Obama Waved to Me
October 22, 2008
I'm just back (that is a figurative term because there was so much traffic) from the Obama rally in Leesburg, Virginia. As Obama's motorcade went past where I was standing (which was a mile and a half from the park where he spoke and not quite at my car where I had parked it) I saw the trademark smile and a wave. All of the people around me swooned, the girl next to me even whooped, but I was more reserved, I smiled and clapped. Lovely, lovely end to a rally.
The were thousands and thousands of people in this park in a contested part of Virginia. There were all kinds of people there, but everyone seemed happy and genuinely excited to vote for Obama, to hear Obama, and to be around so many like-minded citizens.
The only thing that I had not heard before was when he spoke of his mother having battled cancer, he said that as she battled cancer, she was also battling the insurance company to pay for her care. He promised that that would not happen on his watch.
What else? There were Disneyesque lines to get in. When I left, there was a sea of people walking down a main street of this town, still chanting, still excited and exhilarated. If you get a chance to go to a rally, I recommend it. There was a lot of traffic driving there, there was a lot of traffic walking there, there was a lot of traffic leaving there, but there was a sense, somehow, that I did something. That I was a part of something.
Two good omens after the rally: an auxiliary sheriff bought an Obama button. And, when I stopped to buy gas at a gas station where I never buy gas (I am very political about the places where I will buy gas), but I was exhausted and there were only two lines to go in the gas tank, so I went there--and there, on the other side of the pumps was a woman I hadn't seen for three years. Yes, a sign, a sign!
Speaking of signs, our Obama sign went up Monday night. We put it up in response to our neighbor's sign (yes on prop 8).
A friend in D.C. says a colleague of his in Virginia has had several Obama signs stolen from his front yard. Hopefully ours will stay up.
Posted by: JC | October 23, 2008 at 08:06 PM
I haven't noticed any missing signs in my neighborhood, and a few more Obama ones have gone up. There are no McCain signs in my immediate neighborhood--another sign! Interestingly, a house on a main road near my neighborhood had a huge Bush sign in front four years ago has nothing on the front lawn now, and the house next door that had a Kerry sign now has a whole series of Obama signs. Virginia, painting itself blue!
Posted by: Laura of Rebellious Thoughts of a Woman | October 25, 2008 at 06:15 AM