Not exactly a run-of-the-mill day

Politics and protests perk things up as others pray, hold powwow

By James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 25, 2008 at midnight
Updated August 25, 2008 at 3:03 a.m.

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Darin McGregor © The Rocky

Melody Moezzi, an Iranian American, Hula-Hooped for more than five hours to bring awareness to the growing conflict between the United States and Iran at Civic Center Park in Denver Sunday August 24, 2008.

Civic Center Blues series

Reporter James Meadow and photographer Darin McGregor spend days and nights at Civic Center to document life at the park in the heart of Denver. Read more stories, view slide shows, and comment on the series.

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OK, maybe the first clue that this was not your everyday Sunday in The Park was the star-spangled cowboy hats juxtaposed with the guy selling political baseball cards. And maybe the second was the 10 police horses wearing Plexiglas visors and padded fetlock boots, while four lions in blue, green, pink and silver sequins cavorted near Seal Pond where almost everybody was breaking the no-wading rule.

Then again, it might have been pageantry of a powwow, the solemn calm of 30 Falun Dafa disciples praying amid a backdrop of high-decibel protest, or the "100 percent Iranian, 100 percent American" woman in the faux leopard skirt gyrating to keep her hula hoop in motion even as hundreds of anti-war protesters thundered past.

Whatever it was, both the DNC Marketplace and its aroma of politically inspired commerce hit The Park, and in their wake came a gazillion varieties of T-shirts, hats and buttons, cops loaded with we-mean-business riot gear and 156 vendors trying to make a buck off Barack.

Not that success abounded.

Take Irvin Walker of Atlanta, a man of good cheer and a boatload of Obama T-shirts and hats. The good news is he never lost the former all day long. The bad news is he wound up not getting rid of the latter either.

"Some days are slow. All you can do is keep a positive attitude," said Walker, smiling. Then, "Hey, you're a writer. Write a petition to get my fee back."

He spoke of the $300 fee all vendors were assessed, which, if you asked Tobi Hunt, wasn't the best use of her C-notes. Hunt makes pins that look like women's purses, "To celebrate the purchasing power of women." Alas, on Sunday, the power was turned down low. In five hours, she had sold seven - at $15 a pop.

But if Hunt was striking out, Daniel Sawyer made it to first base a couple of times. That is, his "political baseball cards" ($4 for a pack of 6) were selling some. And while the card didn't say if, say, Howard Dean bats right or left, it did reveal that he got a Ph.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1978.

Providing another kind of healing were the proud performers at the American Indian Powwow. Combining drums and dance, chanting and costume, entertainers from 20 tribes brought a dignified energy to the day. Tying them in the garb department were the lion dancers from the Colorado Asian Cultural Heritage Center, whose sequins and buoyant high-stepping were a huge hit.

Not nearly as stealthy as felines were The Park's police. All day, all over the place there were small knots of cops with "standard issue riot batons" at the ready. There were also mounted police, whose horses had such impressive protection that Aurora cop Dan Steitz quipped, "They've got better visors than I do."

They almost needed 'em, too.

Just as afternoon was starting to wane and The Park seemed ready for a nap, a group of peace marchers made an impromptu swing through The Park. Clutching signs that read "Riot 4 Peace" and "Drop Pants Not Bombs," they added a boisterous mood, before moving out to Broadway and heading into a minor confrontation with the cops.

But the protesters were no match for Melody Moezzi, the Iranian-American activist with a preternatural proficiency with the hula hoop. She had been gyrating and keeping the hoop in play for over an hour when the anti-war throng moved past her. But she never missed a beat, keeping in play both the hoop and her one-woman hyping of her "Hooping for Peace" events at the University of Denver this week.

"If you don't have a hoop, come anyway. I have about 100," said Moezzi, not even breathing hard, unfazed by heat or marchers. And proving that, in The Park at least, she was a peace proponent who was totally hip.

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