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Edited on Fri Nov-07-08 02:05 AM by norepubsin08
I've been meaning to write this since yesterday, but am finally getting the energy to wake up.
What a day it was in Tacoma, Washington. For the first time in many, many years (on election day) the weather was wonderful. Sunny and crisp. All day while canvassing the GOTV, I had that sense of profoundness welling up inside of me. A feeling you have deep inside of you that you can't quite define, but know nonetheless that something major is about to happen. You could see it in the faces of the people you encountered, you could sense it by their reactions to your campaign button in the stores, at the line at the post office.
And then the most amazing thing...going near my polling place to canvass, a line...A LINE! of participants in democracy and history. Never have I seen a line formed outside of my polling place. In 2004, the maximum wait was 25 minutes and we were told THAT was historic. I was informed that at 6:45 that morning before the polls even opened it was going to be a 1/2 hour wait. By 10:30AM it was 2 hours and by 2:30PM it was three hours. It wasn't a testy line either. It was neighbors who for some, for the first time in years, spoke to one another...who shared an unspoken but common premonition of the magnitude of the day.
While canvassing I came across a very elderly African-American man sitting in a donut shop, he was near tears because the outer envelope of his absentee ballot was ripped, he thought he couldn't vote. After checking, his ballot was still intact and so was his mailing envelope. I helped him fill it out for Barack Obama and other selections of his choice and then received the biggest sigh of relief and smile from him.
Mean while, my canvassing partners knocked on a door and met a grandmother and her 18 year old grand daughter. Both African American also, and both as excited as can be because they were both going together to vote for the first time in their lives and both overjoyed that it would be for some one so inspirational.
And then finally, finally after working for 10 months on this campaign, one could do no more. All the talking, nuancing, door knocking, phone calling, mailing, speechifying etc etc was over. Our polls close at 8:00PM, at 7:32 PM our canvass team of 11 canvassing and two house bound meal makers finished and got ready to party. We got to our condo for the party at 7:53 and 8 minutes later...BARACK OBAMA HAS JUST BEEN DECLARED THE PRESIDENT ELECT. WOW!!!
It seemed to me that there was a lot of impromptu celebration going on. Never can I remember in my lifetime public celebrations of this nature all over the country after the selection of a president. I've been to many indoor pre-arranged election watch parties where yes, there were lots of hugs and laughs and sometimes tears depending on the outcome, but nothing like this, empty the building and take to the streets to enjoy the moment and feel the gift of restoration of our values as a democracy rising from the grave of a shredded constitution.
Yes, I know that what we accomplished was getting to the "train station" and we still have the "journey" ahead of us, but this folks is the furthest we have gotten in a long time...for the first time in about a dozen years, I have hope stirring in my soul, and a sense that life in this country can get back to being the ideal I learned about while growing up in Europe before becoming an American Citizen.
I am sorry for the length of this item, just wanted share my day with thousands of others who I know have worked so hard for the same result-Peace-Mike Collier
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