Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Guest opinion - Democratic convention an inspiring occasion


By Rob Miller
Utah State Democratic Vice Chair

Throughout my time on this planet there have been several, yet rare events that have occurred that were life altering in an inspiring and spiritual nature. Some of those experiences include the day I married my wife Michelle, the birth of my children Abby, Anna, and Sami, the day my father passed away, and being with my grandmother when she finally received her endowments and was sealed to her husband and children at age 96 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Although I have never thought in my wildest dreams that my political journey could ever bring me to the same state of inspiration as the above events, I can say that attending the 2008 Democratic National Convention, especially the night when Illinois Sen. Barack Obama accepted the nomination to be the Democratic candidate for president, was one of those moments.

When I arrived in Denver on Saturday, Aug. 23, in the late morning the first two people I ran into from our Utah delegation was former Utah State Sen. Karen Hale and Current State Sen. Pat Jones who helped me find my way to the shuttle that took me to the Warwick Hotel in downtown Denver. I can’t think of two better examples of dedicated Utah public servants than Karen and Pat, and both of these two ladies played instrumental parts in my journey in becoming a Utah State Democratic Party officer.

In 2004 I was inspired by Scott Matheson, Jr.’s and Sen. Karen Hale’s Democratic campaign for governor and lieutenant governor, and Sen. Jones was one of the first people to endorse my campaign for vice chair.

Sunday night I attended a event at Red Rocks amphitheater called Green Day at Red Rocks. It was here that I listened to Robert Kennedy, Jr. speak about the opportunities of building a green economy. It was also where I received the phone call from Utah State Senate District 23 Candidate, Richard Watson, that his opponent Dan Liljenquist’s plane had crashed. Richard was very distraught by the news, and called me so I could call my wife because he knew that Dan’s wife Brooke and my wife are friends. After calling Michelle I said a silent prayer for Dan and his family and was relieved to hear the next day that Dan had survived and that he would be home soon with his family.

On Tuesday, I watched Hillary Clinton once again throw her support to Sen. Obama, and on Wednesday I watched her husband, former President Bill Clinton, do the same — and once again I was inspired to see our party coming together as I watched Sen. Joe Biden accept the nomination to be Sen. Obama’s running mate, but nothing up to this point compared to what I would experience on Thursday at INVESCO’s Mile High Stadium.

I arrived at the stadium early and found my seat with our Utah Delegation. As the stadium quickly filled, I felt in awe with the understanding that I was there with 82,000-plus others who like me wanted to see Barack Obama become our next president.

When the tribute to Martin Luther King played I was reminded that it had been 45 years before when Dr. Martin Luther King had given his, “I have a dream” speech. I also realized that it was my father Michael’s birthday, and the emotion of that reality brought me to these words from Dr. King’s last speech, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

“Was Dr. King Speaking about this moment in history?” I thought, and once again I felt tears of understanding fill my eyes.

When Barack Obama spoke that night I again thought of my own Obama conversion story, and then this scripture, Matthew 5:16, came to mind, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

For me this scripture explains Sen. Barack Obama’s amazing journey to become our Democratic Nominee and more than probably our next president. When he spoke on Thursday night he not only spoke to Democrats but to all of the citizens of the United States and it is my prayer that Utahns will open their hearts to his message and join me on Nov. 4 when we will elect our next American President

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob, Your journey is not over. We are going to gain some ground this November in Utah and move closer to putting our government back where it belongs - in the hands of the people.

Thanks for all you do and your support.

Joe Dulin

Anonymous said...

Rob,

I have wondered, but never had a confirmation until this very moment that you are completely mentally incompitent. Good Lord! Obama spoke of socialism, which is NOT Gods plan, but the plan of satan.

Forcing people to "care for one another" through taxes, and social programs is the plan satan layed out "I will MAKE them be good and kind, we will take care of one another! We will use power to mandate their cooperation" does that sound like Satan or Obama?
Your the one who made this spiritual so I am just answering.
Secondly, I already asked you how you as a Christian can justify Obama's support of letting a live born baby DIE if it survives and abortion attempt, you have no answer!! He was recorded on the Senate floor defending this gut-churning practice. I thought he wanted medical care for ALL! I guess new born babies are exempt if the parents don't want them?

If you had a spiritual experience watching this insane, marxist who supports infanticide, then I have to wonder who your God is in your personal life.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

You seem pretty ticked off. Maybe you should repent and sign your name if you are going to make such INSANE statments.

Just like a GOP Nutcake to be so disrepectful to another man's faith.

I found Rob's article honest and sincere. Maybe had you been there and if you had listened to Obama's speech you would have noticed that Obama wants to reduce the amount of unwanted pregnancies, an idea that escapes most Right-wing wack jobs.

Thanks for the article Rob.

Anonymous said...

To the nutcake anon:
Hmmm, maybe you should look in the mirror and you will see satan. Wow, what kind of Kool-Aid have you been drinking? What ever it is, you have been poisoned.
To attack issues, is one thing, but to attack Rob and his sincerity, you are worse than your idiotic statements.
Are you even human?
If so, you have no heart at all.

Anonymous said...

My heart sank as I watched the convention.

The Democratic Party I know is now in full swing with the left. It goes aginst so many things that I believe in.

Where is the Party of Bill Clinton - of taking hard firm stances on social issues? (The defense of marriage act) - of taking stances to the right?

Bill did great things..welfare reform, low taxes ..and Obama..high taxes..and social enginnering.

Moderate and Conservative democrats - where are you ??

Anonymous said...

Rob is the one who brought in religion! Not me! please slow in your attacks liberal marxist's. What statements were "insane" I spoke nothing but the truth, but commie-libs have a hard time with reality.

Rob REFUSES to answer a simple question of HOW he can get his Christian mind around the fact that Obama SUPPORTS letting a baby suffer and DIE without health treatment, if it was intended to be aborted. How do ANY of you get your mind around his support for such a brutal, disgusting murder? HOW!?

Anonymous said...

Why wont Rob answer my question? Why wont any of you? How do you justify the support marx Obama has for letting a baby DIE if it born alive during a botched abortion? This is murder, infantacide to put a baby in the linen closet and wait for time to kill it. But Obama supports this action.

Anonymous said...

I will answer your question.

The "right to life" argument is silly. There is no "right to life" in question. What is at issue is if there is a right in society to occasionally kill. The undisputable answer to that is yes.

Killing a clump of dependent cells thru an abortion is no different than a killin a baby with an errant bomb in Iraq. We do it every day.

We as a society accept that killing babies is okay under some circumstances, be they in the womb or the back streets of Kabul.


To argue that abortion is morally wrong, but collateral damage from a war is okay is intellectually dishonst.

Democrats are not by any means “pro-abortion”. We find that term reprehensible. In fact, we would like to reduce the number of abortions by making sure women have access to contraception. Those of you on the right fight every attempt at funding contraception plans despite all of the evidence that they actually work in preventing unwanted pregnancies while at the same time, abstinence only plans do not ever work.

So get off your horse and let’s do something about the killing of babies. Let’s stop the wasted effort in Iraq and let’s use the money spent there on birth control. This way, we all win.

I often wonder how, after the Bush years, anyone could be a Republican. It's an ongoing mystery, but Sarah Palin demonstrates who they are. They are small small small. They are obsessed with power. Whatever they have, they want to be sure that they keep it. They don't mind if the pie is shrinking through their own actions -- they will just employ the police state to keep their portion and get more. All other factions of the Republican party -- all the ones who once had and still have any vestiges of kindness and morality and (God forbid) altruism -- have drifted away and only the narrowest are left -- the out and out racists, the sexual opportunists, like McCain, the operatives who do it for the money, and the knee-jerk haters, the folks who leave destruction all around themselves and never even say they're sorry.

Rob said...

Dear Anonymous,

I haven't answered your question because I don't see the need or have the desire to have a dialogue with you. It won't matter what I say, since your purpose isn't to understand anyone else's viewpoint but your own.

If you want to have a serious discussion you can write me at utahamicus@gmail.com, or you can call me at 801-706-6203 Or, you can back up your statements with your true identity.

I will say this, did you even listen to Senator Obama's speech? Did you hear him say that we can all agree on reducing the amount of unwanted pregnancies?

Maybe I would take you seriously if your question was actually a question instead of being an attack and diversion.

Dale Carnegie made two statements that I believe are relevant here:

"The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.", and "Show respect for the other person's opinion. Never say, "You're wrong."

You don't want a dialogue, you want a fight, and I'm simply not willing to fall for it.

Obama's speech was very inspiring. It reminded me who I'm supposed to be and that I seriously need to work on my own shortcomings and flaws and for that I am grateful.

Thanks for coming by.

Anonymous said...

Hey nutcake anon:
You call libs "lying commies" and you throwing the usual "baby-killing" crap. I have to wonder why you are always so angry? Did you lose your job? Are you blaming your frustrations and personal life mistakes on Democrats? Are you having problems with relationships? Over the weeks, you seem to have displayed an unusual amount of anger and hate. Obviously, you have bigger problems than trying to sound intelligent about politics. Lighten up and stop drinking the "Talk Radio Kool-Aid", it's killing you, you have no heart.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Laughing stuttered.

Poor Laughing, always having to repeat himself to try to make others listen.