Transplanted

Brandon and I both had Friday, October 31st off so we decided to go cast our vote early for Barack Obama. We were going to go to a polling location closest to our house since lines in Georgia are all long (some people have had to wait more than 5 hours), but I got assigned to work at a poll this Tuesday in some town called Lithonia about 20 miles from our house (and considering Atlanta traffic, it’s more like driving to another state). So Brandon kindly suggested we cast our votes there so I could familiarize myself with the drive. It turned out to be a great decision.

We had to park in a cemetary, which I thought was fitting considering it was Halloween and all, and walk a fair bit before we saw the long line of people. And it didn’t take us very long to realize we were nearly the only white people among the hundreds in line, but within a couple of minutes (literally) we made a few friends. We ended up spending two hours talking to a social worker, two truck drivers, and a couple who had just moved here from California so she can attend law school. We could have all had green skin, race mattered so little.

After we actually cast our ballots for Obama (and Biden, of course), we both felt such a sense of pride–okay and some relief that the long wait was over. The people who were still waiting in line wanted to know who we voted for (and how long they would have to wait). People were shaking our hands, thanking us, someone even pointed at me and shouted “Obama mama” while others just shouted “Obama!”

And as we walked past the hundreds of people who all would have clearly waited days just to vote for Obama, nearly all of them looking at us wondering if we’d summoned the courage to vote for a black man, I got a little emotional. It was a combination of knowing what this election means to black people in America, the change that Obama brings, feeling proud of my country again and simply saying goodbye to eight disastourous years.

And McCain might pull off an upset, in which case we will be moving to Canada, but right now we’re just happy about the possibility–as you can see in Brandon’s face the night we voted: