A delegate's journal: Day 2, Monday: So much for unity

I spoke too soon about unity.

Sunday night, Emil Jones (an Obama supporter) reportedly called Delmarie Cobb (a Clinton delegate) an "Uncle Tom" for staying with her support for Hillary.

He denied it Monday, but if it's true, he should be ashamed of himself.

After all the talk of unity, one of Obama's leading mentors resorts to name calling in hopes to discourage Clinton supporters from casting their votes. This is just more of the stuff like the threats we heard Jesse Jackson Jr. using to shut up African-American Congress members like Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

Here's a message to those who seek to scare us and shut us up with insults: We will not be shut up or scared away from voting for Hillary Clinton. It is our right, and we will exercise it.

While news reports make too much of disagreement between delegates. the regular voters are really nice, interesting, friendly good people. Our leaders are just a bit off-base on how to bring folks together. Not a clue would be a good way to put it.

The Illinois Democratic Delegation meeting was OK. Breakfast was great. Several of us Hillary women have joined together. It's fun. We listened to several "go Obama" speeches. Then the pressure started. Rep. Jan Schakowsky started with the tired, old threat: If you don't for Obama, the Supreme Court will turn to the right and Roe will be destroyed. That's used every year to get women to vote for the lesser of two evils. Besides, Obama has never promised to appoint only judges who support abortion rights. Then, Mayor Daley demanded we all support Obama - forget the nice guy from last night.

By the time they were done, I felt beaten up. One of us was crying and another was trying to use her corporate experience to think of a way to respond to these verbal threats.

When they were finished with us, we all filed out into lines for credentials. We will have a morning meeting and a credential line every morning. The good part is that each day, we will get new "gifts" from sponsors.

Later today, there's a relatively fancy reception with the Illinois Democratic Party before the actual convention starts. I can't wait.

Gay E. Bruhn, EdD., of Aurora, a Hillary Clinton delegate, is a first-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention.