Working to unite the Democratic Party after DNC trip

After attending his first caucus in March, a young Kasson resident decided to take his political involvement to the next level. 
Zachary Peterson has only been out of high school a year, after graduating from Kasson-Mantorville High School in 2015. But he spent a week of this summer, from July 24-29, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. After the leaders at his Dodge County caucus, the first caucus he attended, asked if anyone wanted to be a delegate, Peterson jumped at the opportunity. 
To become a delegate at the DNC, Peterson had to go through a number of other caucuses and a state convention. The state convention is where he was eventually chosen as a delegate for Hillary Clinton. 
Once he made the trip to Philadelphia, Peterson found that he was in for a few surprises immediately. His first experience as a delegate at the National Convention involved a welcome party at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The event featured live violinists, hors d’oeuvre, drinks, human statues, fancy lights and even more extravagance just outside the museum. 
Another party atop a boat had the same extravagant feel, making Peterson feel morally torn because of the Democratic party’s reputation as the party of the people. Peterson recalled one of his fellow attendees at the Museum Party turning to him and saying, “Just imagine all of the people in the city we could feed with all of this food.”
But he feels that this does not reflect the Democratic party back home. 
“This is nationally, so I don’t think it’s the same as Minnesota, in my experience,” Peterson said. “But up there was just all this grand stuff...We got voted to come here humbly, and we just get splurged all week.” 
Once the convention actually started, Peterson started observing a lot of things around the convention. Between the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton delegates, Peterson noticed a considerable amount of tension. As a Minnesota Clinton delegate, Peterson was seated in the back row of the Clinton delegation, which was seated right in front of the front row of the Sanders delegation. This gave him an idea of how both the delegations were acting. 
He also observed other divides between the two candidates’ supporters, including Sanders merchandise featuring an unflattering, rat-like caricature of the Vermont Senator. The setup of the convention itself also seemed biased towards Clinton, Peterson mentioned. The two states that were seated in front of the stage were New York and Virginia, the states of Clinton and Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine. Minnesota, a historically blue state, was seated in the very back of the  Clinton delegation. 
As a part of a delegation, leaders send texts to delegates instructing them on how to conduct themselves on the convention floor. During one of the days of speeches, Clinton delegates were instructed to chant “U.S.A.” if Sanders delegates began to chant “No more war.” However, Peterson was not going to let this stop him from chanting what he wanted on the floor. 
“I’m going to say what I want being, that my dad is a retired veteran,” Peterson said. “He went to all the Iraq wars when I was a kid. So I’m pretty passionate about this no more war stuff.”
Peterson considered this attempt to overpower the chants of the Sanders delegates his tipping point. After seeing the divide between the two candidates’ supporters, Peterson came out of the convention with