Observation Blogpost #2

On Thursday of last week my husband and I flew into JFK international airport in New York City for the purpose of attending the BYU football game at the University of Connecticut in East Hartford, CT.

On Friday, we rented a car and made the drive to Connecticut. When I travel I like to be prepared. I usually study maps so that I can “see” the routes and try to visualize them so that I have a better idea of where I’ll be. I use map quest or similar programs to view alternate routes, mileage, and the estimated time each route will take. I thought I was prepared. One thing that I failed to take into consideration though was Labor Day weekend. It seemed like everyone in the city was trying to get out, and they were all going to Connecticut. The traffic was very frustrating and a drive that was supposed to take a little over 2 hour, according to map quest, took 5. But this slow pace on I-95 allowed my husband and I to make a very interesting observation.

Shortly after we crossed the state line we noticed that there were no cars on the other side of the freeway. One or two emergency vehicles were on top of each overpass and an occasional police car would pass by. This was the case for many miles and seemed so out of the ordinary, especially for a busy holiday weekend. Because of this, we were paying extra close attention. Eventually we were passed by the Presidential motorcade; a long line of emergency vehicles, armored trucks, limousines, and cargo vans. There seemed to have been at least 20 cars in the group and that didn’t count the local agencies that were also escorting. The manpower was enormous. The traffic behind the motorcade was completely stopped and was backed up for miles. I was feeling lucky to be in the northbound lane that was actually moving even if it was at a snail’s pace.

This whole scene made me curious. Had the president actually been in one of those vehicles? Is so, what was he doing? And why make traffic so much worse on a day that is historically one of the busiest traffic days of the year?

With today’s technology it is so easy to get information so early Saturday morning I used Google to try to answer some of my questions.

The President had been in the area to attend two different fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee. One of the fundraisers was in New Rochelle, NY where about 25 supporters paid about $30,000 each to attend. The second was a backyard barbeque in Purchase, NY where about 250 attendees paid $15,000 per couple to eat hot dogs with the President. If you do the math, over 2 million dollars was raise but at what cost? This information left me with even more questions. How much of this money actually goes to the DNC and how much was used to put on the event? How many local businesses were affected because of traffic problems or having to shut down completely? The DNC was raising money while others were losing revenue. How many flights were diverted or cancelled to facilitate Air Force One? Are our taxpayer dollars being used wisely? Would it be more prudent for people to simply donate to their chosen party rather that have to rub shoulders with the elite? Is the timing right when the Middle East is so volatile? Should the President be using his time on more pressing issues like ISIS and Syria? These are some of the many questions that this observation raised for me.