A political pilgrimage

Obama is highlighted in white. This is the closest we got to the Democratic candidates.

Now, I have always desired to be politically inclined, informed on the issues and gossip of Washington.  I even moved to Washington DC back in 2005, thinking that the culture would have to rub off on me somehow.  Yet, year after year, I saw myself in the same mindset, tired of all the games and jaded by American politics.  In honesty, I gave up having a voice.  I just sat back and watched the scene as a passive observer. 

About a month ago, something clicked for me.  Opening my ears and eyes, I couldn't deny that a lot is at stake in the next election.  As a alum of the Nicholas School expressed on Friday at a reception, we have just lost eight years.  I started to dig out time for politics in my daily routine.  I watched the Democratic and Republic Convention for the first time in my 27 years of life.  Some Nich schoolers and I set up a voter registration table in Hugs commons and were successful in registering 20 students.  A few weeks later a volunteer and I registered another 40 voters at campout. While I'll admit I am still irked by the staged moments, overproduced videos, and pretty speeches, I am willing to look past these and acknowledge that we are a little over a month away from the first African-American president or female vice president.  

So on Saturday, I did something else I hadn't done before.  I wanted to be in the midst of crowd at a political rally and share in the moment of the excitement.  Three friends and I hopped in the car at 9:30am for a one hour trip to Greensboro, NC, the site of the Obama/Biden rally.  I somehow thought that arriving 1.5 hours before the speeches was ample time to get situated.  Wrong!  It literally took us 30 minutes to find the end of the line of spectators waiting to file into the depot.  The excitement of the moment died a little with every corner we turned.  After passing thousands of people in line, our hope of getting in was shrinking and a plan B of watching the speech from a coffeehouse was becoming more and more of a possibility.  Within ten minutes of waiting in line, however, there was movement and we walked steadily toward the rally area.  Once in a while we would end up cutting in front of other lines, but I saw little reaction on the people's faces.  Everyone was here for the same reason and nobody was going to let the spirit of the day be turned into anger or frustration.  

We ended up being a good block away from the actual stage where Biden and Obama delivered their speeches.  From our distant position, we could actually make out the figure of Barack Obama although he was not facing our direction. As the debates were fresh on everyone's minds, the candidates used the prior night's ammunition to pump up the crowd.  While the typical talking points were hit by the Democrats, there were a few defining moments.  Obama's down-to-Earth demeanor came out as he called for an EMT when someone near the stage faint; he also joked about Biden being a favorite of the ladies.  Obama also used the time to make bold statements about the Republicans and the financial situation that he shied away from during the debate.  He also continued to refer to Senator Mcain as "John," bringing down the role of politicians to a level with which all humans can connect.  While the speeches by Biden and Obama were not too newsworthy, it will be the sights of the rally that I will take away.  The crowd of 10,000-15,000 carried an energy of hope that I have only witnessed at sporting events.  However, it was far more diverse, with an unparallel mix of ages, sex, and races. And much more is at stake.