There are right now, quite literally, people dancing in the streets in Minneapolis.
In a quick drive around the neighborhood to see where all the cheering, horn honking, and fireworks I was hearing were coming from, I had to stop three times to avoid hitting people dancing in the streets (twice in a single intersection), to say nothing of all the people on the sidewalks cheering.
I actually opened the window in my apartment just before Obama’s speech to see if people were cheering, more than half laughing to my self at the thought that not only would people be yelling (a la the movie Network), but that they would be doing so loudly enough that I could hear it. They are. You can hear them at least 5 blocks away. They’re all the way up and down the street (mostly clumped around the bars). It’s well past midnight, and the cheering has been non-stopped since Obama hit 270. If anything, it just keeps getting louder (I have some feeling alcohol might be involved to some slight degree with that :) ).
I will say the fact that Obama mentioned the New Deal in his speech gave me occasion for notable pause, but if you hadn’t guessed from my posts this last week, I’m also happy to see McCain (the ’08 model) and Palin as far from the White House as you can get. If nothing else, regardless of policy, I think the message it sends to the rest of the world is something to be thankful for. After the winner was declared, and it really hit me that this is the begin of the end of the Bush era, my first thought was, “huh, so I wonder if this means we can go back to being proud of being American again?”
As I’ve said, I don’t always agree with Obama’s economic policies, but I’m glad to see one of the rarest of breeds politicians headed to the White House – one I can respect even when I disagree with him, and, just as importantly, one that seems to feel the same way in return.
Economic hardships aren’t as tough if you can respect and appreciate the people around you, and have a sense of dignity as a country.
On a lighter note, my favorite moment of the night- Barack Obama telling his daughters that since he won they’d be getting the new puppy he promised. That alone seems to sum up so much.
In short, see my previous post. Now, lets get to work on those sundaes.
[...] the people dancing in the streets in my neighborhood after Obama’s election was nothing compared to across [...]