Dear Bernie Sanders, you owe me dinner. About a week ago I received a telephone call from one of your Vegas based volunteers. She invited me to the Battle Born First in the West Dinner. I was ecstatic to receive the call, telling the volunteer that I had wanted to attend the event but (as a student) it was out of my budget. Actually I could have swung the price of one $125 ticket, but I have three very politically active teenage daughters and I hated to attend without them. I asked if I could bring a guest and she replied that I could bring one. Then she stated since my daughter was on her list as well, we could each attend along with a guest. The volunteer stressed that we must all have volunteered for Bernie to be invited, so I thought "Wow, we must have gotten on some exclusive list". I thanked her and she told me I would receive a text or call the next day conforming our attendance at the Dinner. The following day I received the following text: "You can pick up your tickets for the Battle Born dinner at our pre-dinner rally from 4-6pm." I was jazzed, we were really going to this. I rushed home from work the next day, had all of my girls dress to impress because in my mind we could be a table away from our state's top political mover and shakers. Never did it cross my mind that we were invited as onlookers to watch the paid attendees dine. As volunteers for many causes, we have often been invited to paid events as a guest. In fact, I almost called your local campaign office to ask if arrangements could be made for my oldest daughter who suffers from severe food allergies. I now wonder what they would have said to my request.
It was not until we were at the pre-dinner rally that I began to have suspicions that we might not actually get to eat dinner at the Dinner (perhaps the stacks and stacks of tickets being handed out?). Still I remained hopeful, especially when we went out to the hall to escape the noise of the rally and your volunteers asked us if we were attending the Dinner. It was not until we began to board the shuttle bus to the Dinner that I realized we had been duped. That is when we were handed a generic granola bar and fruit snacks, I knew our fate. I thought to myself, would they really have supporters attend an event to watch from the sidelines as paying guests dined? Why yes, they would. As about 500 paid attendees feasted, hundreds of Bernie and Hillary supporters watched hungrily from the fringes of the room while volunteers from both campaigns asked us to cheer and hold up signs in support for our candidate of choice. I wasn't in a mood to cheer. I ate my fruit snacks, I signed a pledge of support to Hillary in exchange for a bag of chips. The mystery-flavor granola bar still rests at the bottom of my purse.
What bothers me the most about this situation is the message it sent to my daughters. My 16 year old said, "I thought we were the party of equality, yet we are sitting here watching rich people eat in front of us". Instead of memories of a fantastic event, the taste left in their mouths is one of disappointment and disillusionment. The message of your campaign is always one of economic equality and fair pay but that was not the message we received that night. So Bernie Sanders, you owe us dinner. We live in Vegas with a mecca of dining options. Where should we go?
Sincerely,
Wendy Gelbart
