Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Jesse's Tears

Darling Man and I watched much of the coverage of Election Night on several channels. I always feel like network coverage begins too early. There's lot of guessing based on very little return how things will turn out early in the evening. Then around 9pm, things begin to pick up as real results begin to come in and numbers are tallied.

Then we can watch the states turn red or blue and the electoral votes add up.

Darling Man turned in around 9:30. His early rising made staying up late nearly impossible. He tried. I went to the computer room and worked on my novel, keeping half an eye on the TV but soon got involved in my story. I'm not sure how much time went by, but eventually I had to stop and grope for the next set of words and I looked at the TV.

A tight crowd shot was on, with Jesse Jackson standing slightly behind some other people. And as I noticed the numbers at the bottom of the screen telling me that Barak Obama had won the presidency, I also noticed the tears streaming down Jesse's face.


I'm sure he thought this day would never come. That a black man or any man of color would be elected to the highest office in the land. His own bids for that job met with dismal failure and in his heart of hearts, probably thought that it would never come to pass that a black man would be sitting behind the desk in the Oval office. Not in his lifetime anyway.

Tonight, we all saw history being made, but nowhere was it more evident than on Jesse Jackson's face.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesse's thinking, "Damn, I'm out of a job!"

Andy

Unknown said...

I felt like I was watching a car wreck...Horrible, but too fascinating to turn away...I don't have a very good feeling about the fate of my country over the next four years and for decades to come...On a local level, a smart woman lost by <1% to yet one more member of the old boy's network...all in all it was not a good night

Anonymous said...

I, on the other hand, was never prouder to be an American than last night, but then again I guess you could tell who I was routing for.

Patience said...

I'm not a fan of Obama. Not particularly a fan of McCain either, for that matter. But I just don't really know how Obama stands on issues. He stands for . . . change! Very generic.

I think many people believe the president has much more power than he really does. He can't make laws, he can't change the constitution. He can however declare war.

We will see what the next four years brings us! It may be a wild ride!

Anonymous said...

Your Aunt Sus writes from London: "To quote Winston Churchill, America will always do the right thing, having first exhausted every alternative."
At last a president one can admire.
Congratulations!

Mom

karisma said...

Well I for one am very happy for you all! Congratulations!

PinkPiddyPaws said...

And here I thought you weren't going to discuss politics. ;)

Here's the two things that struck me last night as this all came to it's conclusion:

#1) Obama has a DAMN good speech writer and he has great delivery. But for every word he spoke during his acceptance speech - he said absolutely nothing. Seriously, it was full of rah-rah platitudes and make the crowd cheer catch phrases. And at some point (after the 15 billionth time he said "Yes We Can") I actually thought he sounded more like a Cult Leader than the next President of the US.


#2) Am I the only female that's bothered by the fact that the US has declared it would rather have a black man in the office than a woman (i.e. Hillary)? Why were so many people willing to overlook their racial prejudices but not their gender prejudices? Women have struggled for equality in this world too, so what does that say? Why is it that other countries can have women Presidents and Prime Ministers, but not the US. Hmmmm.. it was just something that struck me.

Ummm.. that being said, I DID vote (no, not for the guy who won) so I did my part, had my say and that's all I can do. Now I just sit back and watch what happens and hope that it all works out for the best.

Cheers!!
kitty

Anonymous said...

First, before I forget, because I do forget...um, now where was I?
Oh, yeah: Kitty (aka: PinkPiddyPaws), re: #2, No, you're not the only one !

Regardless of what we ALL think about who won...who lost, as Americans, we need to join together, turn our states PURPLE, rather than red and blue...and work together to vote out our local/state levels elected officials if we aren't happy as their constituency...it will take a while, but we can do it.

Obviously, their are some rats in the pack...

My main gripe right now is that no one bailed me out of a FIVE digit chemotheraphy bill my insurance company decided they didn't have to pay because I had to be hospitalized...when I was earning a pauper's school teacher's salary...when the collection agency sent their nasty letters every month, while I paid that bill dollar by dollar. No one bailed me out...or sent me a Christmas bonus.

PinkPiddyPaws said...

Swampy -- YAY!! I'm glad it's not just me! :D