There were about 75k free tickets for the rally in Grant Park that you could download online and they got cleaned out in 4 hours. Shiv, a guy I work with, just happened to be browsing in the right place at the right time and downloaded one. I'd told him ages ago that if Obama ever came to Chicago, I really wanted to go see him so he forwarded the link to me, but by the time I got around to opening it, they were no tickets left. Luckily, it happened to be a ticket for two, so Shiv said we'd go together.
On the day of the rally, things totally built up and those free tickets were selling on ebay for as much as $600! A guy at work actually offered Shiv $100 to take him instead of me. Shiv was sweet enough to refuse. But he kept sending my links to ebay telling me how much he could make if he ditched me.
We decided to leave early from work when we heard that people started queuing up outside Grant Park at four. I had a brief tussle with my boss who wanted me to work late (that day of all days). But, yeah, I'm not going to crib. I was at Grant Park the night Obama won, and a lot of people would have paid hard cash to exchange places with me.
While we were waiting for the gates to open, news about the election was still trickling in. There was a young black woman in front of us on the phone and suddenly she turned around and whooped, He won Ohio!! And everyone around us started cheering and screaming and chanting Yes We Can. People were so excited! There was an older white woman standing close by and she turned to me and laughed and said, can you believe how happy we are? And then she added, do you think we'd have been this happy if Hillary was winning? I thought this was a joke and just laughed. But she continued, I live in Hyde Park and I saw all these little black kids and they were so happy. Do you think little girls would have been this happy if Hillary became president?
The crowd started moving then, and I didn't see her after that. But I thought about what she said, and you know what I'm inclined to believe? That no, little girls wouldn't be as happy if Hillary became president. Because black kids know they're black, and little girls don't know as yet that they're going to grow up to be women.
I thought the crowd there would be primarily black. Or at least a large fraction of it. But there were all sorts of people. This white suburban family, mum, dad and two kids. A gay couple in their thirties. Two giggling teenage girls. A bunch of people who looked like they worked together. It was like the whole of Chicago had come out to cheer for Obama. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I went to cheer for Obama, and I'm an Indian who's in Chicago for a just a few months.
We finally got to Grant Park, and I don't know, I think I expected something near hysteria. But though people were happy; they were singing and dancing and chanting, they seemed a little subdued. It was like they'd been hoping and praying for this for so long that now that it was finally about to happen, they didn't have the energy to go crazy.
When Obama finally got there, after a brief bout of wild cheering, there was this hushed expectant silence. Obama didn't disappoint. His speech was brilliant; moving and inspiring.
After that we went home, and to work the next day. In a couple of months, I'll be back in India and all I'll have to show for it is a tattered ticket with Shiv's name on it and shiny black button that says, I was there!
And maybe also the belief that if we choose to, we can all be agents of change.
0 comments:
Post a Comment