The day after the election, I'm feeling more sober than euphoric. Although it's now definite that Christine Gregoire prevailed over the horrible Dino Rossi and both Colorado and South Dakota's anti-abortion measures were defeated, gay rights took a trouncing-- in California, though the results aren't absolutely final yet, it looks as though voters took away the right for gays to marry; & bans were also imposed in Florida and Arizona.
A sentence from Obama's speech illuminates what I was feeling last night:
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
For a long time we've had every reason to question that, in the nightmare of the last eight years especially. But thinking about all those people in California who voted to impose on a ban on gay marriages in defiance of the state's Supreme Court ruling permitting it, I find myself zeroing in on something else Obama said last night:
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.
What "there" is, obviously, varies enormously from person to person-- even among those who voted for Obama. One thing he's done, though, is purposely left the question open about just where we might go. Not just for tactical political reasons, but to encourage widespread democratic participation in the process of important decision-making. The thing about hope, see, is that it's useless if it's vague or passive (waiting silently, for good things to fall into one's lap). Wishful thinking isn't synonymous with hopefulness.
Reading accounts of who might be on Obama's transition team and who in his Cabinet, I want to yell when certain names come up: No! Not him! He won't take us where we need to go!
What do you think? Who would you appoint to the top government positions if you were Obama? Let's play What If... I'd love to hear your suggestions.
Showing posts with label Election 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election 2008. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Election Night Partying
In NYC and Chicago, big-time, of course. But locally, here in Seattle?
(Photo of people celebrating near the Pike Place Market, thanks to the The Seattle Times.)
People on my block are at this moment whooping and setting off firecrackers. And according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "thousands" have "taken to the streets" in celebration. (That's so Seattle. We love massing in the streets here on the barest pretext.)
In Seattle thousands of people basically took over the street on First Avenue outside the Showbox theater, where an election night party was held.
Police blocked off Pike Street to traffic near Pike Place Market.
Laura Bennett, 24, from Bremerton, voted for Barack Obama and was in crowd that prevented vehicles from moving. Some people got out of their cars and hugged passersby. Others were waving American flags, Obama signs and chanting "Yes we can."
"This is the most gratifying feeling that I've ever experienced as an American," said Bennett, who herself is half African American and half white. "I've been crying all day, it's almost too much too believe ... For the first time I feel like the person who is leading our country is representing who I am as an American and what I believe."
The Showbox was the site of an election night party held by The Stranger, an alternative news weekly.
The crowd at the all ages event was ebullient, bouncing around the venerable concert venue, which was packed to capacity.
More than a thousand more mingled outside, screaming and shouting and cheering, as passers-bys honked in support. Strangers hugged, high-fived, and danced around.
Since Aqueductista Jesse Vernon is on the staff of The Stranger, I expect she's there right now...
The Victrola, where Eileen Gunn and I have a writing date every Tuesday afternoon, had been advertising its "Election Night Celebration" for the last couple of weeks. Confident, aren't they, I remarked to her last week. Myself, I gave up election-night parties after the 1972 election... (McGovern vs. Nixon. And everyone knows how that one ended.)
(Photo of people celebrating near the Pike Place Market, thanks to the The Seattle Times.)
People on my block are at this moment whooping and setting off firecrackers. And according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "thousands" have "taken to the streets" in celebration. (That's so Seattle. We love massing in the streets here on the barest pretext.)
In Seattle thousands of people basically took over the street on First Avenue outside the Showbox theater, where an election night party was held.
Police blocked off Pike Street to traffic near Pike Place Market.
Laura Bennett, 24, from Bremerton, voted for Barack Obama and was in crowd that prevented vehicles from moving. Some people got out of their cars and hugged passersby. Others were waving American flags, Obama signs and chanting "Yes we can."
"This is the most gratifying feeling that I've ever experienced as an American," said Bennett, who herself is half African American and half white. "I've been crying all day, it's almost too much too believe ... For the first time I feel like the person who is leading our country is representing who I am as an American and what I believe."
The Showbox was the site of an election night party held by The Stranger, an alternative news weekly.
The crowd at the all ages event was ebullient, bouncing around the venerable concert venue, which was packed to capacity.
More than a thousand more mingled outside, screaming and shouting and cheering, as passers-bys honked in support. Strangers hugged, high-fived, and danced around.
Since Aqueductista Jesse Vernon is on the staff of The Stranger, I expect she's there right now...
The Victrola, where Eileen Gunn and I have a writing date every Tuesday afternoon, had been advertising its "Election Night Celebration" for the last couple of weeks. Confident, aren't they, I remarked to her last week. Myself, I gave up election-night parties after the 1972 election... (McGovern vs. Nixon. And everyone knows how that one ended.)
More Election Night
It's been a long time since I've been able to listen to a speech made by the president of the United States. In his speech tonight, President-Elect Barak Obama invoked Lincoln. And he took us through the last century of US history through the prism of the life of Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year old black woman who cast the first vote of her life today in Atlanta. And then he looked ahead to the future and named our creed, "Yes we can."
"This victory," he said, "is not the change we seek, but the opportunity to make it happen."
Pinch me. I feel as though I'm dreaming. I've been hungry for this so long.
"This victory," he said, "is not the change we seek, but the opportunity to make it happen."
Pinch me. I feel as though I'm dreaming. I've been hungry for this so long.
Election Night
As I type, I'm listening to Democracy Now!-- they're doing a five-hour special tonight. Howard Zinn and Mark Crispin Miller were just on. The polls haven't yet closed here on the West Coast, but good news is trickling in. South Dakota defeated the horrible abortion ban. Iowa and Colorado have gone to Obama. John Murtha has won in Pennsylvania. Massuchettes has decriminalized marijuana. And Amy Goodman says that a million people are in Grant Park in Chicago tonight.
I'm very excited.
I'm very excited.
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