The two or three (or what sometimes seems like 100) security fences and checkpoints surrounding the Xcel Energy Center tend to buffer convention-goers from contact with the hundreds of protesters in the streets of the Twin Cities.

On Monday, though, members of the Alabama delegation got an unwelcome surprise through the window of their shuttle bus.

About 300 people were arrested during demonstrations in St. Paul on Monday.

Arkansas delegates passed a few nonviolent protesters on the way to the convention site.

Inside the hall, the atmosphere was almost somber as delegates convened for official business only. Aside from a convention floor loaded with delegates, hardly anyone else was in the building. Seats reserved for press were mostly empty and the upper tier of the building looked vacant.

It was almost as if, aside from delegates, others were enjoying an extended weekend.

Oh. Wait. They were. Monday was Labor Day.

Perhaps activity in the hall will pick up and violence outside the hall will die down on the convention’s second day.

The first time I was in Denver — back in the 1990s — the most dramatic event of the week was when my father yelled at me for not knowing which direction he should turn on a busy city street.
Fast forward a decade to another busy city street Sunday, when I unwittingly got caught up between police in full riot gear and scores of bandana-clad “anarchists” blocking a downtown street.
This time it wasn’t my dad yelling. It was a cop with a super-sized baton and a tear gas canister strapped to his belt. And unlike 10 years ago, this time I paid attention.
“Get back on the sidewalk! Move back!” He told me and a handful of other onlookers who decided to gawk for a while. More and more tourists pressed to see the scene in downtown Denver’s main shopping district, leaving police to worry more about controlling hordes of sweaty journalists and folks in bermuda shorts than stopping the demonstrators.
Security is high here as hundreds of police officers roam the streets alongside war protesters, anti-abortion demonstrators and others. A five block area around the convention site, the Pepsi Center, is effectively locked down.
On Sunday, eventually, police — many of them on horseback — ordered the demonstrators to disband. They did without incident.
But it didn’t happen until an hour after the protest had shut down commuter rail service.
When the commuter rail started up again, a local hotel worker who sat next to me on the the train cried because she hadn’t been able to get home quickly after work.
“I just worked a double and all I want to do is get home,” she said. Then disgustedly added, “I’m voting for John McCain because of this.”

Barring more demonstrations or logistical woes, I hope to post to this blog from time to time this week at the Democratic National Convention and next week when Republicans gather in St. Paul, Minn.
I’ll attend as many Arkansas delegation events that I can so that Arkansans can find out what their neighbors and elected officials are doing at this quadrennial party.