Don't play with it

Now I have been super busy recently. Turns out being a student is disastrous to the rest of your social life. I lay on my bed each night with the lingering thoughts, "...I will get up and paint in a moment..." I wake up the next morning. -.-

***

Moving along. Turns out Tuesday was a remarkable day. One that must be marked off on calenders. One that must be entered into updated textbooks.

Here was I moaning and groaning (to myself of course) that all the eventful stuff happened in other eras, nothing good is happening in mine. I was alive to experience the first hurricane to hit Grenada since Janet 50 years back. I am alive to see the huge economic crash that's going on...

My mind flutters back to Tupac's 'Changes' - "...And although it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready yet to see a black president....It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact, the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks...But some things will never change..."

I guess he was right, up til Tuesday. Of course, the prison situation hasn't changed....BUT Rome wasn't built in a day. America now has a black president. Maybe now that there is a black role model that just proved 'yes you can' do it, we'll see some changes. Pun intended.

***

On Election Day itself... I must be living in one of the 'boring-est' places in NY, that is Wakefield Bx, because nothing happened. Or rather nothing seemed to happen. I woke up late to the sound of my phone alarming. I got up, trudged around the house...got ready for school and left...

...It was warm outside. I saw the occasional person walking along the streets but not much...not even that much traffic. Then again, it was past midday. But the polling station was supposedly right next door in the school.

After class I asked a couple of my classmates what were their views on the election and whom they voted for. To no surprise, my classmates that I asked that I asked all voted Democrat. One of the girls had voted absentee due to originally being from Connecticut and not having had the chance to re-register. I asked them why they voted Democrat, most of them replied that they voted based on the basis of being very liberal. However, two made the point of their parents being Democrats, and having grown up in a Democratic household they just never thought to question it. I met one Asian guy who did not vote because he said he wasn't really that interested in politics, nor was he really following what was going on. I think that's a bit strange, it's almost as if one would have to put in an extra concerted effort not to be even remotely cognizant of the strong campaigning that was happening. It was on tv, the internet - especially Facebook, newspapers, etc... at risk of being cliché, it was what "all the buzz was about" in the media. Anyway, different strokes for different folks, right? One of my male classmates who is Democrat made mention of one of his friends that's just plain out controversial and was overly passionate about Obama for just that one reason. I mean, he said his friend made the occasional valid point, but for the most he was just loving the controversy of it all.

One of my closest friends, Joe, from upstate (Rochester), said he didn't vote because he doesn't think the electoral college is very democratic... However if he was to, he would've voted for Obama hands down because he, my friend, is liberal and "it scares the bejesus out of him, the idea of Palin being a heart attack away from being president." *shudders* Palin would have surely made America the laughing stock of the world. Another friend of mine, Ryan, from Virginia, who was a diehard Republican voted Democrat. He refuses to see this as jumping ship... and me being me, I can't help but relentlessly tease him about his lack of party loyalty. His rationale was that, he wasn't concerned with most of the policies either party was dealing like health care and so forth because it doesn't affect him. He also rationalized that both parties, regardless of who becomes president will have dealing with the economy of their main agendas and are aware of public scrutiny with how it is handled. His deal breaker was that Obama would help to change the perception of Americans outside of the US. America is diverse and open-minded enough to have a black president. He also thought Obama has a more charismatic, soothing persona amidst everything that is happening.

Well.. Obama won... by a landslide. With, not surprisingly, record breaking turn outs from the youths... who said the youths don't vote? :P

Anyways, being an international student and not American I couldn't vote.

My aunt who was Republican, didn't vote. I personally don't believe she was pleased with either candidate, but her rationale was a discrepancy in her address and registration since her recent change of residence.

The street was quiet. Our house was quiet. My aunt was flicking between channels and then eventually went to sleep early.

At that point, I near forgot it was Election day. I remember being in my room Tuesday night trying to study for my Biology lecture midterms the next day, when my dad called me from Grenada all excitedly, around 10-11 pm shouting happily over the phone "Obama won Obama won...! It's not official but he's winning...!" For someone who wasn't American, nor even living in the country, he's been following the campaigning very closely. As have many of my friends from back home. One of which called merely 5-10 minutes after my dad to make a similar announcement. Then my other aunt upstairs called and announced that Obama was president and everyone got up and gathered around the tv waiting for the speech. I walked with my laptop and signed onto Facebook while I waited. All my friends from back home were changing their statuses every 5 minutes like they couldn't decide which words revealed the true intensity of what they were feeling... Overall, everyone seemed so excited at the promise of a change with Obama and that this change would renew the hope with the state of the economy, and its transcending global effects.

I have a friend that came up from Grenada over the weekend that was staying in Brooklyn. She was telling me how crazy it was down there. It looked like there was a carnival going on like we were back home. People in the streets, black, white, latino, etc all making noise and shouting and screaming happily. On the TV, I got to witness the celebrations going on in Time Square... I thought it was touching to see how teary-eyed people were in the crowds. It was one of those "Wow" moments. One random woman told a brief story that touched my heart. It brings me back to my quote from Tupac. She said a couple years ago her young black nephew said he wanted to be the President of the United States when he grew up. She said she didn't want to shatter his dream, but nuntheless she didn't want to tell him how absurd a notion it was from her perception of America and who is considered eligible race-wise for certain positions... She says it brought tears to her eyes to see Obama win. She never thought she would see it in her lifetime and her was the proof. Her nephew isn't dreaming the impossible dream.

So... yea... Tupac was wrong.. we are ready. Let's just hope they give him a fair chance to do his job.


Shelli out.