The DNC: Finally in the Pepsi Center

I am the type of person who gets moved by a parade, who gets choked up watching the parade of nations at the Olympics, who tunes in to the roll call vote at the Democratic Convention every four years and gets emotional over that simultaneously innocent and powerful presentation of state pride.

My beloved California goes near the beginning and I bite back fierce tears thinking about it's liberal politics and beautifully diverse people. I take a deep breath again when I'm moved by the temerity of the small state voices --those like Delaware, Maine, and South Dakota -- and then am overwhelmed by the Texans with their swaggering pride. But I don't really lose it until it's the second-to-last state's turn: Wisconsin. Wisconsin was the state that grew me up, and I swallow tears through the lump in my throat when my memories of those extraordinarily good people make me feel like an innocent child again.

These strong state identities then roll up to a powerful Democratic and American identity, and we celebrate the very best of America -- its people.

So imagine me now, sitting in the California delegation at the Pepsi Center. The California sign is ten feet away and I can gaze over at Wisconsin. I was moved to tears as I wrote this, and it's only Monday.

Who says Democrats aren't patriotic?

Who says?

Whomever says it has never met me.