Election Day

Well, it's here. Bush is out and someone new is in. And sometime in the middle of the night, we're going to know just who that someone is. I got up early this morning to go vote, hoping I'd be able to do it before class. I was shocked to see that there was no line at 8:30. I easily found a parking space, and just walked right in. I am wearing my sticker to prove it.

On Sunday night, I was studying with a classmate, Anusha, when we saw online (okay, maybe we weren't studying 100%) that Barack was in Cincinnati that evening. Sadly, we found this out at about 8:15pm, and the rally at Univ. of Cincy was going to start at 9. We decided we'd go anyway. We figured, heck, it's two days before the election, and there's going to be lots of energy and news people regardless of if we can get in or not. We got directions, jumped in the car, and found our way to Cincinnati. We left Oxford around 8:45, fifteen minutes before the event was supposed to start. When we got the Cincinnati, we found parking quite easily and then just followed the crowd we could hear and the stadium lights we could see. And similar to my election experience this morning, we just walked right in. There were thousands and thousands of people there, but I was surprised to see how many empty seats there were too. We settled down near the opposite goal-post from Barack, and took in the scene.

It was a few minutes later that I realized we had gone through absolutely no security. No police checks, no sniffing dogs, no metal detectors.

All in all, it was a fun time, and we actually heard Obama speak for about 45 minutes even though we were substantially late. And while there was definite energy in the crowd, there were no trumpets, there was no lightening from Heaven, there was no Hallelujah Chorus.

In fact, The One With The Golden Voice sounded tired. Sounded like he was pounding through a speech he'd given hundreds of time as he pressed towards the finish line. People were leaving long before it was over. But towards the very end of the speech, he really started to get going, and a sense of excitement did surge throughout the crowd.

Regardless of your choice (or non-choice) for president, this election has caused some electricity to surge through the nation. What we do with that electricity will be another story. If we sit back and hope The Elected One comes to office and rushes to save us, I'm afraid we'll likely be no better off than where we are now. So go out and vote, and then go and be some change yourself.