Kamala Harris, For the People: Images from the Convention Joyce Vance Aug 20 Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance. Speaker after speaker saluted Joe Biden. And Hilary Clinton spoke like the true leader that she is. And in a quick, quiet moment, Harris’ best friend growing up was accompanied to the podium by her own Mom, who told Harris, “your Mom would be proud of you.” UAW President Shawn Fain told the convention, “Kamala Harris is one of us.” The camera panned out to catch union workers in the audience, carrying union signs and wearing union hats, some, gruff-looking men who nodded vigorously in agreement. AOC gave a rousing speech, one that reminded me of how very good she is at this, telling younger voters, especially voters concerned about Gaza, why they should support Harris. Why they had to. It was a fairytale first night for the Democrats. Hillary Clinton finishing up to “Fight Song” was chef’s kiss. I’m lucky enough to have a friend at the Convention, the talented Tim Durkan, who shared a few of his pictures from today with me. They are such amazing little slices of the action that those of us who are watching at home on TV wouldn’t be able to see otherwise that I want to share them with you. Tim was quick to agree. You can find more of his work here. These photos are from the Black Caucus this afternoon. Maxine Waters, who has served California's 43rd district in Congress since 1991. Fire! Governor Walz joined and spoke to a standing room only crowd. You can see the former football coach in this one! If there was a dry eye when women shared their stories about what the absence of choice about their own medical care meant for their health, it wasn’t in my house. There was tape of Harris saying, “We trust women to make decisions about their own bodies.” We trust her to make sure we will be able to again. President Biden closed out the night and brought down the house. Joe Biden: “Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?” Absolutely! “I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done.” The crowd: “We love Joe. We love Joe.” Biden called selecting Kamala Harris the best decision he’d made in his whole career. Red signs across the room read, “Thank you Joe.” I think a lot about voting, possibly too much. I try to encourage others to vote every chance I get. Today, it was a friend’s kid who was visiting over morning coffee and women voters in Maine who gathered on Zoom before the start of the convention tonight. Use vote.gov to encourage people around you to register. A new law in Georgia permits counties to eliminate Sunday voting. Sunday voting, known as “souls to the polls” in the deep South, makes it possible for Black voters who work on Tuesdays to march straight from church to vote on their day of worship. Their votes are prayers. We should all demand, including in states like mine that don’t have early voting and no-excuse absentee voting, the right to go souls to the polls, in whatever for that takes for us. Go from your church, your temple, your mosque. Have a voting brunch or a neighborhood walk to the polls. Do whatever it takes. Voting should be easy. It should be encouraged. But far too often, it isn’t. Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock told the audience: "A vote is a kind of prayer for the kind of world we desire for ourselves and for our children, and we are stronger when we pray together." “I need American children on both sides of the track to be okay.” After tonight, I can’t wait to vote for the world I want for my children. We’re in this together, Joyce