Burlington teen braves Denver as DNC delegate

Author: Peter Baumann

While most incoming first-years spend the last two weeks of summer nervously preparing to leave for college, Taylor Bates had other ideas. The 18-year-old Burlington, Vt. native pined to travel to Denver, Colo. as a member of the Vermont delegation to the Democratic National Convention. With only 27 delegates from Vermont, the recent high-school graduate knew the odds were stacked against him. So Bates, who had spent the summer working for an environmental advocacy group, distinguished himself by pledging to offset the carbon emissions from the entire delegation's cross-country travel to Denver. With this ace-in-the-hole, Bates was named the youngest member of the Vermont delegation and rewarded with the experience of a lifetime in Denver.

Part of the reason Bates's platform was so effective was the DNC's oath to be the "Greenest Convention in History." From a concert Sunday night, headlined by Dave Matthews, which featured local and national politicians discussing environmental challenges, to DNC volunteers standing at each trash can in Mile High Stadium reminding patrons to recycle, one of the defining themes of the week was the concerted effort made to promote green living.

One element of this was the Convention's "Green Delegate Challenge," whereby the Convention provided ways for delegates to offset carbon emissions generated by their trip to Colorado. Almost three-quarters of the delegates participated in the program, but Bates distinguished himself by not only offsetting his own emissions, but those from the rest of his delegation as well.

With Carbon Credits from the Challenge being used to fund alternative energy projects in Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Illinois, delegates who participated could be comfortable in how their funds were being used. However, there are those who find the entire system hypocritical, and claim Carbon Credits are just a way of outsourcing good deeds.

"I'm frankly dismissive of people who question carbon offsets," said Bates when asked about the detractors. "Carbon Credits put the division of labor to work for the environment - I can make money doing whatever I do best, then give it to someone who is good at building wind turbines or solar panels. The planet doesn't care who works, who cuts carbon - the only thing that matters is the end result."

Once in Denver, Bates found himself surprised by the focus of the protests. Recently released numbers show that Denver spent over half of the $50 million federal security budget on police and police equipment, mainly in an effort to limit and contain what high estimates said could be as many as 25,000 protestors. The actual number turned out to be much closer to 5,000, and fewer than 200 arrests were made, compared to over 800 during the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Despite this, Bates was still taken aback.

"I know the protests were smaller than anticipated," he said, "but the fact that more people from the far left than the far right were protesting surprised me." In fact, while Pro-Life activists and 'Drill Now' advocates had a presence in the city, it was the grass-roots populist organization "Re-Create '68" that caused the most disturbance both prior to and during the Convention.

Once inside the Pepsi Center and Mile High Stadium, Bates and the other Vermont delegates had a prime view, by virtue of their location just off the right side of the daises. With his front-row seat, Bates was justifiably impressed by Senator Obama's acceptance speech, but also noted that "John Kerry's [speech] was well-written and funny." Bates appreciated the irony involved in using Kerry to attack Senator John McCain on the issue of 'flip-flopping,' but says the former democratic presidential candidate used it to his advantage. The line "John McCain pays hundreds for his shoes, but we have to pay for his flip-flops" was, according to Bates, "hilarious."

When it was all said and done, after a week of policy discussions and grand-scale speeches, Bates's lasting memory took a much more micro-perspective.

"I am walking away with an appreciation of how open our political system is," said Bates when asked what he will most carry with him about the experience. "Anyone can get involved," he promised, and perhaps they can "even go to a major party Convention."