What I Saw at the Revolution

I’m going to try and attempt the impossible—putting into words my impressions from November 4, 2008.

The day started at 4:30 am when I picked up Bridg and Dave to head to Gary, Indiana for a day of voter protection and GOTV (big thanks to the kids for accompanying me at that ungodly hour). Despite a minor collision with a curb, we made it in one piece to the Dorie Miller Housing Project where I was assigned to make sure that Repugs didn’t keep the nice (and Black and poor) people of Gary from voting. Despite a few drive-bys from republican poll watchers (two middle-aged white women in suits and an SUV) we didn’t really have any problems. Instead, I had the absolute honor of spending the day sitting in a chair on the lawn of a housing project meeting the warmest people. Cars drove by all day beeping their horns andyelling “Obama!”.

Miss Barbara hung out with me most of the day giving me the neighborhood gossip (“Can you believe she’s pregnant again? Girl needs to get herself a job”). Yvette, the precinct committeewoman, ran to her house to get me water, helped me do the NYT crossword puzzle, and consulted with me when it turned out that a bunch of our voters had been mysteriously erased from the polls. Stanley, a shift manager at the local Casino, brought me lunch from Popeye’s (holy crap is that shit good). And Bridget and Dave stopped by throughout the day (also to bring food, this time from the local fish fry. My arteries are wondering what the hell happened yesterday). [B & D spent the day knocking on doors in Gary—and doing some reverse trick or treating. Penny and Galen did voter promotion. John was in Gary the day before knocking on doors. I’ll let them write about their experiences. Suffice to say Sassy was out in full force.]

By about 5pm it was clear our polling place was winding down. Over 200 people voted there, about 150 more than they have ever recorded. In fact, word all over Gary was that there was record turnout—sometimes at 85-90%. Climbing back into the dirty, trashy Subaru, we started to make our way back to Chicago. On our way we picked up Josh in Hyde Park. Sadly Josh immediately got dragged into the Grumpy Sassy dynamic. (Team Sassy had a long day.) Josh quickly decided to align himself with Bridget. We’ll see how that plays out for him.

After Thai takeout on Printer’s Row and a quick dose of CNN, we headed onto the streets of Chicago, meeting up with John, Seana and Jess and Penny and George on the corner of Congress and Michigan. People everywhere, all happy and jubilant. The weather was warm (and I don’t mean Chicago warm, I mean really warm). After connecting with Jason (and our extra ticket! Thanks, J!) Team Sassy started to slowly make our way across the street to Grant Park (and lined up with about 200,000 other people).

Many times from this point on I just had to stop and take a breath and try to take it all in. The immensity (is that a word?) of the moment seemed to be getting away from me. At times. At others it would just swamp me with love and joy and hope. Team Sassy would look at each other with these ridiculous smiles on our faces. No words needed. The long, national nightmare that was the Bush administration is almost over.

Once we finally got into the park and got our spots (merely a half mile or so from the stage), the anxiety in team sassy started to go up. North Carolina was back in the too close too call column, Indiana was still only 1 pt apart, is Colorado blue on the CNN map? Why haven’t they called it yet? We were getting antsy. But as we approached 10 pm we figured out CNN had decided to wait to announce Virginia until the polls closed in California. The minutes ticked by and the fever in the crowd started to intensify. Bridget, Penny and I talked about how we were feeling all these emotions, some unidentifiable. Then I said, you know, I think that this feeling is happiness. True and pure.

Finally, there was Wolf projecting Virginia for Barack. Dave yelled: “Virgina, Virginia, VIRGINIA!” We all started jumping up and down, screaming our lungs out, looking at each other in disbelief. In quick succession, California was called for Barack and we finally saw the words on the screen: CNN Projects: President-elect Barack Obama. It understates the moment completely to say the crowd went wild. Oh, but it did. And so did we.

Then after Penny beat the crap out of a woman who tried to muscle her way past us in the crowd, we settled in to enjoy the rest of the evening. Belting our lungs out during the Star Spangled Banner (partly to drown out the singer, but also because we were feeling it, man). Then reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. As many of us noted later, it was perhaps the first time in our lives that we said those words and meant them.

When the Obama family finally hit the stage, the crowd just went crazy (he really is like a rock star. but one with a mission). Everyone screaming and jumping and waving and crying. As always, Barack was inspiring, and warm, and visionary in his speech. This quote perfectly encapsulates Barack’s brilliance: it’s serious, hopeful, honest, and inclusive.

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.”

And it was all over. And it has all just begun.