My Little Slice of Obama-mania

Last night I attended a rally at the Hartford Civic Center for Barack Obama. He, along with Ted and Caroline Kennedy, and several of Connecticut's fantastic public servants made an appearance, and put on a show that was, forgive the cliche, inspiring. It was an experience I will not soon forget. Over 17,000 people crowded into the Hartford Civic Center after spending hours in line, outside in the cold and snow/rain. While this may not sound impressive to people who live in normal sized states, please keep in mind that our state is minuscule. However, the energy that I felt at this rally was simply incredible and put aside any doubt I had in my mind that Connecticut was simply a collection of apathetic business lawyers who drive Lexuses and care little about the few delegates we have to offer.

The picture above was taken by a good friend, who attended the rally with me, along with another friend, and my mother who sacrificed part of her sanity trying to find a seat. In the end, us limber young adults decided to stand during the entire length of Obama's impassioned speech, and it was well worth it. We were a mere thirty or forty feet from the man himself the entire time. And while we were almost crushed to death during the surge of humans at the end, we were able to get closer than I ever thought possible. The speech was nothing new, nothing I had not heard or read before. But witnessing it in person was amazing. There is a degree of power that accompanies the spoken word that is lost through type or transcript. I felt Obama's message more so than I ever did before, and as cries of "Obama! Obama!" and "We believe!" swept through the crowd, I found myself, for the first time in my life, totally at the mercy of something far larger than myself.

Today is Super Tuesday. I had hoped to update this blog last night when I returned home, but I was wiped out from the adventure and went straight to sleep. Now, today, I'm spreading the story of how I came to partake in a little bit of Obama-mania. Today, my state, and over 20 other states are voting in both Democratic and GOP primaries. It's proven to be a tough battle on both sides, and I don't think today's results will be definitive. But after witnessing that rally last night, I can't help myself; I can't stay focused on anything except for the fact that this time tomorrow, I'll know how many Americans have felt the same thing I felt last night. During the rally, periodically, Obama would preface a point with "If you believe..." and the crowd would immediately respond back with an awe-inspiring roar "We believe!"

I believe.