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I moved to Peaks Island #Maine 12 years and two days ago.
Right before the 2008 #election.
I was very careful to vote absentee in Ohio before I moved so as to help a swing state toward Obama.
All there was to do on the day was go to our new local pub.
A thread.
Right before the 2008 #election.
I was very careful to vote absentee in Ohio before I moved so as to help a swing state toward Obama.
All there was to do on the day was go to our new local pub.
A thread.
I remember a few things from that night in 08 so clearly.
The bartender asked if I’d voted and who for, I said yes & said Obama, a little nervously.
I asked the same.
He looked at me like I had three heads & said, somewhat offended: “Who the hell do you think I voted for?”
The bartender asked if I’d voted and who for, I said yes & said Obama, a little nervously.
I asked the same.
He looked at me like I had three heads & said, somewhat offended: “Who the hell do you think I voted for?”
I answered: “Man, I don’t know, I just moved here from Ohio. In Ohio, you can never tell and it’s not always that safe to answer if you’re asked.”
The bartender grinned ear to ear and said “Darling, don’t be silly, I voted as blue as the sky.”
The bartender grinned ear to ear and said “Darling, don’t be silly, I voted as blue as the sky.”
Just the fact that a random person could consider it so obvious how they voted that it was a little weird I didn’t assume he was a Democrat made me breathe a little easier after three years in Ohio.
It isn’t always that way in Southern Maine, but it was comforting.
It isn’t always that way in Southern Maine, but it was comforting.
Then when they called Ohio, and this the election, for Obama the whole bar cheered and hugged us like somehow we had personally delivered the whole state, like it was our own victory.
Everyone clapped and cried and sang and toasted each other.
Everyone clapped and cried and sang and toasted each other.
And I remember my mom calling, trying to hear her over the crowd, asking if I remembered election night in 92, when tiny 13 year old me had worked for the Clinton campaign & watched the results with her grad student friends. How hopeful & happy we all felt after 12 years of R.
I said I did remember, & it was nice to feel hopeful again. I’d been a military wife almost all the way through Bush’s years, I’d broken my back with worry & anger at the injustice of it all, & of being ignored when we spoke out.
I felt like good things were possible that night
I felt like good things were possible that night
I’m not really interested in litigating Clinton or Obama’s records, so don’t come at me about that.
I’m talking about what an Election Night can do to your heart. The absolute crush and piercing of it in 2016. The elevation in 2008. The togetherness hope can make.
I’m talking about what an Election Night can do to your heart. The absolute crush and piercing of it in 2016. The elevation in 2008. The togetherness hope can make.
In 2010 I saw a space shuttle launch, one of the last. The ship went up into the blue, blue sky and we all held hands in the bleachers, hoping & willing it to succeed, to go higher, to stay whole. For all of us, for the best in us.
I know we’ll all be doing the same tonight.
I know we’ll all be doing the same tonight.
I have no idea what’s going to happen. If we’ll know tonight or not, if there will be underhanded meddling or not, what the consequences of either will be.
I just want to feel like I did in that pub in 08. We can’t be in a pub this year. But I want to cheer again.
I just want to feel like I did in that pub in 08. We can’t be in a pub this year. But I want to cheer again.
Elections are never simple victories, there are always compromises to come. No one is perfect.
But I want to feel like it’s possible to choose to stop being quite so horrid, and turn our faces upward toward something better, something kinder.
Something as blue as the sky.
But I want to feel like it’s possible to choose to stop being quite so horrid, and turn our faces upward toward something better, something kinder.
Something as blue as the sky.
