GOP convention is man's 173rd stop to hand out roses for peace: RNC profiles

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - He's the man with the yellow roses, overflowing from his pockets, shouting into a megaphone as delegates pass by on the first day of the Republican National Convention.

He's Rod Webber -- the man who made the political corral his 173rd event in the past year during his cross-country quest for peace.

"This election year is like none other that I remember in my entire life," Webber explained in the heat just steps away from Quicken Loans Arena, the GOP epicenter for the next week. His goal: to help keep the peace throughout Cleveland and to challenge those who he believes are disrupting it.

His flowers, given to several of the candidates that dropped out of the race in the past year, are a "symbolic gesture that there be peace over their term if they should become president."

Webber said neither Trump nor Clinton have accepted one, a claim that can only be verified through reports that Webber's flowers have been detained for security concerns from each of the candidates' events.

The divisive and often fiery rhetoric of this election cycle keeps Webber restless.

The self-described filmmaker/artist/musician just returned from Baton Rouge, a city still not far from his mind, after what he described as "mostly peaceful" demonstrations.

"I think black America -- they had the right to be sick of it 400 years ago. They had the right to be sick of it during civil rights. They have the right to be sick of it now and so they're saying they're sick of it and I think that's fair," he said.

Webber's increasingly sick of it too as the election approaches. But he still has his flowers.

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