Subway Advisory: Obama Wins!!!

A friend emailed and asked what it was like to be in a blue state after an historic election such as this. She is a liberal Democrat living in a college town right at the border of Georgia and Alabama. She's sick of all the drawn faces she sees walking around her town, while I'm daily, gloriously, reminded of what this country just accomplished by the New Yorkers around me. The photo above summarizes this well--it's a subway information sign, being used by station workers as a note of celebration. People's open joy has encompassed the subway every day since the election, put smiles on people's facing walking down the street, provoked joyful commentary at concerts I've attended from performers are well as organizers, appropriate hoopla from responsive audiences at these events, and a plethora of conversations cataloging responses to the "Where Were You When they Called the Election?" question.

I was in Brooklyn at a friend's apartment, leaning my head out her 10 story window to hear young people hooting and hollering in the streets. A colleague recalls unspeakable energy and enthusiasm in Harlem--at 125th & Adam Clayton Powell--tears streaming down faces everywhere. I cried at that moment and have sobbed several times since (mostly when watching BarackTV or his press conference). Mostly, however, "where I was" that night is less significant in my memory than where I was the next day. At my school my 12th graders and I made collaborative signs that read, "On Nov. 5, 2008, I feel..." I was struck by entries such as "EQUAL," written in all capitals. Equality didn't happen over night and the realist in me knows that racism still exists, but, it is inspiring to see that we've gotten this far, to let the cynic in me die down a little. My own sense of purpose in the world and my own commitment political action and activism has been renewed and revived. Obama's election will, I hope, make us ask harder questions, seek deeper answers, and pull us together to rebuild brokenness bit by bit.