Hope, Change and Community

Barack Obama came to Abington last week for a rally. At first I wasn't going to go. I was going to nap instead but I found myself awake at 10 am and realized that he would be speaking not even a mile from my house and it might be fun to attend.


So I hopped on my bike and rode over to the High School where he was scheduled to speak. The line to enter the stadium snaked around the corner and down the length of the stadium. Instead of waiting in line, I found a place to stand with a bunch of other people, outside the stadium with a perfect view of the podium. Of course, having a perfect view of the podium is dangerous, especially when we haven't gone through any metal detectors so we had to move.


I ended up on the long line and finally entered the stadium. I'm not much into political rallies. The only other one I went to was in Vermont when Howard Dean announced his presidential run. (I grew up in Vermont and remember clearly when Dean became governor).

I am also not much into community events. Some people feel a great sense of purpose working with a community toward a common goal but I'm not one of them. Oh, you could argue that a play is a community event but as the stage manager, I work mostly alone. I'm not complaining, I like it.

But at the Obama rally, I rather enjoyed chatting with the other people around me. We traded stories about the difficulties of getting to the high school as well as jokes about Sarah Palin, and the latest SNL spoof.

The crowd consisted of a large cross-section of humanity--young, old, some with canes, some with cameras but all with a common sense of purpose. During the speech, it was great to vocalize my approval or distaste along with everyone else. We were all there inspired by Barack Obama who has given us a real sense of hope for change in our community.