State Senator Linda Lopez, State Senator Dede Feldman and City Councilwoman Debbie O’Malley held a press conference today on civic Plaza to let Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin know that they were not welcome in Albuquerque New Mexico. Their form of politics is not what this country needs at this point in history. To prove that fact all you had to do was watch the protest that followed for a few minutes. 
The Rally turned into a protest where people who attended the rally walked over to the convention center where republicans were waiting in line to see the republican candidates. The divide was only to clear. The Democrats were on the west side of the street calling for peace and civil rights. The republicans on the east side of the street were calling for more war and screaming racial epithets about Senator Barack Obama. The “N” word was used more the once while I was watching the protest. Clearly the police feared that the protest could become volatiles because some of the individuals that were screaming the racial epithets did not look like people who could control their behavior in public. I think those individuals were clearly upset when the democrats refused to start anything violent.
I did not stay because I was tried after the State Fair Parade and the negative tone of the republicans was not something I cared to listen to late into the evening. I head back to my car which was on the other side of the other building in a handicapped parking space. I wanted to slip through the build but was informed by an armed guard that unless I was attending an event that I could not enter the build even to cross over to the other side. Went did our convention center become private property of Senator John McCain? I though our tax payer’s dollars was used to paid for those buildings. I stayed calm and simply limped around the building. When someone has a gun, I find it best to always be polite even if you are tired and in pain.
