Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Hell, Yeah!










Photos from Huffington Post







A little while ago, I wrote about the phenomenon of thought ideas and circumstances converging to bring a lesson home. You might be thinking of something, and, suddenly your thoughts are played out in the action of others on the street. The contents of some random dream you have appear in an editorial column. A conversation you overhear plays out in a sit-com that evening. Life is always like that, no?

So tonight, I am in my class, Revolutionary and Federalist America, watching a film (yes, the professor took pity on us) about the creation of the Constitution. All those forefathers long ago turned to dust. I wondered what they would think about the America of today. Would they think we had realized their ambitious and messy dream? Would they marvel at how far we had progressed (or strayed, depending on your point of view)? Would they see this Presidential Election as the natural outcome of their grand experiment? Or would they shake their heads at the circus (truth to be told, not the first circus in this world)?

I could not WAIT to get to my car, and hear the early returns.

Just as I turned on the radio, NPR called Pennsylvania for Barack Obama. I nearly burst into years. See, just two days ago, I received video of a crowd of people who live just a few miles away from me. After a;; these years, they were still willing to call him an A-rab, a terrorist, a socialist, a ... There was one kid (he could not have been thirty!) who said he could never accept a black man as President. These were people who told this to a stranger with a video camera. What must they say in the privacy of their basements? I was ashamed of these fellow Pennsylvanians. Can we really have made so little progress after all?

But: "Pennsylvania has been called for Obama."

Followed by a whole bunch of other states.

George? James? Ben? Patrick? Alexander?

Can I get a, "Hell, yeah!"?

Just now: "NBC has just projected Barack Obama as the next President of the United States".

Hell, yeah.


7 comments:

Lori Skoog said...

Fe...Happiness is....

The support of your state for Obama shows you that those people on the video are in the minority. Who knows what they are doing tonight. Apparently they do not know how to judge someone of good character.
The best man won and I have a feeling he will prove himself to the world.

"Hell yeah!"

rebecca said...

HEEELLLLL YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!!!

And I went to work this morning, still high from the victory, and no one to share it with! I work with a bunch of hard-core Republicans (yeah, you feelin' sorry for me yet?) who did not want to discuss it. My only kindred spirit was on vacation. So here I was in a wake with people in mourning and not talking. Actually one actually constructed a sentence and told me the "mania" that erupted last night was scary and they were treating this man like he was some sort of idol....crying and carrying about, etc. My answer: "sore loser. had it been your man, you wouldn't have thought so!" bleh! double bleh on them! and hooray for us! WOO-HOO!

Ken Mac said...

a great night to be an American

CoyoteFe said...

Lori -

I am so glad! I have lived with these people for decades. They slide in the shadows, and I was afraid that they would prevail.

Rebecca - I guess I am lucky (and I DO feel your pain!). I work with a mixture of people, and we manage to make our points without getting angry or petulant. Crying and mania? After eight long years of terrifying power-grabbing and assault on the very bedroack of America for greedy, craven interest? Well, it's my party, and I'll cry if I want to! If you ever need someone to celebrate with, drop me a line!

Ken O' Mac -

A good night to be alive on the planet!

Anonymous said...

Happy for you, Fe! After 40 years, it finally happened, prejudices went down at last. Hurray for that!

CoyoteFe said...

Esther -

Thanks for the good wishes!
Now, I woudl not say that POrejusices are down, but we may have taken away one of their crutches. We'll see! :-)

Anonymous said...

One step at the time! After all, substantial change takes... generations!!! :-D