Election Day, '08

There is no one awake to answer my calls. I have received no replies to my text messages. It's 3:30 AM on November 5, 2008. Barrack Obama has been declared the forty-fourth President of the United States of America. He is the first Black man to be elected to the highest rank in our government. I will be nineteen in a week, but I did not vote. I am a republican, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for a party that denies me the right to marry. As much as I long for the day when I can walk down the isle with my beautiful bride, I could not bring myself to vote for a party that denies the rights of unborn children. I couldn't bring myself to make the treck back home to cast an uncertain vote. I was given many opportunities to switch my voter registration to my college town, but was too annoyed by the constant nagging of the college representatives of both parties to do so. My first opportunity to vote for the president, and I chose not to. In spite of the insistence of the media that every vote counts, I do not believe that my vote could have possibly changed anything. And I'm not sure I care. I do regret not exercising my right to vote that the women before me worked so hard for. However, I don't think that decisions such as these should be made without extensive knowledge of the issues. I was told I should vote for Mickey Mouse, just to vote. There's no way in hell I was going to do that. The power to vote is too great to be wasted on a joke like that.

I was at Alicia's apartment when I heard the results of the election. My heart filled with dread and I knew I need to return to my own apartment as soon as possible. As my car rolled to a stop at the base of the Bloomsburg University campus, I was horrified to see hundreds of people crowding the street. The police cars pushed them to the sidewalks in time for me to pass through. My heart raced. Panic seemed through me as I raced up the stairs to my apartment. I informed my roommates of the crowd coming our way. Kelsey grabbed her camera and ran to the seen with me. A hundred people had gathered around the fountain across the street from us and a hundred more were still coming. I was in awe at the sight. People of every race were gathering to celebrate the election of our first black president. The crowd began its march back up to campus, but I hung behind. Once my panic had mostly subsided, I stepped out of myself and followed behind the group. Police from our town and neighboring boroughs tried to block off the streets, but they were no match for this jubilant parade. The crowd gathered once again in front of Carver Hall at the base of campus, ignoring the police warnings to move out of the road. They feared a riot, but this was the most peaceful and joyous gathering I have ever witnessed. I leaned myself against a tree in order to take in the sight. Hundreds of college students cheered, "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!" To my right I heard one guy sarcastically cheering along, "O-sa-ma!" This is as expected. The similarity in the name had been pointed out since the beginning of Obama's campaign. The crowd cheered on. One African-American girl sang spirituals and other songs of peace. As the police became more annoyed, I saw a small group of African-American students running away from the scene. As one female member of the group lagged behind, another called out, "We're the first to go to jail! Don't you understand?" To which this slower girl replied, "Obama has made us all equal!" Then the speech began: "I had a dream..." The words sent chills down my spine. This was the common feeling. The dream that Dr. Martin Luther King talked about so long ago had finally been accomplished. Obama has made us all equal... I hope.