From Alan H., Manhattan Community Organizer
It was a few minutes after 8 pm on November 4, 2008 at Molly Brannigan’s Irish Pub in Scranton, PA. The place was packed and the tension almost unbearable as we watched the tv monitors. I was there with family, with friends I’d known for decades, with others I’d known only for a few months as we built our neighborhood teams in New York City, with still others I’d just met that day and with many people I didn’t know but who were not strangers. For the past two months increasing numbers of us had been traveling from NYC to Scranton and other regions of Pennsylvania as part of the campaign’s Border States strategy to reinforce efforts in battleground states. As someone who has been politically active since the 1960s, I was prepared for the worst. At ten minutes after 8pm one of the television stations projected Barack Obama the winner in Pennsylvania—a pivotal state—and we knew that this great country of ours had emerged from a disgraceful and terrible period of its history. And we knew that each of us had a role in making this happen. All of us have our own unique trajectories through this extraordinary campaign, but there is a common thread. We did this by working together, by creating a new and intensely focused political movement that did not allow itself to be distracted by the endless media barrage.
It was a few minutes after 8 pm on November 4, 2008 at Molly Brannigan’s Irish Pub in Scranton, PA. The place was packed and the tension almost unbearable as we watched the tv monitors. I was there with family, with friends I’d known for decades, with others I’d known only for a few months as we built our neighborhood teams in New York City, with still others I’d just met that day and with many people I didn’t know but who were not strangers. For the past two months increasing numbers of us had been traveling from NYC to Scranton and other regions of Pennsylvania as part of the campaign’s Border States strategy to reinforce efforts in battleground states. As someone who has been politically active since the 1960s, I was prepared for the worst.
At ten minutes after 8pm one of the television stations projected Barack Obama the winner in Pennsylvania—a pivotal state—and we knew that this great country of ours had emerged from a disgraceful and terrible period of its history. And we knew that each of us had a role in making this happen. All of us have our own unique trajectories through this extraordinary campaign, but there is a common thread. We did this by working together, by creating a new and intensely focused political movement that did not allow itself to be distracted by the endless media barrage.
Through the euphoria of that night a year ago, it was easy to miss or underestimate the centrality of one thing Barack Obama had to tell us. “What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night,” he said from the stage at Grant Park. “This victory alone is not the change we seek—it is only the chance for us to make this change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.” Twelve months later we are on the verge of realizing a reform of our health care system that has eluded Presidents for half a century. We will do it because enough of us took to heart those words of a year go. We are not going back to the way things were.
Through the euphoria of that night a year ago, it was easy to miss or underestimate the centrality of one thing Barack Obama had to tell us. “What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night,” he said from the stage at Grant Park. “This victory alone is not the change we seek—it is only the chance for us to make this change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.”
Twelve months later we are on the verge of realizing a reform of our health care system that has eluded Presidents for half a century. We will do it because enough of us took to heart those words of a year go. We are not going back to the way things were.
