Seconds after the large television screens that hung near the podium declared Barack Obama winner of this historic election, a uniformed police officer leaned against the back wall of the tightly packed Skirvin Hotel ballroom.
He was there not as an on-duty Oklahoma City policeman. But as a citizen to witness what no one had witnessed before. To stand quietly, but to soak up the sight and sound and feel that made this special. At that moment he glanced and then looked me straight in the eye, and smiled. It was a smile not of a man of authority, not of a man of different race than me, and not of a man of different experience or culture or thoughts.
It was a smile of a fellow human being who recognized that we – the black police officer and the white lawyer – were there for precisely the same reason. And I returned that recognition in the same way. With a return smile. A smile that you give your brother when on Christmas morning you gather around the tree and open the presents that you have given each other, and realize that the giving is greater than the gifts.
In that moment there was a sameness in this grand ballroom that at least for this period in time swallowed any racial division that any of these participants - black, white, brown or red – had ever imagined or had ever experienced.
The candidates in this election said it was about "change". As it turned out the election wasn’t just about change of policies in Washington, it became about a change in the way we see each other as people.
The celebration at the Obama/Democratic Party watch party was like a gush of emotion and elation that rivaled the final seconds of any team’s national championship. The ballroom was adorned with blue Obama signs and the "Yes We Can" banners. With the announcement that the 232-year-old United States had elected its first African-American as President, there was an eruption of sound, then a blur of movement and then a cacophony of aural celebration, marked by the most notable chant, "O-BAM-A...O-BAM-A...O-BAM-A."
A band blared some catchy tune that captured the feeling that America had risen to the level of idealism which school children have been taught for ages, which Hollywood has portrayed with the patriotic sounds of John Williams scores, but which for our country’s entire history has been seen as lacking and even sometimes disingenuous when the color of skin was considered.
People danced and people danced on chairs. Men high-fived. Well dressed women of all ages hugged. Couples kissed. There was no barrier — physical, political or perceived – among these many people who celebrated the election of a man who brings hope that America is indeed the great democracy of the world, and on this night we proved it to the world.
On this night, November 4, in the year 2008, in this red-state ballroom of nearly 800 people, one rock band and a half dozen TV reporters, there were no black people. There were no white people. There were no differences. There were only Americans. Americans standing, and dancing, and smiling at each other -- proud of what we had accomplished.
--Mike D.
