Dear Friends and Family,
What a trip this was! The journey began in 2004 when Barack Obama gave his speech at the Democratic Convention. I jumped on board after reading his book, “Dreams of My Father,” and the ride towards Election night took us through the suburbs of Milwaukee and Indianapolis.
Monday and Tuesday we were in suburban Republican-land outside of Indianapolis knocking on doors with two other people we brought with us from Chicago. Jing wasn’t even a citizen but said she just wanted to get involved. She’s from China, married to an American businessman and has a green card. Rogier, with dual U.S. and Dutch citizenship, was from Amsterdam and came to Chicago just to join in on the campaigning!
What an organization Obama had in Indiana! There were 63 staging areas in Marion country alone! It was run by cell phones, computers, young and old volunteers and people who donated their houses, food, time, energy and enthusiasm.
On our way back to Chicago on Election day we stopped at the campaign headquarters and got four tickets to the “party.” After leaving Jing and Rogier, we drove home, had a beer, relaxed a little by watching CNN then got on our bikes to go to Grant Park.
“Is this the line to get in?” I asked some people standing six abreast at Congress and Michigan Avenues. Someone waved a ticket, so we started walking back to the end of the line. We walked and walked and walked and by the time we got to Roosevelt Avenue three-quarters of a mile down the line we still couldn’t see the end. We crossed a grassy area heading towards Shedd Aquarium and saw a bunch of people heading the other way. “I think that group is heading to the entrance-let’s go!” So we joined the throng of line-cutters. Everyone was friendly and hopeful that we’d get in. After going through three lines of security we made it in and got to watch the festivities on the “Jumbo-tron” set up on the left side of the park.
It felt like there were a million people in the Loop that night. Everyone was smiling, everyone was cheering, everyone was hopeful. I’m writing this and trying not to use the clichés but it did feel historic. That’s why Jing was there. Rogier was there because he said the whole world was hopeful that Obama would win. He wanted to help.
We got home and stayed up until we saw that Indiana went for Obama. We clinked out glasses, told each other “Good Job!” and went to bed. It was a great day!
