Surprisingly, despite my early support for Obama, volunteer efforts, and tickets, I almost didn’t go to the Obama rally on election night a few weeks ago. A friend was having a party and my love for the CNN’s “magic map” is great enough to make me consider missing out in the biggest Chicago party since, well, Lollapalooza.
On the morning of the election I woke up and decided that I would forgo beer, snacks and the magic map for a piece of history in Grant Park. It was obvious that without lining up early in the day I would get nowhere near the stage so my friends and I left late and didn’t arrive at the park until 8pm. Crowds formed along all of the streets leading to park and smart businessmen hawked ugly t-shirts and “rally towels” along the side streets. Tickets were free, but only someone on the mailing list with a quick mouse finger managed to get one. My friend and I were lucky and received out personalized tickets the night before. Security checked our tickets against our IDs at two different posts, and our bags were only checked once. Security gave the appearance of being tight but in actuality was fairly lax given the significance of the night.
The park was far from full after we passed through our third security checkpoint but we quickly realized that the field had been cleverly segmented by metal barriers so no one could push very far to the front, or middle, for that matter. Despite a large screen showing CNN I could barely catch a glimpse of the magic map through the heads of taller people waving their hands and adjusting their hats. I like to pride myself on my superior concert crowd-navigation skills, but years of experience elbowing my way to the stage at Metro could not help me get closer to the screen. I thought about busting out my Chinese train station ticket-buying elbow maneuvers but decided it wouldn’t work with a group of four.
The night went fast, a woman nearby fainted before the election was called and was carried out by police officers which provided a welcome distraction from trying to see the screen. The crowd was still talking about the last state called when CNN suddenly called the election for Obama, taking most people by surprise. When everyone started jumping around me, screaming and crying I had to ask what had happened. Everyone seemed to want to document the moment, which made it even more difficult to see through the raised hand holding cameras?I ended up watching the speech on a small LCD screen on the back of the camera someone held in front of me. Even though I didn’t see much of the actual event I was happy to be there, to be surrounded by an amazing positive energy and to watch the last two years of campaigning come to an end.
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Many people have explained what I felt, and still feel, about this night much more eloquently than I ever could. I will say that the next day everywhere I went in the city people were practically beaming with pride and hope. Everyone I walked by smiled and said hello. I hope that this feeling lasts through the winter and some of this positive energy will make it’s way into new American policy and we can once again become a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
4 responses to “Obamapalooza”
It was a magical night in DC, too. These spontaneous celebrations erupted all over the city after the election was called. I hear the center of it all was on the corner of 14th and U…ironically the same intersection that was the flash point for the riots in 1968. A nice poetry in that I think.
We were down by the White House with several thousand revelers singing and waving flags and strangers embracing like brothers. I didn’t take any pictures, but I recorded some sounds. If I’ve done this right, you can follow the link in my name to the MP3. Check it out!
David, thanks for the link. I’ve seen a video of spontaneous singing breaking out in NYC. It’s really amazing. Considering how many people were in Grant Park it was fairly calm. I think people were so emotional that they were just absorbing it all.
I’ve been waiting for this post – I knew that it was more than likely that you were there! I can’t even imagine how electric the atmosphere must have been.
What an amazing election – has there ever been anything like it, with people all over the world anxious to hear the results? Pretty much everyone I know here in Australia spent the day pressing refresh on various news websites – there was lots of cheering in my office when CNN called it, and we set up a projector in our meeting room to watch Obama’s speech. When I got to my uni class that evening, it was all we talked about for the first hour. Here’s to the next few years!
Ha, very cool.
I went to a Democrats Abroad event in Z?rich. Even though the crowd was much smaller (held in a local bar), the positive energy was there. About 1/3rd the folks were not America–they just showed up out of interest and support. It was cool.
There was no way I could stay up for the election to be called. :p I went to bed confident, and woke up to the great news. 😀
That next day I ordered a pizza and the delivery guy congratulated me.
Ah, our period of national pain is coming to an end…