And so I arrive in Denver, the current nerve center of the American political process. Denver, Colorado, where so many of us converge with hopes that our country can somehow be righted and brought to balance by the November 2008 elections. Paid for and flown out by Kenneth Cole Productions, I have been given a chance to access a platform larger than that which I usually use, and while nobody can be sure what this will yield, I strike out with gratitude and the hope that has fueled me so far and the idea that has powered my own blog: a person speaking from the heart and from their experience and awareness adds to an important collective understanding and ongoing dialogue crucial to our social and political process. 

Tonight, not long after my plane arrived, I sat and shared burritos with a couple friends, also bloggers who traveled to Denver. We spoke about what blogging is and how it fits into the current political framework. Are bloggers just people with computers? Are they the new voice of media? Are they a threat to the current norms shaped by institutions of intellectual culture? As you might expect, no well-defined answers were agreed upon, and while a consensus may have been satisfying, the truth is that the ambiguity and nuance of the conversation (and of the definition of what "blogging" might be) was probably as accurate and truthful as you could get. 

I don't know what I hope to accomplish by bringing my body and mind to this event. I don't have pretentious aspirations or self-image in this endeavor. I simply want to see for myself what is happening today with the country in which I was born; I want to tell the truth to my friends and fellow citizens, and I want to hear and see for myself what is going on. In this light, bloggers are nothing more than aware and awake citizens. And if that is the case, then all I can say is, it's about time.