Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election Anxiety and Joy

Monday November 3rd
Are you calm, antsy, angry, bored, scattered, scared, totally zen? I'm not sure what I am but I can't turn away from the TV. I can think of little else. Tomorrow I shall vote early, go see a movie, then get together with friends to watch the results.

Your plans?

In the past ten years we've had movies about Clinton (Primary Colors) and Bush (W.) How soon do you think we'll get a movie about our next president?

Update Tuesday November 4th
Get out the vote! I'm done after a three hour wait. It was so chaotic and jubilant in the school where my district votes that I almost forgot to feel the historic rush of that lever pull. I know that NYC is a bubble and we can get a distorted view of how willing the country is to heal, reassess and progress but this crowd was so hopeful, tearful and proud to be there... I can only hope for the best in terms of a new direction for this country.

We'll be back to movies right here tomorrow but enjoy this election day. Non US readers can just sit back and marvel at the bizarreness that this US election is even half as close as it supposedly is.

Update Wednesday, November 5th
Last night was absolutely joyous here on the streets of Harlem. Everything felt so good and hopeful and in January we'll finally have a president that's forward thinking, intelligent, community oriented, calm and inclusive --that acceptance speech was a marvel, wasn't it? Final results on Prop 8 in California, the night's other big battle for the soul of America, aren't in... but it's not looking so good. Even as the nation elects its first black president -- it's still having issues about deciding which of its citizens are "lesser than" and how to appropriately demean them within constitutions. That was a sobering stab of pain underneath tears of happiness last night.

Now, back to movies.