Women for America: Women for Change Rally

Tom and I rode the Marta train to the Georgia State Capitol this morning to attend the Women for America: Women for Change Rally, a rally for Barack Obama. I took a few pictures of the event which I've posted below. The speakers at the rally included

• Mayor Shirley Franklin,
• Stephanie Blank,
• Pearl Cleage,
• Glenda Hatchett,
• U. S. Senate Candidate Jim Martin (D),
• Ambassador Andrew Young,
• U.S. Congressman John Lewis,
• Pat Mitchell,
• Georgia State Senator Nan Grogan Orrock,
• Mimi Woodson, and
• Laura Turner Seydel.

Judge Glenda Hatchett probably rallied the crowd most with a very high-spirited address, and, of course, everyone was excited to hear John Lewis and Andrew Young speak, though their presentations were short. Stephanie Blank gave the longest speech, a speech to which there were lots of "uh huhs" and "you're right" and other such affirmative responses from the crowd. Blank, of the Arthur Blank Family Foundation and wife of the founder of Home Depot (and owner of the Atlanta Falcons), said that this election is the first time she has publicly endorsed a candidate. Though she said right away that she was nervous to be standing before the crowd, she gave a moving speech about Barack Obama and about the country and this election.

Stephanie Blank related how she had immediately thought that Barack Obama would make a good president when she first heard him at the 2004 Democratic Convention. She was a supporter of his presidential campaign from the beginning. However, when Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin took the stage toward the end of the rally, Franklin contrasted her own response to Obama with that of Blank's response. Franklin said she wasn't as immediately moved by Obama as Blank had described herself as being, that she thought Obama might be a national figure sometime in the future. However, Franklin soon came around to support Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid, as described in a "Political Insider" column of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 8, 2008. (This last sentence corrects an earlier statement I wrote about Franklin's support of Obama.)

One little girl read a letter that she had written to Barack Obama. In that letter, she listed the changes that she thought Obama would bring to the nation. Her most memorable comment was that she looked forward to his "cleaning up after all of the elephants." This statement, of course, was greeted with laughter from the crowd.

The day was very bright after a morning of clouds that looked as if they might continue the rain we received yesterday. I had some difficulties getting good photographs of the speakers, but people were so accommodating to me as I stood in the crowd, waving my "Women for Obama" sign and snapping pictures.