elizm (1000+ posts) Sun Jan-13-08 10:05 PM
Original message
This is what the Obama 'movement' is all about...
I recieved this email from someone on the listserv at Charleston for Obama...and with his permission I am posting it here. I have attended 7 Obama rallies here in SC and this email captured the feeling I have had at each and every rally. It is something beautiful and something BIG....Pass it on.
THE BAM"... PASS IT ON AT THE NEXT OBAMA RALLY!
Having caught "Obama fever" like so many others rallying in support of Barack, I experienced something at a Barack Obama Rally on Thursday, January 10 at the College of Charleston here in Charleston, South Carolina, which I felt was both inspirational and spontaneous!
As Barack worked the line following the close of his speech, there was a surge of people moving forward hoping to get close enough to shake Barack's hand. Since I was standing about 20 feet back from center stage in the crowd, I felt the crowd down front tighten as many of us stood on our toes, stretched our bodies forward while reaching out to Barack. I noticed that a six foot tall guy who was standing in front of me had stretched far enough above the crowd and shook hands with Barack. As the guy drew back his hand I asked him, "You shook his hand didn't you?" Happily the guy said "Yes." I then said, "give me some of that" and the guy shook my hand with the same hand he had just clasped with Barack's. A woman friend of mine who was standing next to me saw me shake hands with the guy. I turned to her and said "He just shook hands with Barack," to which she responded..."Hey, give it up." We then shook hands. She then turned to the person next to her and shook hands. This chain of hand shakes went on for about five or six more persons.
I did not know the tall guy in front of me; he is white, I am black. But at the moment we shook hands, I felt some solidarity with this stranger, consummated by a handshake and signifying some unspoken agreement presumably about Barack Obama and his core message of UNITY!
I call this hand-shake scenario the "BAM" because, descriptively, it takes a bit of Obama's name and it's the sound of a collision, of People Coming Together!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4057783
no, this is what looking silly as shit is all about.
but I think there is fundamentally troubling about not being able to tell a political candidate and potential national leader from a rock star, or a sports star.
and I was just a few blocks away from that rally. It was completely by accident. I was just going to lunch and was clueless that there was a Barack concert in town that day. the strongest impression that it made on me that afternoon was that traffic totally sucked.