PHILADELPHIA — Downtown temperatures in the city reached to the high 90s Monday, and members of a CodePink delegation from Franklin County said they were feeling the heat as the official Democratic National Convention got underway.
“We need to collaborate, all these progressive groups, so we can find common ground,” said Susan Triolo of Sunderland, who with Priscilla Lynch of Conway, Patricia “Tish” Engerman of Greenfield and Paki Weiland of Northampton, took part in a number of marches and rallies taking place around the city Monday as part of the woman-led grass-roots organization, which is supporting a progressive agenda rather than any particular candidate.
“People are here marching for lots of different issues — human rights, criminal justice,” Triolo said, with chants of “Jill, Not Hill,” “Power to the People” “Bernie Bernie, Never Hillary” and signs for “No TPP” to protest the Trans Pacific Partnership policy that’s been proposed as part of the party platform.
Triolo said that she’s heard CodePink leaders urge protesters “not to be distracted by the top of the ticket. The real work is with Congress, and working toward a progressive agenda by running progressive candidates and working to get them elected. When we get into the voting booth, we heard, each individual person will know what’s right for them and to vote with love and care about the earth and each other.”
Triolo, the head of the Sunderland Town Democratic Committee, who had been a Sanders supporter, said she’s still undecided about how she will vote.
“We’re very unhappy with what’s going on,” she added. “We’re glad to see (DNC Chair Debbie) Wasserman Schultz going” in the aftermath of the leak of DNC emails about how to discredit Sanders.
The Vermont senator, for his part, was booed by his own supporters Monday morning as he called on them to support Clinton, telling them, “Brothers and sisters, this is the real world that we live in.”
“We all worked for Bernie, we worked for Elizabeth Warren, for John Berwick,” Triolo said. “We want progressive candidates, we want a progressive agenda. That’s why I’m here. I want the people in office who will move that forward.”
Asked about Clinton’s pick of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine for vice president, she said, “We felt like Hillary gave the progressives the big ‘F you.’ Tim Kaine is worse than middle of the road. Hillary didn’t care, we felt she doesn’t need us.”
At gatherings around the city, sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America, the American Friends Service Committee and other groups, the CodePink women heard Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Triolo said that all around the sweltering city, she talked with a lot of people who feel conflicted about voting for Clinton or Stein. “The only reason why people might move to the Hillary camp is because it’s a vote against Trump, and it’s the fear of Trump,” she said. “People are angry. I haven’t met any millennial person who’s voting for Hillary. They’re refusing to. All the young people I’m talking to are going for Jill Stein, they are not voting for Hillary.”
As for herself, Triolo said, “I refuse to look at a future with Donald Trump as president. We’re four months away from that. Quite personally, I do not believe this country is going to elect Donald Trump.”
The woman took part early Monday evening in a “Power to the People” rally at FDR Park, across from the convention as delegates headed into the hall Monday evening.
“We’re here to bring our message of peace, and an economy for human needs, not for the destruction of human needs, and humans, and to hold people accountable to that,” said Lynch.
A Sanders supporter during the primary, Lynch said that for herself, “Obviously the real choice is the Green Party and Jill Stein, because she really does stand for what everyone (who has supported Sanders) wants and is looking for. In this election, I will be voting for Jill Stein.”
She said she’s been listening to some speakers who have “fear-mongered us” against any inclination to turn away from supporting the Democratic candidate, out of “fear what world be like under Trump.”
She added, “I fear that, too, but I equally fear what the world would be like under Hillary. She’s no different from what we have now. I’m not gonna be made afraid to stand up for what’s right and will move our country forward.”
If that causes Trump to be elected, Lynch added, “I guess that we’ll have made it to bottom sooner than we thought.”