When I open my window, when I stand outside on the porch, I hear Berkeley reacting to the Obama victory. Since CNN called it, there have been whoops and YEAH!s and O-BA-MAs and more whoops and some of them have been mine. Now and then, a boom—somebody saved some firecrackers. (One might have been a gunshot, but I’m talking Black Cats and M80s.) YEAHs back and forth from our side windows to the apartments next door.
I danced down to the sidewalk in my stocking feet. Exchanged YEAH!s with a guy on the second-floor deck next door. Joe hollered down to me that Colorado went for Obama, and I passed it on. Then ditto that McCain had conceded. Guy hollered that into the apartment, apparently along with whoever was on the other end of his phone. Little boy, maybe three, was standing in the doorway with him when I said “conceded.“
“What’s that mean?“
“Means it’s a new day in America!“
I added, “The other guy gave up.“
“Yeah; he said, ‘You win.‘!“
Much jumping up and down by all three of us, and hollering from inside.
Scattered single and mass hollering from every direction.
I’m still hearing it, over an hour later.
Obama doesn’t have to walk on water. I’m expecting Clinton Lite. I’m relieved enough to yell, just that my nation hasn’t been evil/dumb enough this time to elect McCain.
I’m hearing lots of bad news too, like that Prop 8 seems to be ahead. Oddly, I’m not hearing much about Prop 4, and that doesn’t make me optimistic. But I’m realizing that with McCain those would have looked more like permanent defeat; now, they’re painful, scary setbacks but maybe we can do better next time. Betrayed again, but maybe not forever.
Posted by: Ron Sullivan
1 | By: B. Dagger Lee on November 5, 2008 at 07:02 AM
NYC made a lot of joy-noise out on the street last night. It’s a beautiful thing.
And some of our poor elderly liberal Supreme Court Justices can finally hang up their robes and retire!