The Rising . . . .

To clarify things a bit about the last post and Barack Obama visiting Roseburg, that picture came from News Review website, not my camera. I wasn’t actually there.

But I was here. . . . . . . !!!!!

My sister, my 5-month old niece and I made it inside in the last few minutes before Sen. Obama began to speak. We could only see his head because of some damn blue canopy up front and we were denied the precious shade of a tree by a mere three feet, but I would do it again today if I could – only I’d go earlier. 72,000 people made it his largest rally by almost double and if he goes on to be the next President of the United States, as I hope he does, we can say we were there as his supporters in a history-making rally.

Besides the sheer number of people coming out in support of Obama – the Oregonian reported that one in 50 people in Oregon were at Tom McCall Waterfront Park – what I noticed most was that even within such a large crowd and with the temp reaching the high 80’s, everyone was still, well, nice. I recall one man, not an Obama volunteer, just a guy in the crowd, filling up cups of water from the provided faucets and handing them out to people in the crowd. He wasn’t looking for a handout, wasn’t selling anything, he just thought you might like a cup of cold water on a hot day. In another incident, Kim and I were struggling to get her Cadillac of a stroller through the crowd and down some stairs, and a young guy ran up, grabbed the front of the stroller and helped us get where we were going. And with just a single request from an Obama volunteer on a bullhorn, people from the crowd started helping them load up fencing and barricades after the rally. I can’t say for sure what this means. Maybe people were just happy we weren’t standing in the rain for once. What I hope it means is that they feel the way I do. That we’re tired of politicians fighting with each other over technicalities of special interests, tired of them promoting our differences rather than commonalties, tired of campaigns and policy based on fear and fiction. And that we’re ready. Ready to accept the obligation of serving our communities in exchange for a college tuition credit so everyone can afford an education. That those of us in an upper income bracket are ready to pay a bit more in taxes as long as they’re going towards putting not only books, but art and music and science back into the classrooms rather than to fund an endless war. Ready to make the changes in our homes and our habits to promote greener living and alternative energy. That we’re ready to be a part of bringing our country up rather than sitting idly on our hands while we watch it fall apart. And that maybe, the first step is something as simple as answering the call, both literally and figuratively, to break down the barricades.