Breakfast Monday (happy Labor Day!)

Just got back from the NY Dems breakfast meeting.  Imagine a tent longer than a football field, and about a third as wide.  Podium along one of the long sides; professional lighting, sound; half-a-dozen big screens for people who aren't up close.  The rest of the space is dining tables.  Breakfast was good, not great (no bacon!).

There were over a dozen speakers, most there to fire up the crowd.  It's Labor Day today, so NY labor leaders led off, followed by NYS Assemblymen, mayors, and NYDC officials.  The mayor of Syracuse introduced the mayor of Minneapolis, who introduced the mayor of Charlotte, Anthony Fox - an African-American lawyer (NYU |Law School) who is the first Democratic mayor in 22 years.

A couple of things stood out for me.  The Co-Chair of the NYSDC noted that "...because we are Democrats, we believe that a recovery is not a recovery until everybody does better."  I've always felt the same way about government:  we're all in it together, and nobody is collateral damage.  I think this serves as one of the more striking differences between the parties.

The President of NYS United Teachers (a leading teachers' union) related the story of a coalition of labor, civil rights and religious leaders he met with yesterday, elsewhere in North Carolina.  They're working on a law that would allow public employees the right to bargain collectively.  Imagine that.  One of the ministers who spoke at that meeting called NC a "right-to-work-for-less-money" state.

Anyway.  Transportation seems to be organized a lot better this morning, although a few of us just walked back to the hotel from the breakfast, because the bus driver hadn't gotten clear instructions about where to take us.  He was from Atlanta.

I'm off to the Carolina Fest, downtown, and one of the caucuses I'll participate in - the Faith Council (the other one is the Rural Council, which meets tomorrow).