Four Years Ago Today
November 3, 2008
Twas the night before the election and the air was cold in Cleveland, OH. John Kerry and George Bush had gone to war in the buckeye state and the victor was soon to be decided. There are not many days that I remember with great clarity, but November 1st, 2004 seems to be one of them. I was 17 years old at the time - not even old enough to vote; but they didn't discriminate at the John Kerry rally that night in Cleveland. I headed over to the Mall in downtown Cleveland around sun down. There were already tens of thousands walking the streets and the city was alive with excitement over the possibility of soon having new leadership in the White House.
It isn't shocking to see tens of thousands of people gathered in Cleveland, but usually they pack the football stadium, ballpark or arena; and rarely do you find that many people gathered together in a public space. After waiting in a long line, passing through a set of metal detectors and finding spot with a nice view of the stage, we stood for hours, waiting for John Kerry to deliver his final speech of the long and hard-fought campaign. The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, entertained the crowd in the meantime. When he finally arrived, John Kerry delivered a memorable message. He said that it wasn't just our responsibility to go out and vote the next day - but to bring our family and friends with us; and to make sure that in the critical battleground of Ohio, everyone understand exactly how much each and every vote counts.
In the end, Kerry's efforts were not enough. He lost Ohio, and thus the election, by a little less than 120,000 votes. There are still some who believe that had Kerry spent that cold Monday night visiting rural Ohio counties, like Sandusky, Delaware, or Huron, that we would currently be reffering to him as President, rather than Senator. Others contend that there simply were not enough voters in those rural areas to make up Kerry's defecit.
As I left the rally that night, I remember looking at the litter scattered across the Mall, the trampled flowers, and remarking to a friend, "I feel bad for whoever has to clean up this mess." Now, four years later, we are about to begin voting again, selecting the person who will have to clean up the metaphorical mess that the Bush Administration has made of America. Whoever cleaned up the Mall in Cleveland that night did a pretty good job, as it was back to looking green and pretty by the end of the week. Can our next president and congress clean up the mess that we have made of a country? We certainly can hope.
It isn't shocking to see tens of thousands of people gathered in Cleveland, but usually they pack the football stadium, ballpark or arena; and rarely do you find that many people gathered together in a public space. After waiting in a long line, passing through a set of metal detectors and finding spot with a nice view of the stage, we stood for hours, waiting for John Kerry to deliver his final speech of the long and hard-fought campaign. The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, entertained the crowd in the meantime. When he finally arrived, John Kerry delivered a memorable message. He said that it wasn't just our responsibility to go out and vote the next day - but to bring our family and friends with us; and to make sure that in the critical battleground of Ohio, everyone understand exactly how much each and every vote counts.
In the end, Kerry's efforts were not enough. He lost Ohio, and thus the election, by a little less than 120,000 votes. There are still some who believe that had Kerry spent that cold Monday night visiting rural Ohio counties, like Sandusky, Delaware, or Huron, that we would currently be reffering to him as President, rather than Senator. Others contend that there simply were not enough voters in those rural areas to make up Kerry's defecit.
As I left the rally that night, I remember looking at the litter scattered across the Mall, the trampled flowers, and remarking to a friend, "I feel bad for whoever has to clean up this mess." Now, four years later, we are about to begin voting again, selecting the person who will have to clean up the metaphorical mess that the Bush Administration has made of America. Whoever cleaned up the Mall in Cleveland that night did a pretty good job, as it was back to looking green and pretty by the end of the week. Can our next president and congress clean up the mess that we have made of a country? We certainly can hope.
