So my last post was on the 4th, right after the Super Bowl. I've actually updated my essay for class a couple times, but I guess you wouldn't read that every time you pop by here, would you?
Anyway. This is a little late but I just wanted to write a bit about the trip I took a couple weeks ago. Part of this might actually make its way into an essay at some point as well, so might as well go ahead and type it out, right?
So yeah, two weeks ago, I went to the Obama rally in Virginia Beach, VA, where it turns out he won pretty big. I heard about the thing on Friday, drove home on Saturday, and came back Sunday night. I think I've mentioned here before that this is the first time I've ever cared this much about politics. I mean, I watched the debates and voted in 2004, but this time around, it feels a lot more important. Case in point: if you told 18-year-old me that I'd break plans to get frisky with a cute girl in favor of going to a political rally I'd have slapped your mouth and called you crazy. But as it stands, this seemed like a potential once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see my generation's JFK and one of the best orators today speak, so off I went. My good friends Ping and Davis came along, which is interesting since Ping can't vote and Davis refuses to on the grounds that one vote won't make a difference. C'est la vie.
We had dinner with my parents and grandparents on Saturday, the night before the rally. Mom made burgers, which were pretty awesome as usual, although no one seemed to approve of my putting chips on the burger, but whatever, I like that extra crunch. In any case, my grandmother clearly didn't approve when I told her why I'd come home. "You mean to tell me you drove all this way to go listen to those idiots?!" she said. I asked what idiots she was referring to, but she just glared at me. A while later, mom told me that my grandma wanted to vote for Romney because she thought he was "a hunk," and when he dropped out of the race, she switched over to Hillary. Clearly, she's very concerned about the issues.
We didn't know what the lines would be like Sunday, given the reports of ridiculous overflow at arenas all over the country, so we got to the Convention Center early--the doors opened at 5:30 and we got there at 1:00. There were only about 20 people in line, and it looked like they might have camped there overnight, so we walked down to the oceanfront. It was actually my first time at the Virginia Beach oceanfront, and while the boardwalk was nice, I didn't really find a lot to like. There were "no swearing" signs all over the streets, which seemed a bit fascist. It was also extremely windy, and we all got quite a bit of sand in our eyes and hair. And of course, being a Sunday in February, almost everything was closed. We allowed ourselves to get sandblasted for half an hour or so, and headed back to the line. By the time we got back, there were 50 or so queued up, so we decided to go ahead and wait it out. This proved to be a good idea: within an hour, a few hundred people had showed up. An hour after that, there were about a thousand. By 5:00, several thousand were in a line that snaked all the way around the building. The final count in attendance was about 18,000, and we were in the first hundred. I tried to get some pictures of the crowd, but I only had my mom's little purple camera and they all came out blurry. Ping and Davis laughed hysterically at me for even bothering to bring such an effeminate little camera. "Put that thing away son, leave this one to the big boys," Davis said. Nevertheless, it was pretty overwhelming to see so many people standing out in the cold just to see one man speak. And judging by the murmurs I heard in the crowd, we all had the feeling that we were seeing a part of history.
When the doors opened and we got through security, Ping and Davis secured a spot near the railing while I went to the bathroom. I was washing my hands when I heard Davis yell, "Hey, if you hurry your ass up, we can get a seat in the bleachers." I didn't even bother drying my hands, just wiped them on my pants, and a large, Secret Service-looking fellow escorted us past the railing and we took a seat in the 4th or 5th row. A man in the crowd asked if we were young Democrats.
"Uh... not officially," I told him. "We go to NC State. We drove up for the rally yesterday, but we're not with any particular group."
"You guys are in college?" He turned to the lady sitting next to him. "Did we ever look that young?" he asked.
We waited another couple hours for the rally to begin, during which time, they played the same seven or eight songs over and over. This selection included Kanye West's "Touch the Sky," which is basically about spending too much money, but I digress. A woman in the crowd in front of the stage sang the chorus to "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" every time it played. At first, people slowly trickled into the arena after clearing the metal detectors, but around 7:00 someone opened a back door into a gated area farther from the stage and thousands rushed in steadily until they reached capacity. Some still got turned away at the door. Meanwhile, volunteers started handing out signs for us to wave for the camera. The red ones said "STAND FOR CHANGE" and the blue ones said "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN." I got a blue one. The signs smelled oddly like maple syrup and celery.
The rally finally started around 8:00, half an hour late, and the first speaker was a former Republican who had switched her affiliation in order to vote for Obama in the primary. She was visibly nervous, and when she said she was a Republican, the crowd booed her, which I thought was a little tacky. Her speech was brief and unmemorable, but she did a good job warming the crowd up after her initial setback. After her speech, the announcer came on to introduce the man we'd all been waiting for... Virginia Governor Tim Caine. The disappointment in the room was palpable, but the crowd cheered anyway. Caine talked about the importance of Virginia being a blue state for the first time since Carter, which made me a little sad since, being from NC, I probably won't get a chance to vote in our primary and we have almost no chance of going Democrat in the general. However, Caine admittedly did a great job of hyping up the crowd even further, then personally introduced Obama as U2's "City of Blinding Lights" started playing.
Obama came out to thunderous applause and shook a few hands along the entrance railing before taking the stage. He gave the same basic stump speech I'd heard six or seven times before, but it was still electrifying to hear him speak. He talked about the usual policy points--Iraq, healthcare, fuel efficiency, college tuition grants for public service--but I was glad to hear so much about policy. I tried to do my part and look extra enthusiastic for the camera, raising my sign at appropriate times and clapping every time it seemed even remotely plausible. Some people in the bleachers behind me sounded like they were in church, shouting things like "Tell em, Barack!" and "That's right, Barack!" and "Lay down some truth on 'em!" At the end of the speech, a girl fainted and Obama called for an EMT and asked that everyone give her some air. It felt more like a rock concert than a political rally.
He left the stage and started shaking hands. A large line had already formed around the railing in front of the bleachers, but I knew what I had to do. I rushed down to the floor, but I was blocked by a phalanx of supporters. I looked left and couldn't find an opening. To my right was a spot that was only two people deep. I scrambled for the opening, turning sideways to stretch my hand out between the the hands of the two in front of me. I was just in time: he shook my hand, and I said, "Thank you, Senator!" like a little girl meeting the Beatles.
I can't wash this hand again now, I thought.
It has the germs of hope and change in Washington on it.
Obviously, the race is still far from over, but I really believe that I shook the hand of the next President of the United States. The swell of support around the country is truly a movement at this point, and I'm proud to be a part of it, no matter how small. Win or lose, I think Obama's already done a lot to get new people involved in politics, and should he be elected, I think it would do a lot to restore people's faith in politics and our standing in the world. I know that, at least in the internet communities I usually visit (read: Something Awful) basically everyone outside the US supports Obama. I've seen Canadians and Europeans saying they wished they were American so they could vote for him. I can't think of another time I've seen Canadians and Europeans wish they were American.
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