  Our Rising Stars event was yesterday. nbsp;  Officially,  we hosted 651 people on the Odyssey cruise boat in downtown Boston. nbsp;  The event's purpose was to honor rising stars in politics and host a convention-
style party for young people. nbsp;  When I graduated from college in& nbsp; 2000& nbsp;
I went to both conventions and was frustrated by the lack of access given to young people. nbsp;  Our event opened politics up to young people and provided a diverse space for people to meet,  eat,  and hear great speeches. nbsp;
 It was a resounding success and I am so excited that it turned out well. nbsp;  We have a great team at UL and great supporters. nbsp;  They made this event happen.  We gave awards to some amazing people:
 urlLink Samara Barend ( NY)  urlLink Cory Booker ( NJ)  urlLink Matt Brown ( RI)
 urlLink Adrea Cabral ( MA)  Julian Castro ( TX)  Joaquin Castro ( TX)
 urlLink Silvia Delamar ( GA)  urlLink Rachel Kaprielian ( MA)  urlLink Jonathan Miller ( KY)
 urlLink Mike Ross ( MA)  urlLink Adrian Fenty ( DC)  urlLink Harold Ford Jr ( TN)
 and urlLink Kendrick Meek & nbsp; FL)  We also built a strong,  diverse coalition of support& nbsp;
 to help drive the event. nbsp;  A woman remarked to me that she was pleased by the diversity. nbsp;  She said that ours did not look like a regular event in Boston. nbsp;
 I appreciated hearing that b/ c that was my top priority. nbsp;  I go to tons of Boston social events and I am often the only ( or one of few)  black people in the room.
nbsp;  Similarly,  if the event has a great deal of minorities,  there are very few whites. nbsp;  Any visitor or resident can see that there are two Bostons,
 divided by Massachusetts Ave. nbsp;  On one side there are limited means and on the other,  the resources are limitless. nbsp;  On one side there are black and brown people and on the other,
 the faces are all white. nbsp;  I live in between and prefer this vantage point because it helps me appreciate Boston in its entirety. nbsp;  It also makes me want to work tirelessly to build a bridge across Mass Ave to help build One Boston.  After our event we all went to a restaurant in Cambridge to watch the speeches.
nbsp;  I wanted to see if John Edwards could match Barack's performance from the night before. nbsp;  He didn't. nbsp;  My bet is that they toned down Edwards' speech so John Kerry can steal the show tonight.
nbsp;  Even so,  I thought Edwards' speech was lackluster. nbsp;  The biggest difference between a guy like Obama and Edwards is that Edwards has to tell you that " hope is on the way"
 and with Barack you just know it.
