I Heard it Downtown

Like my friend Kelly Swope noted today, undoubtedly, there will be several notes floating around facebook on what we all experienced last night. Here are my thoughts on the whole affair, before I take a temporary retirement.

This grueling campaign drew to a close last night, and while most of my friends were on pins and needles with excitement, I felt oddly calm and subdued. While I was clearly going to witness an extremely historic event on my TV that night, the full impact didn’t really sink in. This whole experience was like reading a very long book for months, only to have somebody spoil the ending when you only have a few paragraphs to go. I had been refreshing FiveThirtyEight and Electoral-Vote for months. I knew political statistics in rural Indiana better than I knew the Spanish verbs I was going to be tested on tomorrow. There wasn’t really any suspense. I had already come to terms with an Obama presidency.

For me, that seminal moment where I realized that “holy crap we really are going to elect this guy” happened at his address at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I could feel the energy from the Pepsi Center through my sister’s dingy TV all the way in Columbus. It was electric. You KNEW something big was about to go down. I dragged up all the superlatives I knew, and breathlessly wrote about it that night. I figured after that, it was just a matter of the math.

But as I was driving to Maya’s last night for our little election night party, the sheer scope of the event hit me again. A generation ago, Black Americans were deprived access to our public universities, civil rights, and in some cases, basic human dignity. Tonight, we were going to make one the face of our country, the President Of The United States. This wasn’t a movie. This isn’t Morgan Freeman, or Samuel L Jackson (THATS IT!! I HAVE HAD IT WITH THIS MUTHATRUCKIN INFLATION IN THIS MUTHATRUCKIN ECONOMY!). This was the REAL DEAL. Whoa.

And you know what? This election was never just about African Americans either. 140 years ago, the state of Missouri would give you a quarter for shooting a Mormon. Now, one leads the US Senate, and another is the likely frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination. A woman ran for president and got tens of millions of votes. Another got tens of millions for vice president. A latino ran for president and nobody laughed, and he may very well be our Secretary of State. Glass ceilings are being shattered everywhere. Anybody really can make it in this country.

Me, my sister, and a roomful of friends gathered together for an evening of poll watching, baseless predictions, and more food than any of us could hope to eat. I brought a little notebook (which I brought at first to take notes during the evening, but promptly got caught up in the moment..and didn’t touch my pen after 9 PM), where everybody put down their electoral predictions. We haggled over what the appropriate prize would be, and decided that the winner gets to name Maya’s baby. (I won, by the way). Sorry Mark. You should have been at the party.

I had been pretty brash and overconfident coming into the night, so I have to admit, I started to get pretty worried when Virgina was showing a McCain advantage for the first few hours. I was grabbing laptops, trying to bring up county by county data to reassure myself, and everybody else (but mostly myself). “I don’t get it…Nate Silver clearly foretasted Obama had a 98% chance of winning VA…Northern Virgina hasn’t come in yet…uh..uh….crap.”. We decided there was a secret media cabal set up to keep the election from being called until late at night.

“Next, on CNN, we’re going to call UTAH AND WASHINGTON DC?? Will Obama win anything else? STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER 30 MIN!!”. They also had this terrible habit of shading states blue or red after maybe 6 votes had been counted. I think everybody collectively crapped their pants when they saw Texas turn blue for a few fleeting moments. Anderson Cooper! Cut it out!

Eventually, things started to settle down and fall into place. The room erupted into cheers when we learned that Ohio had repented from 2004, and gone for Obama. I began to get texts from (perhaps slightly tipsy) friends from all over the country. Forget what CNN might tell you. I’m taking some of the credit here. The “I Heard It Downtown.com” vote was huge. I think it might have been as many as 6 people.

Gradually, the suspense died down, more and more states turned from yellow to blue, and Obama was formally named as our new president-elect. John McCain gave a great concession speech…a pity that he couldn’t have channeled some of that mojo a few months ago. McCain is a good guy that got mixed up in the wrong crowd, and I worry that people will forget his decades of service because Steve Schmidt made him do some stupid things (Sarah Palin? Seriously? I should send them a thank you card).

This election was a referendum on the failed Bush polices, but it also meant so much more. This proved that by organizing together, traditionally maligned demographic groups (young voters, minorities, etc)
can actually impact government and enact change. This is the most important legacy of this election. Nobody can say that your vote doesn’t matter, that you aren’t part of the right group.

Rudy Gulliani and other Republicans openly mocked the idea of community organization…the idea that regular people can band together and actually make changes in their neighborhoods (Rudy’s was my favorite. LOL OMG WHAT DOES A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER LIKE…DO? LOL. But Seriously folks. 9/11.) I pray that people will sustain that energy that they used to elect Obama to clean up their own schools, their own blocks, their own cities, and not lose it when things go sour (which they will).

This is a difficult time for America…and we shouldn’t be so foolish as to think that our problems will go away just like that. It will take time, and sacrifice from everybody. I hope that we can bury our hatchets, roll up our sleeves, and get to work…not just our congressmen, not just Obama, but everybody.

Together, we can build a better America for ourselves, and for the next generation..people like Maya’s new baby…my neiphew.

Because lets face it. With a name like Lebron Rutabaga Charizard Zimmerman, he’s gonna need all the help in life he can get.

Note: I’m going to take an extended break from facebook notes for a while I think. This month is famous for two things. No Shave November, and National Novel Writing Month. I’m going to dedicate my time to trying to write some fiction, and maybe growing a beard. it’ll be fun.