yes we can

It was a chilly fall night, the leaves had changed to orange, red, and yellow and lay blanketed on the ground, but that didn’t stop over two million people from gathering in grant park to cheer on the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama. By gathering outside together on Tuesday night, November 4th, these people were showing that they supported Barack Obama and they wanted him to be elected the next president of the United States. Everyone in the crowd could have been tucked safely in their homes, watching the poll results on their own televisions instead of gathering around various strategically placed, big screen TV’s in Grant Park. These screens controlled the crowd like a marionette. The poll results filtered in and at the moment right before a state’s poll was closed and the final vote count was flashed across the screen people would jump to their feet. Depending on the color that popped up on the screen you could hear an uproar of hoots, hollers, boos, and fuck yous. People predicted there would be riots on the streets if McCain was elected the next president; The crowd could have swallowed me whole, I was in the middle of a cultural revolution and my life depended on those big, glowing, florescent, high definition screens. Everyone in the crowd was excited, laughing and joking around, Obama seemed like a shoe-in. Although the time seemed to pass slowly, the crowd waited patiently in anticipation. People were smoking cigarettes, listening to music, taking pictures, talking, anything that would help take their minds off the dwindling seconds until the final poll was closed. The moment finally came, the crowd grew jittery and anxious, but Obama Wins and is elected the next President! Everyone’s shouting, hugging, kissing, singing, crying, clapping, screaming, dancing, chanting “O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!” The group of students that surrounded me started rolling and pulling out victory cigarettes that they stuck behind their ears and waited to light until Obama gave his speech. It was around eleven at night, the temperature had dropped even lower by now but no one left, everyone wanted to hear Obama speak. Afterwards, as people left, they whispered under their breath, tonight history changed.