We had an exciting weekend and election day!!!!! Yeeeaaah, Wooooo Hooooo!!!!!!
On Sunday November 2, we went downtown and were part of the 80,000 people at the Obama rally! We rode the rapid for the first time to get downtown, and when we came out of Tower City we started heading toward where Obama was supposed to be speaking. We arrived a little before 2pm when they were scheduled to start letting people in and immediately saw a line crowding the sidewalks.
We started following the line back block after block after block and ended up near the Q, more people continued the line back around the Q to Progressive field, and evidently there was a second line about as long coming into the central location from the other side too. Yes, there were A LOT of people! We happened to meet a couple of our friends from the Cleveland Freethinkers Group in line, so we had some good conversation and laughs.
And it was great to just feel the excitement and common purpose we all shared waiting there in line, even with total strangers! We were getting closer by 3:45 when Bruce Springsteen was supposed to start the evening with a concert, but the line was slowing down it's progress. I think they delayed starting the event until more people got in.
Also we saw secret service snipers up close as they arrived and cut through the line right in front of us to go up to the roof of the one building. Well most of the people behind us had split off somewhere else, so we were nearly the end of the line.
Eventually our patience paid off, and after we made it through security complete with metal detectors like at an airport,
we found that those of us at the end of the line were put closest to the platform where Springsteen and Obama would be. It was 5:15 by the time we got in. Hollie and I were probably 40-50 yards away!!
We couldn't see really well or get a great picture
because flood lights were shining straight at us from the other side of the platform and people were holding up signs and their cameras, like we were, trying to get a picture. Springsteen played about five songs including Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land and then introduced the Obama family.
Everyone went so crazy at this point that we couldn't see Michelle or the kids or Springsteen greet Barack. Then Barack spoke and we could only catch glimpses of him occasionally over people's heads and in between their hands and signs! His speech consisted of a lot of the same things you've heard throughout his campaign if you've been paying even a little attention. He continued to inspire hope and look to the future! Humorously, when he mentioned
Dick Cheney
it started to rain, not too hard, but it continued lightly for awhile. When he had finished and most people were leaving we tried to get closer to the platform to get a closer look, but we couldn't get quite close enough to see him better or shake his hand. Still it was an afternoon of high energy to remember!
Then on Tuesday November 4
Hollie and I both voted early that morning. Hollie works right across the street from the Election Board early voting location and so knew there were lines there for weeks, so we didn't even try that. That evening after work we went to an
Election Party hosted by a couple of our church friends. Several friends from church were there and we met some new people who were friends or family of our hosts. To be honest, it wasn't a politically balanced party, it was definitely an Obama party. It was also a demographically mixed group of people. Hollie made signs that said GOBAMA and CLEVELAND BARACKS. The hosts put up a large map over their mantle and had little Obama
and McCain faces to stick on the states as they were called. We all anxiously watched the election coverage as we chatted and snacked and drank. Then our collective anxiety turned to joy and celebration as the results showed a landslide in the electoral votes and a handful of previously red states turned blue!! Finally McCain gave an eloquent concession speech that I hope Republican supporters will take to heart.
Then Barack Obama made his victory speech and it brought tears to the eyes of many people in the room! Obama won the support of “young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled — Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and
Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."
From McCain's reference to Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington, let us show that "America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time." We hope that the fear and hatred of people who are different from ourselves can be overcome on more issues than just race too.
ny, so now he has a little friend. After the first day of confusion for Izzy, they hit it off after he realized that he is bigger- and the only threat from the baby is her uncontrollable use of claws when they play... but Izzy has become fond of her. Now they curl up together and lick each other.
