Election Night at 4th and Main
Ed Fuentes
[Flickr]
Tom Gilmore hosted the election viewing party at the historic Farmers and Merchants Bank.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Those inside the Farmers and Merchants Bank last night will remember how Downtown's Obama supporters watched CNN’s coverage of the 2008 presidential elections together. In years to come, they will talk about the cheers when Barack Obama was projected to win, and again when Senator John McCain came out to concede.
They will remember how a Downtown community listened to Obama’s victory speech as its sharp, crisp cadence echoed inside the former bank with words like "if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.”
It was inside Main Street's adhoc town hall, known simply as "The Bank," that two kinds of reactions could be seen during Obama's claim of victory.
Most were like event host Tom Gilmore, who has supported Obama “since Iowa” and knows how this election will have special place in history when everyone looks back on this day.
Then there was the man who stood quietly by the door, alone with his emotions, his eyes listening to his new president-elect. For some it was a victory, for him it was a moment for history.
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For the past couple of months I've had Neil Young's 'Living With War' in the cd player. Sometimes I'd have it run on repeat for hours on end. Tonight, before changing it out to U2, I played it one last time. The group singalong at the end - America The Beautiful - definitely resonated. After coming back from 'Nam, I didn't ever want to hear a patriotic song again and still haven't uttered the pledge of allegiance since leaving my father's home forever. Forty years is a long time.
Listening to them all sing about the beautifull this evening, suddenly the thought came that I might change my mind after all.