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A Brand New World...
Nov. 5th, 2008 06:54 pmMissed the concession speech last night and the acceptance speech, but did stay up late enough to see Barack Obama get 297 electoral votes. Now he has 349. He won, surprisingly, Indiana and Virgina. North Carolina remains too close to call - which if you know anything about North Carolina - that is remarkable.
For the first time in eight years, I am proud to be American. [With the possible exception of the three states that passed propositions banning same-sex marriage - which just makes me angry and incredibly sad. It's apparently going to take us a lot longer to get past homophobia. I guess the first step is for people to admit they are homophobic and bigoted. Here's a tip: If you are against same-sex marriage or against homosexuals having the right to marry, have/raise children, have access to spousal health care and death benefits that come with marriage - than yes, you are a bigot and homophobic. There is no middle ground here, folks. Apparently we take two steps forward and two steps back no matter what we do. As a species, we still have a lot of maturing to do.]
Responses at work were mixed.( Work reactions, and minor rant )
I love Obama. Just watched him on the news, he said that what makes him angriest is meaness, when people put others down. The person he respects the most is Nelson Mandela. I haven't felt this inspired about a leader in my life. I honestly think Obama is going to be good for my country. He already has been.
At work feeling sluggish, I felt for the first time in I can't remember how long, calm. As if all the anxiety and fear had been removed from my shoulders. I felt filled with hope.
Last night, Wales and I bar-hopped for election results from 7-9pm. We started in a hipster bar that was almost too crowded. Then went to a conservative bar (yes they exist in NYC)that was empty, without any election results. We had to get them to turn to it. They wanted Fox News, we requested any other channel. She begrudgingly did so, then went to the end of the bar. The vibe was bad in that place. So we jumped to a wine bar - which was much rowdier and happier, except for an odd guy in a corner reading a book by Richard Rhodes on War. Finally around 9:15, after Obama got Pennsylvania. Woo-hoo! We went home.
Called my folks - when he got Ohio, and it was 206. But we still weren't sure. CNN was cracking me up, the pro-McCain guy on it (you know the one that John Stewart keeps making fun of), kept saying :" I've done the math five times and I can't figure out how McCain can win this. The only way is if he gets California, but even then, not sure it is enough." At that point Obama had won Virgina, Ohio, Iowa, and PA, along with NY.
The news flipped to Times Square - which had over a million people celebrating as it were New Years Eve! People were screaming for joy.
Now, watching Oprah...who said when she started the show, and it's a comment worth repeating -"For my viewers who were not amongst the 52% who voted for Barack, I understand your pain, believe me, if it had gone the other way, I would be doing my show from Northwestern University Hospital with an intravenous drip." (Sigh, me too, me too. I don't know if I could survive an McCain/Palin win. Not after these last eight years.)
It feels like we've all walked through this very dark tunnel and come out the other side.
I told a woman at work today that if Bush hadn't won the last two elections, if it weren't for those 8 years, I don't think Obama would have been even a candidate. I think if Gore won, McCain may have become President. Was talking to my mother about this, and we agreed that Newt Gringich and Bush and Cheney destroyed their own party. Let me back up and explain that theory - a bit. Our system of government was never meant to be about parties, it's not like the UK or Canada. The branchs are supposed to check each other. When Republican's got both houses of Congress, and the White House, President Bush stopped treating Congress as a separate branch. There's a lengthy article in this month's New Yorker - about Chuck Hagel. A Republican Senator who got annoyed with his own party, and frustrated with the President, who unlike the previous ones, would not talk to him or even listen. He treated Congress as an extension of his own power base. A "rubber stamp". Which lead to two wars and a financial crisis, and the end of their power. Worth noting, according to the news, Republicans stayed home from the polls yesterday. Democrates out-voted Republicans 2-1.
I know this is rambling, but then, most of my posts are - "spontaneous musings". My mother told me a story that touched me today and listening to Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal columnist - who voted for McCain (I don't think she's capable of voting any other way, which is okay.), anyhow...one of my parents close friends from their days in Chicago, way back in 1968, the year after I was born - wrote them a surprising email. He like many, used to be liberal and had become conservative over the years. (As a Government Teacher in High School once told me - when you're young, if you aren't liberal, you have no heart, and when you are old and not conservative - you have no brains. Silly statement by the way, I get that now, but ...well you know.) This friend was planning on voting for John McCain or that's what he told my parents prior to the election. Well, last night, he sent an email - just after the acceptance speech to his son and friends and family. In it, he told my parents that he remebered being with them in Grant Park in 1968 during the race riots, and the fires, during the height of the civil rights movement. Now to see a black man address a peaceful capacity crowd of over a million in that same park, which had once been the site of race riots, was a sight to behold. And yes, he had with pride voted for Barack Obama. Not because he was black, but because he was the best man for the job.
Barack Obama is Martin Luther King's Dream come true - a day in which a man is not judged on the color of his skin. Sure there were a few who voted along race lines, blacks who voted for him because of his skin color, and whites who voted against for those reasons. But the vast majority? Did not. That is something to be proud of.
I am so happy. Today was tough to focus during. I felt tired. And sluggish. As if I was thinking through water. But all through it, I kept smiling, because of what happened last night.
For the first time in eight years, I am proud to be American. [With the possible exception of the three states that passed propositions banning same-sex marriage - which just makes me angry and incredibly sad. It's apparently going to take us a lot longer to get past homophobia. I guess the first step is for people to admit they are homophobic and bigoted. Here's a tip: If you are against same-sex marriage or against homosexuals having the right to marry, have/raise children, have access to spousal health care and death benefits that come with marriage - than yes, you are a bigot and homophobic. There is no middle ground here, folks. Apparently we take two steps forward and two steps back no matter what we do. As a species, we still have a lot of maturing to do.]
Responses at work were mixed.( Work reactions, and minor rant )
I love Obama. Just watched him on the news, he said that what makes him angriest is meaness, when people put others down. The person he respects the most is Nelson Mandela. I haven't felt this inspired about a leader in my life. I honestly think Obama is going to be good for my country. He already has been.
At work feeling sluggish, I felt for the first time in I can't remember how long, calm. As if all the anxiety and fear had been removed from my shoulders. I felt filled with hope.
Last night, Wales and I bar-hopped for election results from 7-9pm. We started in a hipster bar that was almost too crowded. Then went to a conservative bar (yes they exist in NYC)that was empty, without any election results. We had to get them to turn to it. They wanted Fox News, we requested any other channel. She begrudgingly did so, then went to the end of the bar. The vibe was bad in that place. So we jumped to a wine bar - which was much rowdier and happier, except for an odd guy in a corner reading a book by Richard Rhodes on War. Finally around 9:15, after Obama got Pennsylvania. Woo-hoo! We went home.
Called my folks - when he got Ohio, and it was 206. But we still weren't sure. CNN was cracking me up, the pro-McCain guy on it (you know the one that John Stewart keeps making fun of), kept saying :" I've done the math five times and I can't figure out how McCain can win this. The only way is if he gets California, but even then, not sure it is enough." At that point Obama had won Virgina, Ohio, Iowa, and PA, along with NY.
The news flipped to Times Square - which had over a million people celebrating as it were New Years Eve! People were screaming for joy.
Now, watching Oprah...who said when she started the show, and it's a comment worth repeating -"For my viewers who were not amongst the 52% who voted for Barack, I understand your pain, believe me, if it had gone the other way, I would be doing my show from Northwestern University Hospital with an intravenous drip." (Sigh, me too, me too. I don't know if I could survive an McCain/Palin win. Not after these last eight years.)
It feels like we've all walked through this very dark tunnel and come out the other side.
I told a woman at work today that if Bush hadn't won the last two elections, if it weren't for those 8 years, I don't think Obama would have been even a candidate. I think if Gore won, McCain may have become President. Was talking to my mother about this, and we agreed that Newt Gringich and Bush and Cheney destroyed their own party. Let me back up and explain that theory - a bit. Our system of government was never meant to be about parties, it's not like the UK or Canada. The branchs are supposed to check each other. When Republican's got both houses of Congress, and the White House, President Bush stopped treating Congress as a separate branch. There's a lengthy article in this month's New Yorker - about Chuck Hagel. A Republican Senator who got annoyed with his own party, and frustrated with the President, who unlike the previous ones, would not talk to him or even listen. He treated Congress as an extension of his own power base. A "rubber stamp". Which lead to two wars and a financial crisis, and the end of their power. Worth noting, according to the news, Republicans stayed home from the polls yesterday. Democrates out-voted Republicans 2-1.
I know this is rambling, but then, most of my posts are - "spontaneous musings". My mother told me a story that touched me today and listening to Peggy Noonan, a Wall Street Journal columnist - who voted for McCain (I don't think she's capable of voting any other way, which is okay.), anyhow...one of my parents close friends from their days in Chicago, way back in 1968, the year after I was born - wrote them a surprising email. He like many, used to be liberal and had become conservative over the years. (As a Government Teacher in High School once told me - when you're young, if you aren't liberal, you have no heart, and when you are old and not conservative - you have no brains. Silly statement by the way, I get that now, but ...well you know.) This friend was planning on voting for John McCain or that's what he told my parents prior to the election. Well, last night, he sent an email - just after the acceptance speech to his son and friends and family. In it, he told my parents that he remebered being with them in Grant Park in 1968 during the race riots, and the fires, during the height of the civil rights movement. Now to see a black man address a peaceful capacity crowd of over a million in that same park, which had once been the site of race riots, was a sight to behold. And yes, he had with pride voted for Barack Obama. Not because he was black, but because he was the best man for the job.
Barack Obama is Martin Luther King's Dream come true - a day in which a man is not judged on the color of his skin. Sure there were a few who voted along race lines, blacks who voted for him because of his skin color, and whites who voted against for those reasons. But the vast majority? Did not. That is something to be proud of.
I am so happy. Today was tough to focus during. I felt tired. And sluggish. As if I was thinking through water. But all through it, I kept smiling, because of what happened last night.
