By Pat Branham, delegate to the Democratic National Convention

Row after row of buses pulled up to Invesco Field with delegates and DNC members. Many attending this historic event did not have the luxury of riding shuttles and had to walk for many blocks. The light rail was blocked off at the closest location for security reasons.

Security people in black suits were armed, some with automatic rifles carefully pointed at the ground or German shepherd’s on leashes. People in helmets with attached face shields were everywhere in the city. Helicopters were overhead. Security was tight. Only one small bag was allowed into Mile High Stadium. Credentials were carefully checked, and everyone was scanned.

We left our hotel in buses three hours before the first proceedings, ate stadium food and sat in blazing heat. We could see security people all along the steel rafters and in the stands at the ready for any unexpected event. Colorado was as prepared as a city could be for the unexpected.

As throughout the entire convention, ordinary people appeared on stage telling their personal stories of how an uncaring government had left them without resources and without options in multiple dire circumstances. These were the people Barack Obama referred to as his heroes — those who were abandoned in their time of great need but managed to have the courage to tell their stories, many of them Republicans. One was Barney Smith from Indiana. His job was shipped overseas. He felt like a failure. He was left without health insurance in an economy that was falling further and further behind. I know you’ve heard it: he stated that the government cares more about Smith-Barney than Barney Smith.

Barney Smith remembers when one income would feed, educate and clothe a family. He and others like him are the reason Democrats were gathered and the reason we selected Barack Obama and Joe Biden as our candidates. Obama emphasized many principles that have been strongly encouraged in my own upbringing and are the bedrock of the Democratic Party: We do believe we are our brother’s keeper. We do believe that you should love your neighbor as yourself. We do believe we should care for widows and orphans. We do believe we have a responsibility to the least of these. We understand that it is important to put ourselves in the other man’s shoes. We believe we are stewards of the earth. We believe with Barney Smith and many others that the Republican version of health care will work as long as you stay healthy. We understand that you should talk to another country first, not threaten them; and that war should be a last resort. We believe we have a sacred trust to our military heroes not to send them to combat without proper body amour and without a mission that has an end.

These are the principles that Al Gore, Barack Obama and many others emphasize on the last night of the convention — that beautiful Colorado night filled with caring and cheering delegates and with good and extraordinary citizens. Flags were waving gloriously as many of us cried at the stories of the military men and women supporting our candidates, as we watched symbols of fallen heroes flash on the screen with their empty boots draped with their helmets and with the guns formerly held in their warm hands now silent and erect, as we listened to stories of hard-working citizens cast aside by the current system. The atmosphere was palpable. To me personally, a former Hillary supporter, the emotion was heart felt and the atmosphere was palpable. The patriotism was thick, and the determination to work for our candidate of humble beginnings who was raised without a father but who holds dreams for his daughters and the Barney Smiths of the world was strong.

As our candidate said, our strength is in whether we can live up to our promises and to our moral obligation. It was a magical night for me as the confetti and streamers fell during that perfect setting, a night in which I realized: “This is the man we need for this hour in history.” This is the person who holds the dreams and understanding of common struggles and who can lift our social conscience so that no single person be passed over for the American Dream. It was a political awakening for me, filled with tears and appealed to all I’ve been taught, whether in the Baptist Church in which I grew up or in the Catholic Church to which I now belong. I am thankful for the calling to my moral conscience — to do what is right by all my “neighbors,” not just for myself. And I and many others who heard all these scriptural principles will work to that end.