beekeeperssociety: I have been to Grant Park for Lollapalooza; I have been to Grant Park to run my father in the last few miles of the marathon in 95-degree heat; I have driven down Congress countless times, hit that crest where it meets Michigan Ave., the skyscrapers break and Buckingham Fountain and the lake greet you with open arms. But none of that matches the sheer importance, the sheer emotion of last night.It’s not so much that the guy I voted for won. It’s not so much that I was able to share in the moment with some of my best friends. (And, above all, it was not about issues, or taxes, or money, or political rhetoric.) It was watching CNN’s Roland Martin weep on the big screen because a black man had been elected president. A qualified, smart, articulate president, one who is universally-liked across the globe. It was Obama’s speech; a speech that coalesced it all together, that we, the people, black, white, gay, straight can actually have an impact. Where we are many, we are one. In record numbers. Perhaps this moment, where a black man gained presidency in the United States of America, is not quite as groundbreaking or as much of a struggle as the civil rights movement in the 60s. This was not Oxford town or MLK’s March on Washington. I can’t claim I went to the South to protest back then, or that I did anything other than connect two lines with a marker to cast my vote yesterday. But for my generation, this was our moment. A moment where bigotry, and hatred, and racism seemed to evaporate — if only for that fleeting instance under the sweet fall sky of a Chicago November. I was there. I lived it. And I’ll never forget it.

beekeeperssociety:

I have been to Grant Park for Lollapalooza; I have been to Grant Park to run my father in the last few miles of the marathon in 95-degree heat; I have driven down Congress countless times, hit that crest where it meets Michigan Ave., the skyscrapers break and Buckingham Fountain and the lake greet you with open arms. But none of that matches the sheer importance, the sheer emotion of last night.

It’s not so much that the guy I voted for won. It’s not so much that I was able to share in the moment with some of my best friends. (And, above all, it was not about issues, or taxes, or money, or political rhetoric.) It was watching CNN’s Roland Martin weep on the big screen because a black man had been elected president. A qualified, smart, articulate president, one who is universally-liked across the globe. It was Obama’s speech; a speech that coalesced it all together, that we, the people, black, white, gay, straight can actually have an impact. Where we are many, we are one. In record numbers.

Perhaps this moment, where a black man gained presidency in the United States of America, is not quite as groundbreaking or as much of a struggle as the civil rights movement in the 60s. This was not Oxford town or MLK’s March on Washington. I can’t claim I went to the South to protest back then, or that I did anything other than connect two lines with a marker to cast my vote yesterday.

But for my generation, this was our moment. A moment where bigotry, and hatred, and racism seemed to evaporate — if only for that fleeting instance under the sweet fall sky of a Chicago November.

I was there. I lived it. And I’ll never forget it.