I feel like the weight of years of anxiety has been lifted off of my shoulders. November 4th, 2008 turned out to be one of the happiest days of my life. David and I were also there to witness history. Yes, we were in Grant Park for the election night rally. We missed getting tickets from the campaign by hours (if only I had been able to check my e-mail all day!) so we had to go to the overflow area north of the rally and watch coverage on a jumbotron. They played CNN all night. I was on edge all night but started to feel relief when they called Pennsylvania for Obama. Then for the next few hours, I was still on pins & needles. Actually, more accurately, I was on goose shit and other people's feet. Grant Park is COVERED in goose shit and it was unavoidable. So I can say that I sat in goose shit for Obama to witness history.
More relief came when they called Ohio. CNN's John King had the difficult job of still keeping his cool and trying to see a path for McCain and everyone in the park laughed when he made an off the cuff comment about how hard it was.
While we waited for more of the battlegrounds to be called (WHY was it taking so long for Virginia and Indiana to be called!?), I had a chance to soak it all in. It was a very young crowd for the most part but the one thing that amazed me most was how diverse the throngs of people were. Black, white, Asian, Hispanic...children, teens, young adults, middle aged and elderly...gay, straight. And TONS of Obama t-shirts, buttons, signs.
About 10pm central time, as the polls were about to close on the west coast, they called Virginia for Obama. It seemed to go very quickly from there and when they called the election shortly after, people were screaming and crying and hugging and dancing. I almost lost it and was choking back tears.
It was amazing how peaceful the rally was and how orderly and easy getting home was. The CTA actually did something right. And did it fairly smoothly. David and I were on a bus within minutes and home within 45 minutes.
The next day it was like the world changed. I know I live in a liberal, Democratic bubble here in Chicago. It also doesn't hurt that I work and associate with the "highly educated" (who broke overwhelmingly for Obama as 58% of those with a postgraduate education voted for him). Still, I couldn't believe it. Maybe it was my own good mood but I felt like everyone was smiling and more friendly. On the train, I saw people tearing up at the newspaper covers (which sold out in minutes and were impossible to find). When I got to work, I was amazed at how many people were not only talking about the historic victory but were at the rally AND how many had tickets. SO MANY! And despite the fact that we got home at almost 1 am, I wasn't tired at all. (Although it did help that I had a small, private Obama celebration of my own by treating myself to one of Starbuck's new holiday treats, the espresso truffle. OMG, good.)
Here is an attempt to show you how exciting the moment that night was (BTW, in the begging you see a building lit up with USA in the background. Yeah, ,that's only a little bit further back than we were):
4 comments:
I'm not sure how to react because it's a positive, up-beat blog by Paul!
HA! at Laura's comment. It IS a new world!!
That's so cool you guys were there even if it meant you were that far back. The crowd's reaction was the same at the Skylark (where we were)--people smiling, clapping, yelling, hugging--how great to be in the midst of such joy and, like you said Paul, relief.
SO jealous that you were there in (or near?) Grant Park, though the reaction was pretty amazing in Brooklyn, too. I was high fiving strangers while spontaneous street parties were breaking out, horns were honking, and people were errupting in cheers. I am already planning my trip to DC for Inauguration Day (which falls the day after MLK Jr. Day this year -- so wonderful!).
Meanwhile in Rochester, some Eastman School of Music students got noise violation tickets for marching around with their instruments. OK, maybe that's annoying on a work night, but I'd rather hear that than the normal bullets, sirens, etc., nises in the city. Sounds to me like the cops were ready for anything to break out, nothing did, and then...jackpot!
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