It was just an unbelievable experience. We had to park in the lot of a closed K-Mart about a mile away from the event, then get onto one of a caravan of school busses to be driven to the park. Everyone clamboring on the bus was excited as hell, laughing and chattering and singing, goofy with anticipation. Northwest Indiana is extremely ethnically diverse but had long been radically segregated; even groups of recent European immigrants formed separate enclaves, neighborhoods comprised exclusively of Poles or Macedonians or Russians. That's started to change rapidly in the last decade, and the crowd on the bus amazingly suggested that the ingredients in the melting pot were finally starting to melt together: black, white, Latin@, Asian, Middle Eastern, Native American. Some of the surrounding towns (and maybe the very town we were in; I'm not sure of Highland's history) were sundown towns not long before I was born, and now people of every color (and sexuality and genderedness and physical ability and belief) were coming together to support Barack Obama. To say it was awesome is not a hyperbolic use of the word.
We intended to make our way to the press area, but no one working the event seemed to know where the press entrance was, so we ended up in the general crowd, with which we were actually quite pleased. We mingled with the people around us, danced to the "wait for Obama to show up" soundtrack, discussed the election. As palpable as the hope that Obama will win was the fear that he will not.
Obama gave his typical stump speech, which I've heard so many times now, there were parts I could say by heart. And yet, it was still compelling, there in the crowd, to hear a presidential candidate speaking about the need for equality and a strong social safety net and sound economic policies and peace. He talked about the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement. He talked about how we shouldn't be divided based on whether we are gay or straight. Part of me felt grumbly, recalling his willingness to benefit from misogyny and to campaign with homobigots during the primary. Part of me felt obliged to acknowledge that on this, the bigger stage, days before the election, his acknowledgement of women's and gay rights was a Big Deal. (Also: Whoa.) And the 40,000 people around us cheered their hearts out when he spoke about eradicating discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality, and ability. It did, in fact, get the biggest cheer of the entire speech, aside from its very end. Whatever Barack Obama does or does not believe personally, Obama voters in NWI are, it seems, ready for equality and justice for all.
That was something.
Iain said, afterwards, "It's so much bigger than Obama, what's happening." And it really did feel that way. It felt like 40,000 teaspoons.
When we first arrived, I had the thought: "Obama can't possibly live up to this level of expectation." As we were leaving, I wasn't thinking about Obama; I was thinking about the other people there, and wishing fervently they would live up to the promise of what is possible if everyone who cares enough to attend a rally and cheer also cares enough to demand everything they deserve from their government.
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