Brooke and I are at the University of Puget Sound. Together. The students have been radiant. And to the reader, I can only say this: For the past hour and a half, I have been writing this dispatch sharing the students' work, sharing impressions, images, hour by hour. And as I went to send my dispatch...it vanished. All my words written from 4:30 a.m to 6:00 a.m. this morning -- poof -- gone. A treatise on hope and hopelessness. Our dance with paradox. The students' writing, the students' wisdom. How Vaclav Havel says "Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart."
But those words are gone. I must let them go. Again. Perhaps they were unnecessary. Perhaps they were meant to be private.
This is what is holding my attention now as a train roars through Tacoma.
Today's news from Florida:
CHENEY TO HOLD RALLY AT FGCU THURSDAY
By Betty Parker, bparker@news-press.com
Published by news-press.com on October 11, 2004
Vice President Dick Cheney will return to Southwest Florida on Thursday for a noon rally at the Alico Arena on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus.
The free tickets will go to registered Republicans, said Shirley Gerstenberger, Lee County ís operations chairman for the Bush-Cheney campaign. They must be picked up ahead of time at any of the three GOP headquarters in Lee County.
The hall holds about 4,500 people, and a steady stream of people stopped by the GOP offices for tickets Monday, alerted by automated phone calls that went out over the weekend.
FGCU President William Merwin last week cancelled an Oct. 23 appearance by Utah author Terry Tempest Williams at the school, citing fears that her talk would be too critical of President Bush, and too partisan on behalf of Democrats, for students who are required to attend the event.
But FGCU officials said Monday that Cheney's appearance is different.
The National Republican Committee is renting the hall for Cheney, just as other groups can rent it for concerts or other types of events, said school spokeswoman Susan Evans. That's unlike Williams, who was to appear at school facilities at no cost to her.
Students also were required to attend the series that included Williams, Evans said, while there is no such requirement for Cheney.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who ran unsuccessfully for Floridaís Democratic gubernatorial nomination two years ago, also is coming later this month to FGCU to speak at an event designed to raise money for scholarships, Evans said.
That event is acceptable because of the scholarship connection, and because student attendance is not required, she said.
"They're just totally different kinds of events," Evans said of the Cheney event at the school and the Williams event that the school postponed as too political.
Williams now says she'll speak free of charge at the school on Oct. 24.
People who want Cheney tickets must leave their names and addresses with GOP workers at headquarters, whoíll forward those lists on to other party officials for security and other checks, Gerstenberger said.
They'll be given tickets at headquarters, then will be cleared for final check-in at the hall doors Thursday.
Doors will open for the Cheney event around 10 a.m., she said, with the vice president expected to arrive around noon.
Lee's Republican headquarters are in the Dragon Plaza shopping center just south of Page Field on U.S. 41 in south Fort Myers; at 515 Cape Coral Parkway, across from Four Freedoms Park; and at the Regal-Prado Mall on U.S. 41 in Bonita Springs, Gerstenberger said.
People in search of tickets are advised to bring their voter registration card with them.
