DNC a contrast to RNC in oh-so-many ways

The journalists started complaining almost immediately after leaving the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and arriving in Philadelphia, where the logistics made it much harder to do their jobs at the Democratic National Convention. Huge lineups for food, transportation nightmares and other challenges contributed to this. Then there's the attitude thing, of which this collection of tweets is one example. Gotta love the City of Brotherly Love!

The biggest difference between the two conventions, however, was in the diversity of people at the DNC and the relative whiteness of RNC convention-goers. The RNC worked hard to arrange racial and ethnic diversity in their speakers, but not much could be done to make their delegates look like a cross-section of Americans.

Equally different was the tone. People spoke of love! Togetherness. The worth and dignity of every person. It was a stark contrast to last week's harshly critical tone about everyone, it seemed, except Donald Trump. And of course, Ronald Reagan.

For me, as a feminist and women's college graduate, it was the fulfillment of a longtime dream to see Hillary Clinton step forward into the spotlight at the end of the DNC and accept the nomination. The pundits Thursday night who disparaged her speech were men. Perhaps they didn't catch the wave of  feeling, which for me was absolutely thrilling. Looking at the faces of the women and girls in the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia, I saw the thrill reflected there too. I even saw it in women who were reporting on the event, who looked suddenly radiant. The men, for the most part, didn't seem to catch that wave, though I did see some who clearly did. For the others, that's okay. They already know what it feels like to identify with a candidate. For us, it was new and wonderful. My grandson even thinks I look like Hillary, which adds to that feeling of identification.

I still remember what it felt like to see other "firsts" for women: the first Canadian woman to go into space as an astronaut, Roberta Bondar, and our first female prime minister, Kim Campbell. It doesn't happen every day. The image of Hillary shattering the glass ceiling on Tuesday night, in the video played after her roll-call nomination was complete, was right on. It made an impact like that for all of us who have waited so long.

My students returned to the classroom this week, after internships and volunteer work at the RNC, filled with enthusiasm and stories. This week, they were writing papers and stories based on research about past conventions, along with interviews and observations done at this one. In lectures and class discussions, plus a visit to our class by the very impressive Diane Downing, chief operating officer for the Cleveland RNC Host Committee, we helped each other to analyze what happened at the RNC and compare it to this week's DNC. It was fascinating to hear from the students and see their understanding, both of the politics and of the media coverage, develop over time.

Today, we had the final exam. Monday, we'll receive their final papers and stories. I'm anxious to see how much they learned. I know that I learned a lot!