rhapsody in blue

Election night was more than celebration for a candidate. The elation in the streets here in New York was palpable and spontaneous as a sonic boom or thunderclap. I was at Professor Thom's bar in Greenwich village. It was full of twenty somethings, several of whom admitted to me they often had a hard time admitting they were American, they exploded with unbridled joy, and started chanting "USA! USA!".

The running and screaming on 14th street and 3rd Ave, hugging and discussions with random strangers who stopped their taxis to get out and join the throngs, was visceral in a way I have only felt at times in my life when I had been living with a level of choking fear and was given a good diagnosis. Something lifted.

Throughout history, empires have collapsed, the best and brightest nations have succumbed to governments that desire power. The past 8 years have felt like being drunk and trying to climb stairs. Conspiracies and blind hysterics fail to do the real truth justice with regards the Bush Administration. But depth of inspection handily reveals just how terrifyingly and gravely close Cheney & co. came to redefining the way our government operates. To quote Dorothy Day, "Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system."

And right now we have far too many problems on our hands to be so excited because we elected some groovy young international candidate. We're excited because on Tuesday we woke up whether we know it or not.

My subway ride back to Brooklyn from Union Square at 1 AM illustrated this. An exhausted slightly tipsy young guy questioned whether any of this really matters.

"Can people really change? Can Obama really change anything?" said the guy.
"I have seen apathy disappear" I said.

This immediately spurred a discussion amongst complete strangers as to how we can continue to be involved in the government and make change when Obama does begin to make mistakes, because he is only human. Volunteer said one person, continue to bother your representatives said others, be environmental, spread awareness for immigrant, gay, and human rights, read the newspaper, said another. A girl who had volunteered in Thailand and Calcutta said, wake up tomorrow and do something. Our portion of the subway was engaged in a town hall discussion, that moved past Obama. It was about us. When you looked around, people were listening. My friend Jess quoted an old African proverb, "When you pray, move your feet." We ended the ride trading names and phone numbers, one led to a very cool documentary project called Creative Migration.

You have to understand, this doesn't happen in New York on a subway at 1 AM.

But tonight we were a committee, we were a cabinet, we were the new administration. We just have to work as hard as our president is going to.