the president elect (11.04.08) 1:58am

There were squeals of joy when the Midwest section of the country’s polls closed. The colors swept across the map on the screen like a fan, or the sun from morning to night. We searched the screen, looking for Minnesota like an old friend until finally James called out. It was there. We had done it. Minnesota had turned blue, and much to our joyous surprise so had its neighboring states, clustered together whispering with a secret. Soon we were all on our feet, clapping and screaming, a rush of excitement and proud achievement evident on the TV screen. The door burst open, the downstairs neighbor Jackie had heard our commotion and come up to yell along too. Phone’s rang, Claire and James began jumping on the couch and I found myself yelling into the phone to my roommate Steph whose congratulating words were drown out by the cheers behind her all the way in Pennsylvania.
And all of this just because things had gone well in the Midwest. It wasn’t long before our conversation drifted to stories and side subjects though. As we kept an eye on the TV eventually we realized that it wouldn’t be long until the polls in the West would be closing and once scanning the screen we realized that those were the only states whose land had stayed grey so far, that we were almost there. It wouldn’t be long until we knew who would be the next President of the United States. As the timer on the TV clicked down I scooted closer to Claire on the couch and grabbed her hand. James yelled our remaining seconds. Like a whirlwind the remaining states’ results slammed into the glass of the TV. Blue blue blue….. Another round of yells and hollers met the ceiling and we shook with excitement. Through the open window the neighbor’s joyous sentiments mixed with our yells and met in the air outside the window. Through the jumping we didn’t realize what the TV said right away, but at one point I saw the words we had dreamed about for months, even years.

BREAKING NEWS: BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT ELECT – CNN PROJECTION

Once we saw this, the celebration of Midwest’s victory seemed as mild as a passive high-five. Tears were shed, yells went out like confetti and I made incoherent phone calls to friends who met my yells with ones of their own. Whiskey was shot. The TV screen scanned the crown gathered at Grant Park in Chicago, where Obama would be speaking and the thousands and thousands of supports gathered danced in the street. Some shock with excitement and others hollered with the zeal of a child. The look in the eyes of the citizens gathered in that park held joy so pure you only see it a few times in your life. A blurry image of a town in Kenya, where Obama’s father lived showed supports celebrating kicking up dust with the news. When the newscast broke to the church Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter ministers at her joyful reaction to the news was indiscernible over the singing that was going on in the background.
We sat through John Mccain’s speech politely and dismissed it as soon as if was over. Gushing to one another we waited for the unbelievable moment in which Obama would take the stage and address the crowd. We all cuddled in on the couch and I grasped Jame’s knees across my lap to listen. And on he walked, proud and true. Everything we wanted. And everything we needed. Michelle and their girls held his hands and waved at the camera looking beautiful. The crowd was exploding. When he finally hushed the crowd he gave us a speech of a new kind. It was strong and beautiful. Elegant but sobering. This was it. We did it. We got what we wanted, and now was our time. Our time to take our problems and fix them, find a new angle and make a new way. With focus we listened and agreed. Once we finally turned the TV off we gushed to one another our excitement and disbelief. After parting for the evening I set off on my bike to make my way back home. Watching the skyline was exciting, the renewal of hope that good things can and do happen. When I got to my room back at the K-house I began settling in for the evening, I had just grabbed my towels and was headed to the bathroom to shower when I heard the unmistakable uprising of a crowd. Decided this was something I needed to see I threw my slippers on and was expecting to wave and watch a few drunken supporters who were drumming up excitement out on the streets. It was instead however a few hundred students chanting their joyful glee at our new president elect. I waved them on, yelling my support until a few beckoned me across the street. The delight was contagious apparently because someone told me that the crowd had just gathered spontaniously. We took our eagerness around Dinky town and down University until we finally, with found farewells dispersed at the dorms, about a mile away. I was offered a ride home by the group who had motioned me across the street in the first place and we swapped stories and gleefully cooed our good fortune. Wished each other well I jumped out of their car and re entered my building.
The next morning I learned from a coworker that there had been dancing in the streets in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, one known for Somali immigrants, and in good form she had joined in. The news told me Harlem had taken to the streets as well. Time Square was awake with light and noise and crowds of cheering. Across the nation we had decided that staying inside wasn’t good enough. That our joy had been a bit too large for that.
A few days later two men ready to give their lives to kill Barack Obama had been attained. I heard from my mom that students at my younger sisters school had flung racial slurs onto their facebook status’ and that Barack Obama was considered the anti-Christ by much more than a few of people reported by a vicious email that floated through cyberspace.
Yet as serious and frightening as these threats are, I told my mom a few days later in the kitchen, after she reported the way some of my more conservative relatives felt about him with a heavy heart that we had time on our side. This next administration will not bring rainbows, butterflies and perfect world peace. Puppies will not skip through meadows of daisies. Give it time. I believe that (President) Obama will do a great job. I believe that it was more than a young man with a handsome face and a good speaking voice that light the nation on fire. There was a real and un-dismissible reason that so many millions of people marched to the polls. It wasn’t just a fad that so many hard working people donated their hard earned money to his campaign. It was certainly more than media excitement that brought thousands of regular people to become team leaders, precinct captains and give up their Saturdays to sit and make calls. We are smarted than that, we can’t be fooled just by bandwagon politics and platitudes like HOPE.
These things are real, and I am confident that when January rolls around this will be something we will proudly tell our grandchildren about.