Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

I can't leave the previous post at the top because I admit, it's very negative. I still mean what I wrote, and those F.U.s were well-deserved, but it was written last night after many celebratory beers in a fit of passion. Now some positive thoughts.

This election was won, in part, because of thousands of people whose names you will never know who worked tirelessly knocking on doors and making phone calls to persuade people. I did canvassing a few times during this campaign in Virginia and was impressed by Obama's ground game. That kind of community organizing was in every county of every battleground state in the nation. And you've never seen such hard work. We went down to Springfield at the campaign office in a strip mall a few weeks ago and the place was buzzing with activity --- people on the phones, passing around clipboards and training volunteers. After I was trained, we asked how late the office would be open and they told me "at least until 5AM." FIVE AM! Those people just battled it out until nearly sun-up, daily. This is partly why Obama won so handily.

Yesterday, I went door-to-door in a get-out-the-vote campaign. We targeted people who had told us they were going to vote to remind them and to drive them to the polls if they needed. By 3:00PM yesterday, I was knocking on doors that volunteers had already visited TWICE. We were also sent to an apartment building where the doorman had previously denied volunteers entry. The volunteer manager told us we would be needed for a "ninja mission": we had to get into the building. My technique was to smooth-talk the doorman, but it was easy: as soon as I told him we were going to knock on doors to get out the vote for Barack Obama, the doorman nervously looked around for his boss, then waved us in. We did it!

Last night I was at a bar packed full of people watching the results come in. When it was announced that Obama was elected president, the bar went nuts. Some people were crying and shouting the song "American the Beautiful" and our national anthem. Mind you, these are the "urban liberals" that you might not expect to be showing their patriotism so aggressively.

The last time I can remember feeling so patriotic was right after September 11th, 2001, but it was NOTHING like this. I feel bits and pieces of patriotism all the time; I just don't feel the need to constantly remind people of it --- wearing it on my sleeve like a religious belief. Every time I come home from abroad I am reminded how much I love this country. It's even something as small as the taste of Jimmy Dean sausage or quality orange juice after only eating Indonesian food for weeks. Also, whenever I'm abroad I feel a comfort knowing that if I run into trouble, I can always call the US Embassy and they will have my back. If there are any naysayers left about American democracy, take a business trip to another country for a few weeks, then get back to me. God bless the USA. I mean that --- as much as any heathen can.

UPDATE: Here is a video that my friend Pierre put together shot near the bar where I was celebrating here last night here in Washington, DC.