November 4th was a warm day in Chicago--70 degrees or so.
I worked in the morning, and brought Annie with, to speak to the students and to learn a little about the electoral process. We had lunch in my small hometown, to give her a feel for something other than the hugeness of the city. Ate tacos with my uncle, and got to see my aunt and my grandmother as well.
Voted in the mid-afternoon and then took the train into downtown. Met up with Elliot and Emily, a couple of fellow theatre friends who go to college in the south Loop. Ate Thai food and then went to stand in line.
The long, long line went south, along Michigan Avenue, towards Roosevelt Road and beyond. While we waited and moved ever so slowly north, text messages would arrive, from friends and family, near and far, informing us of Obama's victories in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida.
We were in that line for a good couple of hours before making it to the security checkpoint.
After Annie and I presented our identification we started making a run for it, knowing that we couldn't afford to miss a minute more. We ran through the park, towards the incredibly-bright lights off in the distance.
A woman running next to us suddenly shouted: "Washington! Oregon! California! He did it! He did it!"
We started running faster, moving closer to the lights, and suddenly the trees parted and the crowd appeared, 125,000 people screaming for joy as CNN announced Barack Obama's historic win of the presidency.
When I imagined what that moment might be like, in my head, I never, ever imagined it would be like that.
I tried to take a brief video of those moments. A bit shaky, but I think you'll get the idea.
Now, I'm enough of a political realist to understand a very important point, and it needs to be said before I get too caught up in describing these events: while I think Barack Obama is a once-in-a-generation politician, and I have been his supporter since Day One, I know enough to know that it is a foolish business to put too much trust in political leaders. Even the best of them screw up. Barack Obama isn't going to single-handedly save the United States.
The people, hopefully, will do that. Because that's what our country is supposed to be about.
I've seen a lot of bad choices made in the supposed name of "the people." The last two elections, the bans on gay marriage, "Dancing with the Stars."
For a while, I was really giving up hope on this country. I feared that we were going down a horribly dangerous path, where "the people" turned a blind eye to the war and torture and environmental catastrophe and scoffed at the rest of the world's needs.
Barack Obama will not save us. If he's lucky, he'll get two, maybe three important pieces of legislation passed in his first term that will have any kind of real effect on us.
Obama is not a hero. But it's important to understand what he is.
He is the catalyst, the rallying point.
For me, voting for Obama wasn’t about voting for a African-American candidate for the first time. While I understand and appreciate the huge significance of that act, for me it is something different.
It is more about voting for something that has been building for a long time. He called it Change, of course.
The victory of Barack Obama is hopefully a tidal shift in the way America decides to carry itself, and the way the rest of the world sees us. Perhaps, we won't be a nation that solves its problems by blowing up other countries. Perhaps, we won’t be a nation guided by religious fundamentalism any more. Perhaps, we won’t be a nation that elects narrow, coarse ideologues that value “guts” over intelligence.
We could have taken the bait that the other side was slinging overboard as their ship sank into the water. We could have spent October chewing over Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright and ridiculous fears about a secret Muslim conspiracy. But the people shrugged their shoulders and said, no thanks. We're a bit smarter now, and we're not going to fall for that business again.
With this election, a huge chunk of America gets taken back, in the name of the people that value free-thinking, progress, human rights, and smart, nuanced answers to tough questions. With this election, those that sought to tear this place apart have been sent to the showers. You're done.
After Obama gave his victory speech we all poured out into the streets of Chicago. Michigan, State, Van Buren, Balbo--all free of cars, all open to the people, and we strode down the center of them with a new sense of pride and wonderment. People cheered, and sang, and danced in the streets as we headed towards Union Station.
And everywhere you went, when you looked people in the eye, you had a brief exchange that said so much: it's our turn now. We're getting this place back, and things might just get better again.
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