodgy alley before showing up to practice 20 minutes late. It was late, I was tired, and this annoying experience had primed me to be annoyed by the whole debate.
The epicenter of the irritation. |
Fast-forward a day and a half to me and my roommates plus some friends sitting on one of DU's brick paths for an hour waiting to go into DebateFest. I honestly was never excited until the line started moving and we walked in to DebateFest, on the other side of the fences! Then, seeing all of the informational booths, the stage, the huge screens and the students and community members bedecked in the gear of their candidate of choice I realized that this was a pretty cool event and I was glad to be there.
The rest of the afternoon was a lovely break from classes on a lovely day at an event with a sort of low key, local music festival vibe to it. We snagged a spot on the grass to spread out our blanket and then spent the rest of the afternoon listening to local bands, chatting (sometimes even about politics), and wandering the transformed campus. We were entertained by Zach Hekendorf, Nathaniel Rateliff, and The Lumineers. We saw, or in my case tried really hard to ignore, a hot dog eating contest and watched as an artist created a huge painting of the two candidates while rocking out to music. We even got a few little pep talks from Governor Hickenlooper and Mayor Hancock. All said it was a really enjoyable afternoon, certainly better than being in class. And, yes, better than being holed up in my room alone.
The Lumineers |
I know you can't tell but this is actually the candidates being introduced. |
This is what a well informed voter looks like. |
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