president-elect barack obama!! what an exciting, historic day last tuesday was. and i feel really proud that i participated in the campaign. i've never before actively participated in any political campaign (high school ASB doesn't count...) but with this presidential race, i felt like i had to--and just as importantly, i wanted to. i cared about this election. i cared about promoting change in our country and wanted to do something about it. and the wonderful thing is, i wasn't alone. people everywhere were inspired to take part in this election-whether by volunteering their time or donating money, registering voters, or simply registering to vote themselves. people-citizens-united together for a greater cause and it worked! our voices were heard and the result has restored my faith in my country.
also i'm relieved that the world is not about to end.
and i'm particularly thrilled that obama did so well in nevada. since i spent a weekend canvassing in washoe county (a county that hasn't gone democratic since 1964, and where obama won by 12.6 percentage points), i like to think i'm partly responsible for that win.
but of course, lots of people turned up to help. this was the line of volunteers that wrapped around the campaign HQ in reno on an early saturday morning in october. so many people showed up, they had to hold multiple introductory training sessions.
and no doubt making phone calls to florida and new hampshire baracked the vote in those states. on election day (why isn't it a federal holiday??) i skipped work to do some more phonebanking-one last hurrah-and joined with hundreds of volunteers in oakland to call and remind folks to vote (and re-call and re-call again...oops...if anyone from new hampshire is reading this who got 5 phone calls reminding them to vote, i apologize.)
election night i watched the returns at some friends' house. they had set up multiple screens to catch all the coverage: cnn (holograms...really?), internet, local, whatever, so we sat intently watching obama rack up those electorate votes, small cheers escaping now and then.
i will say that i thought mccain's concession speech was very good.
and then of course, it was time to celebrate. and celebrate good times we did. the streets were filled with people. we cheered and sang and DANCED in the street of berkeley. below is a bit of video thanks to ashley. happy americans laughing and dancing and embracing and high-fiving over our new president--it was maybe the most patriotic moment of my life.
3 comments:
oh, funny, i was just blogging about election day too. if only i had video to post!
(if only i had the video of me falling off my bike to post. i need to call the news station that captured it.)
it's weird to have respect for the office of the President again.
Woo Hoo!
I was watching it (in my jammies on my comfortable chair) and started biting my nails a bit when Mccain's electoral vote total started inching up. I kept checking back in between some DVR'd show and was soooo upset when I went back and noticed that he had gone over the 300 mark. I agree that Mccain's speech was good, but I loved President Elect Obama's speech. I have it DVR'd and will keep it for as long as I can.
I loved the images of all the people in Times Square and Grant Park and all the places in between celebrating the victory for change. The following day at work one of the kids at my main center was on the swings chanting "Obama, Obama." Awesome.
Doesn't it feel good to have assisted in something so positive and historic?
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