Serenading the Elephant 2

A Circus at the Carousel

c/o singingangels.org

It is 8:00 on a Sunday morning and we are once again at Hopkins International Airport in front of baggage carousel #5 awaiting the delegates. In the mean time ABC Channel 5 is broadcasting us at 8:30 and then the kids are practicing The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's MESSIAH and Sousa's STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER, both a capella (the first sopranos do the piccolo descant above the melody toward the climax of "Stars and Stripes"). White-shirted volunteers circulate with water and red signs saying "We the people of Cleveland welcome you."

Then come the Security Detail. First a burly gentleman with a goatee in black hat and vest with "Homeland Security" blazing in white across his back and armed seemingly with multiple weapons sauntered by seeing everything and nothing at the same time, it seemed. Then two blue uniformed policemen with small frisky German shepherds on leashes. They sniff and jump up on garbage cans and snuffle along the bench I am sitting on reading my Sunday NY TIMES and then gallop off. Other people with ear pieces and walkie talkies hissing appear, go, reappear, etc.

In the airport gift shop the Trump bobble head dolls which had been plentiful on Thursday are sold out, though some Hillary bobble heads are left.

By 9:00 the Republican Delegates arrive: Women in tony summer suits of white or pastel colors- blouses, blazers, pumps all matching, one with an "Elect Trump" button the size of a coffee can lid shielding the area between left breast and shoulder. Men in button down dress shirts checkered like diner table cloths in red, blue or green, opened at the neck revealing white under shirts. All appear to be in their 60's or older and white. The Press is also represented: Two producers  from CNN greeted each other and one of them confides that she sat next to a young African American Democrat on her plane who "might make a good guest on the show." She got his contact info. Nearby a balding man in a grey shirt waves an NPR microphone in front of the Angels as they sing "She's a Grand Old Flag" and a man from an Italian TV station and another from CBS in Greensboro, North Carolina catch the act on camera. The Greensboro man sees our Homeland Security guy, now accompanied by another slimmer and older man with similar logo and weaponry, and follows them, filming their backs walking on as he scurries behind them. Other cameramen and radio people and one youngish man in jeans and a baseball cap with a notebook sticking out of a shoulder bag at his hip.

"If We Only Have Love" by Jacques Brel gives some in the crowd pause and the Brazilian number seems to go over well. A clump of black musicians trudge to the information desk nearby. One with a guitar in a case slung over his back and a tuft of hair like a rooster's crest on his head has "Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" on it. I ask if he is in Fallon's band and he says "not this time." He is playing some "health benefit." He can't remember which one and his buddy in a NY Yankees baseball cap smiles- "hard to remember 'em all." (I later look up the band and realize I have been talking to "Captain Kirk Douglas" of Fallon's band THE ROOTS and they are in town for an A.I.D.S. benefit at the Wolstein Center near Cleveland State.

Captain Kirk Douglas of "THE ROOTS" c/o sol-exposure.com

By 11 AM we have seen probably 500 people pass. Many snap pictures or take business cards from Singing Angels staff. We pack up and head into the morning as the RNC Convention rolls toward its official beginnings.