Holy cow this was amazing. First, I waited on line this morning for almost two hours to vote. That has never happened to me in the many elections I’ve voted in before. You knew something special was brewing. You could sense it, practically taste it. And sure enough the victory celebrations have been amazing. At midnight you could walk anywhere on U Street from 9th Street to 14th Street and the streets were flowing with folks celebrating. There was honking cars, dancing, singing, fireworks, chants, you name it. I imagine it was like a combination of a World Cup, World Series and Super Bowl victories wrapped up in one.
I ran into Bill Crandall on 14th and U Street (see video above) and he had a really interesting insight. He said, we’ve come full circle, you know almost exactly 40 years ago there was rioting where we are standing right now. It was a really interesting thought. 40 years ago was mayhem and sadness. Today there was ecstasy. And today I should add the ecstasy was experienced by quite a diverse group. This group consisted of black, white and Latino and the joy was shared by all.
Eventually I knew I had to go home and was trying to catch a cab (unsuccessfully) near the 9:30 club when I saw two young women smiling and honking in a parked car. Well, the driver sees me and honks and smiles. Then she exits her car, runs over to me and hugs me and lifts me straight in the air spinning in circles while screaming “we did it, we did it, we did it!”. I have never witnessed pure joy like this in all my life.
So tell me what were your election watching experiences like? Did anyone witness some street celebrations? If so where? Were the streets blocked?
I can honestly say I’ll remember this night for the rest of my life.
