Ben spoke at CY Stephens last evening, followed by a question and answer session. My wife and I attended.
We're in our mid-60s and I expected to see about 500 folks like us on hand. Stephens holds about 2,650 for an event like this and it was FULL...we were one of the last dozen to get in the door. And there were very few there our age.
By far, the majority were between 15 and 35. There were two young high school boys in line in front of me....they said they drove an hour from Eagle Grove to hear Ben. Two more drove an hour from Iowa Falls. The young people were pretty evenly split between men and women, as was the entire crowd.
I'd estimate another 1,000 to 1,500 had to be turned away. Double lines were wrapped around Stephens when we arrived 45 minutes early...it looked like a highly touted BB game with Kansas.
I was also fully expecting to be greeted by protestors outside and inside. But I only saw one trans person walking through the crowd with a sign asking that we don't bully her/him (I honestly had no idea). No fear, no one in line was doing any bullying.
And not a peep throughout the evening from any differing views inside, either....and there was opportunity for protestors to be there, because this was a free event.
I expected a much different crowd and "tenor" last evening than what I experienced. It was nice to see so many young people involved.
We're in our mid-60s and I expected to see about 500 folks like us on hand. Stephens holds about 2,650 for an event like this and it was FULL...we were one of the last dozen to get in the door. And there were very few there our age.
By far, the majority were between 15 and 35. There were two young high school boys in line in front of me....they said they drove an hour from Eagle Grove to hear Ben. Two more drove an hour from Iowa Falls. The young people were pretty evenly split between men and women, as was the entire crowd.
I'd estimate another 1,000 to 1,500 had to be turned away. Double lines were wrapped around Stephens when we arrived 45 minutes early...it looked like a highly touted BB game with Kansas.
I was also fully expecting to be greeted by protestors outside and inside. But I only saw one trans person walking through the crowd with a sign asking that we don't bully her/him (I honestly had no idea). No fear, no one in line was doing any bullying.
And not a peep throughout the evening from any differing views inside, either....and there was opportunity for protestors to be there, because this was a free event.
I expected a much different crowd and "tenor" last evening than what I experienced. It was nice to see so many young people involved.
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