"The thought of a President Obama is starting to sink in now that I hear NPR’s Linda Wurtheimer drone about what President Obama has on his agenda today. It’s starting to sound ordinary. I like it."
It’s Snowing Beautifully Now
It’s snowing beautifully now
It’s snowing beautiful now
beautiful snow
It is snow
It is snow now
snow now
It is beautiful snow
It is
snow
It is now
"Hopefully in the best cases personal songs are ultimately more generous than selfish."
— Jeffrey Lewis, for the NY Times’ Blog, Measure for Measure.
This Is Our Moment
Now it’s time for President Obama. As we all know he mopped the floor.
I watched the results over at Nick’s with Katie, Joey and Mike. The usual hang-out-at-nick’s activity ensued. Obama gave the best speech I’ve heard him deliver. Kyle sent me an unsolicited text message that he thought it was a great speech.
Afterwards, the scene in my neighborhood was wild and joyous. An impromptu celebration erupted that cut off all traffic through Bedford and North 7th street. Katie and I hung around until about 2:30. Everything was peaceful when we left, but they had sent in riot cops. At the point that we left, things were still calm, but from what I hear, the cops started to get out of hand around 3. That’s a shame.
This election was important to me because Obama represents the coming of age for my generation. If you saw the celebration that I saw on Bedford, or the one in front of the White House, or the crowds in Chicago, you’ll see a mass of enfranchised young people that formed the bedrock of the Obama campaign. This election was a ratification of our ideas and our way of connection on the Internet. We are not the hippies. On the surface we don’t seem engaged. But we’ve been quietly working away online, under their noses, and Tuesday was our coming out party.
I’ve long been saying that it’s time to get the baby boomers out. We did it. Now it’s time to grow up and embrace the challenges of our adulthood. There are no longer any excuses, and that’s fucking exciting.
What’s even more amazing is that Obama means things more significant to other groups of people in this country. I can’t even imagine how it feels to be black right now. Black people in America woke up to a new world on Wednesday. I feel a palpable sense that the floodgates have been burst wide open. The presidency is the pinnacle office of the white establishment. There is no longer any glass ceiling. There are no longer any excuses.
This is our moment. There are no longer any excuses.
I Voted for Obama
It’s official now. I voted for Obama. It felt empowering. In 2004 I voted absentee from Wofford and I sort of felt like I was on the sideline on election day.
Today I went to my voting precinct at PS 17 and felt a part of my neighborhood and community. The voters I saw were mostly white. They were all the hipster people that you see dressed with dark peacoats and scarves headed to the subway in the morning.
This morning they stopped at PS 17 to vote. It truly felt like a community event, which is something very rare in this city, and that felt good. At this place in time, in this city, in this neighboorhood, all of the voters that live near PS 17 came out to cast their ballot. We were all bound by a specific geography, and for that I felt a part of something bigger than myself.
_________________
The scene outside PS 17.
Going in to vote.
The scene inside PS 17.
My ballot.
