Election Night 2008

When I am very old and a young person with an oral history project asks me about voting I will tell him about Election Night 2008. I will say I was in Oakland and the people were dancing in the streets. They came to celebrate, they came to sing, they came to dance, they came to cheer and to be together. The BBQ place a few blocks away threw a block party expecting a few hundred guests, by seven o'clock the restaurant was so packed you couldn't get to the bar to get a drink. At some point the police closed down the surrounding blocks as people jammed the streets. They came in their tricked out cars, their exquisite Harley Davidsons, they came to share the excitement of this historic election. Black, white, latino, asian, all partying together to celebrate the new face of America, the new hope for America. On the street when groups of people would pass each other one would shout OBAMA the resposnes OBAMA everywhere in the neighborhood all night long. Some people drove by with a spotlight on top of their car and projected an image of Obama onto the face of the Webster Tube. A few hundred people took pictures, then the car drove off to light up another edifice elsewhere in town. In a neighborhood not known for having large, peaceful gatherings on this one night everyone partied together all night long in celebration of a new day dawning of America. And it is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.