a New America

as the sun sets on Nov 4, 2008, the city of Chicago, the American nation and the world await the results of this historic election to see who will next lead this nation we call great.

pushing through crowds just to stand elbow to elbow and watch CNN from a giant jumbotron with thousands of people was exactly how i preferred to spend tuesday night November 4, 2008.

   

i'm so lucky to live in Chicago and be a part of this historic event! imagine people actually flew in from all over the country to be at this rally--i met a couple from Curitiba Brazil and a girl named Jamie Barnes from Atlanta, GA (whom we adopted for the rest of the evening). Jamie flew in after she got off work, arrived in Chicago at 6:00pm, partied with us, and flew back to Atlanta at 6:00am to go back to work. she was a ton of fun and we're glad we were able to share this memory with her. 

    

   

shortly after Ohio's electoral votes went to Obama and surpassed the needed 270, the crowds erupted in cheer as CNN announced the breaking news--America, we have a new President-Elect, Barack Obama!!

we jumped, we screamed, and jumped some more and everyone was hugging everybody...i've never hugged so many random people but it was great because we all shared the joy of the moment.

it was invigorating, exhilirating, exciting, energizing to be amongst sooo many people sharing similar values and hopes for a new America. i'm sure all of you felt an array of emotions on this day so i will just post a few pictures and let you view the rest on my Flickr!

  

now that the election is finally over, it is our duty as an American people to come together regardless of partisan membership and work together to unite this country. it is not enough or morally correct for us to depend on one man to do all the work and mendings that loom ahead--we each have a civic duty to our communities and country to do our part to bring the CHANGE that we seek. just because Obama won doesn't mean the work is done, rather the journey is just beginning. each individual living in this country has a responsibility to him/herself to do their part and not sit back and wait for CHANGE to happen. any CHANGE begins with you, with me, with each individual...in their homes, in their communities, in their state, in the nation and as they interact with the world.

so, i hope you take this challenge seriously. do your part and the CHANGE we are all seeking will come in time.

Salmon & Spawning--Campaigning in TV shows

I couldn't resist. I have to blog this one--

I enjoy watching my shows on Monday nights..the final of my Monday line-up is Boston Legal. As we all know, tonight is the eve of a great historic election, thus it is only natural and patriotic of every single TV network to find ways to subtly slip in political messages to encourage viewers to vote.

the episode begins with Denny and Alan out on the balcony enjoying their regular cigar. for those who don't regularly keep up with this show, they are two of the several lawyers in the firm and are sexists, chauvinistic men. 

Alan and Denny are chatting and smoking  and Alan asks Denny if he's going to vote tomorrow. Denny says he's never missed an election, so Alan inquires whom he's going to vote for. Denny admits that he's going to vote the same way he's always voted in the past. Alan's curiosity continues to escalate and pushes him further. Denny says that his side has won 8 of the past 11 elections confirming that his vote is going towards John McCain. Alan is on the verge of making a discussion of this, but Denny quickly tries to avoid any confrontation. Before agreeing to shut up, Alan requests two reasons why Denny wants to vote for McCain. 

Denny states that he votes according to his values. 1st reason: Because of the salmon. McCain isn't directly going to do anything about the salmon, but if he gets elected, people will migrate to Canada and indirectly improve the spawning of the salmon. 2nd reason: women. (Denny is infamous for being a womanizer) He believes that when a Republican is in power, women tend to be more vulnerable and are easier! When a Democrat is in power, women feel more empowered to take leadership roles and feminism is higher. He admitted the [popular] Republican view of women is that their role is mainly to be at home. 

This episode (along with a host of other shows and talk shows) is basically a very clever and strategic way to integrate political messages that are very much relevant to today--literally TODAY! Denny and Alan go head to head with the government when the USDA prohibits a cattle rancher to test every one of her cows for Mad Cow Disease.

The episode was set to be the actual election day and half way through the day they were supposed to go and vote. Alan continues his attempts to change Denny's mind regarding his vote until they break out in a little "gun" fight involving paint bullets in the office and embarrassing themselves in front of all their colleagues. 

either the writer or producer for Boston Legal is a huge Obama proponent or the Obama campaign paid ABC huge, it doesn't matter. the entire message of the episode was fairly accurate in all the facts that were presented regarding the cases that were fought and reflect views that Alan and Denny represent in the general population. In tonight's episode, Denny represented an American who appeared to have his mind made up but in reality was still susceptible to persuasion.* 

it is these Americans that every media channel is working overtime for in the next 20+ hours.

if YOU are that American and you have not yet voted...please, you have less than 20 hours to make history. BE a part of History! Go out and VOTE!

"Tomorrow (24 hours from now) we're going to wake up with a NEW America."

*to find out which candidate Denny Crane ended up voting for at the end of the day, watch Boston Legal on ABC.com