I had just voted in P.S. 3 a block from my house. Jen and I arrived the moment polls opened --in the still darkness of 6 am -- and still had to wait in line an hour to cast my ballot. By the time we got out of the cramped gymnasium where our precinct votes, the line stretched down two city blocks and was threatening to engulf a third.
We live in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn -- the historic home of African-American luminaries like Shirley Chisholm and Jay-Z. For much of the 1980s and 90s, the black residents of this neighborhood were ignored and left to deal alone with the scourge of the crack epidemic. These are the folks who most felt left behind in America -- and who are feeling the most pride in the Obama juggernaut.
A taste of the conversations in line:
"It was like the night before Christmas last night. I couldn't sleep. I was just up watching CNN all night." -- young, African American woman in a high-end purple hoodie
"I've been up since 4 am. I'm 60 years old and I've never been so hyped up. I'd vote for King Kong or Godzilla right now." --older, African American woman in a heavy parka
"We ain't going nowhere. We'll stay here all day, if we have to." -- elderly African American man, after the election officials temporarily closed the voting site because it was so crowded it had become a "fire hazard."
As I walked up and down the line handing out Obama Campaign phonebanking fliers, people were downright giddy, despite the cold. The sense of history was palpable.
But it was those school kids who got me. As their bus rolled by the long line of waiting voters, more than a dozen 2nd or 3rd graders leaned out their windows and chanted, "O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma!"
Everyone glanced around at each other and smiled...and kept waiting for their turn at history.
Obama's running so we can all fly...Bed-Stuy's own:
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While I was waiting in line to vote this morning, an African American woman with a stroller stood next to me in line for the neighboring precinct. We had been waiting about ten minutes when, seemingly unprompted, she walked around to the front of the stroller, bent down, and said to the infant inside, "I know you don't understand it, but this is a very important day for us." She looked at her child a few more seconds, then walked back around and resumed her wait.
Obama has been such an effective post-racial candidate, that I think there is significant portion of America that has genuinely lost sight of what a truly historic thing an Obama victory would be. I think we may have a moment around 11:00 tonight (knock wood) when the country collectively realizes what an extraordinary thing we've done...
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