buuuut, i'm still enjoying the afterglow.
Obama won. i was at work the night of the election. it was dead in the store and people were milling with either apathy or looks of nervous excitement. the usual assholes came in and stole the Obama books or turned them over. it was funny. like they knew they were doomed. dawnelle called me with updates and the conservatives i work with came by looking despondent. at 11 i was already celebrating. i don't feel bad for feeling good. i didn't care that night either when dawnelle said Barack was our new president. i cried. i dropped the phone and cried. i was happy and excited and overwhelmed with pride for our nation. for those voters. for the minorities that rose up and proved statistics wrong and for all the African Americans who had just a little more to celebrate than just a new president. i went home and watched the speeches i had tivo'd. McCain was gracious and well spoken. he was defeated but he still needed our country to move forward. i felt a warm emotion for him as he told his booing crowd to help the new president, to see the good this could be. he will always be one of my favorite moderates and im truly sorry that he ever heard the name sarah palin. she was the loose rock in the landslide over his campaign.
then came Obama's speech. it was amazing. he looked so tired and heavy with the stress of this election and the loss of his grandmother. his smile and his arms around his wife and children were relived and loving. when he spoke everyone fell silent, but they couldn't hide the smiles and the happiness. he told us everything we have been needing to hear for years. he was humble and powerful all at once. his voice was clear and his ideas seemed to float out over the city of chicago and settle there like a signal of things to come. like a comforting hand after years of pain and struggle. he was the role model for so many children. like a woman in our paper said, "i can tell my children they can grow up to be president now and know that it isnt fantasy, its real." we took strides on tuesday America. we overcame and we brought they right man to our lead.
in his words, the words of a man who has changed history, the words of our new president, our new beacon for hope and progress-
"change has come to america."
yes we fucking can.
in other notes.
im exhausted.
and confused.
and everything will be ok.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It was an amazing night. Even people that legitimately disagreed with every candidate running had to admit that lancing the boil of racism felt good. (Even for people who don't give the slightest shit what color someone is, who couldn't care less what color Obama is, it still felt cool to have mostly black president and get that out of the way and stick that in the face of whatever racist idiots still exist). Even people whose level of hope does not in any way depend on any politician had to admit to feeling a momentous occasion happening. Even people who supported McCain (I guess there were 55 million, I wasn't one of them) had to say that there was a good feeling all over the country. Having a president who can read a teleprompter is a huge relief for everyone, and that isn't a joke.
Post a Comment