Congratulations, Barack Obama!
Holy fuck, today was a rollercoaster ride. I was too keyed up to sleep much last night; got up early to vote, and stood in line for forty minutes to do so. My polling place was in the high school's commons area, and all the students saw us lining up almost out the doors to vote, and that's going to be what they remember about Election Day, not the usual apathetic miniscule turnout.
I got my "I Voted" sticker and have been strutting around wearing it all day. I must've run off between classes to a computer half a dozen times, looking for news, even before the results started coming in; then came the waiting game, the counting game, the question of "Can he win? Will he win?"
And he did---and I don't believe I've ever seen anything more awesome than the sheer emotion on people's faces when he won, the people of color who've grown up with Jim Crow and segregation, who may have spent most of their lives believing they'd never see this day come, and the children who will grow up with a President who looks like them---and all the young people of every color, so hopeful that he would win and take this country in a new direction. I look at the images, the newsfeeds, of the reactions of elderly black men and women---it just means so much to them it's amazing to look at, and even if I disagreed with every issue Obama campaigned about I'd still be weak with happiness for them.
It's not a perfect day for me---Michelle Bachman is still representing Minnesota and I really wanted to be rid of her; at last count Norm Coleman and Al Franken were in a dead heat and I'm worried Coleman might pull a victory; and Prop 8 in California is worrisomely in danger of passing, which I would view as an unspeakable tragedy on many levels. And Obama really should have thanked Hillary Clinton in his speech tonight; she's been a true class act after that clusterfuck of a primary battle, and there's a lot of middle-class white voters who would've gone for McCain if she hadn't campaigned so well for Obama. It's not a perfect day, but it's a great one---I can see Martin Luther King, Jr. looking down on Grant Park and Barack Obama's acceptance speech with his heart filled to bursting with joy, and Obama's grandmother right next to him radiating pride like the sun emits light, and it is well and truly awesome.
I got my "I Voted" sticker and have been strutting around wearing it all day. I must've run off between classes to a computer half a dozen times, looking for news, even before the results started coming in; then came the waiting game, the counting game, the question of "Can he win? Will he win?"
And he did---and I don't believe I've ever seen anything more awesome than the sheer emotion on people's faces when he won, the people of color who've grown up with Jim Crow and segregation, who may have spent most of their lives believing they'd never see this day come, and the children who will grow up with a President who looks like them---and all the young people of every color, so hopeful that he would win and take this country in a new direction. I look at the images, the newsfeeds, of the reactions of elderly black men and women---it just means so much to them it's amazing to look at, and even if I disagreed with every issue Obama campaigned about I'd still be weak with happiness for them.
It's not a perfect day for me---Michelle Bachman is still representing Minnesota and I really wanted to be rid of her; at last count Norm Coleman and Al Franken were in a dead heat and I'm worried Coleman might pull a victory; and Prop 8 in California is worrisomely in danger of passing, which I would view as an unspeakable tragedy on many levels. And Obama really should have thanked Hillary Clinton in his speech tonight; she's been a true class act after that clusterfuck of a primary battle, and there's a lot of middle-class white voters who would've gone for McCain if she hadn't campaigned so well for Obama. It's not a perfect day, but it's a great one---I can see Martin Luther King, Jr. looking down on Grant Park and Barack Obama's acceptance speech with his heart filled to bursting with joy, and Obama's grandmother right next to him radiating pride like the sun emits light, and it is well and truly awesome.