Personal reflections on a historic moment

From USA Today:

I’m thrilled about having Barack Obama as president. It feels like a personal triumph, as I was fortunate enough to have served as a campaign surrogate (hosting events to promote the candidate) during this incredibly exciting year.

My parents have never voted, and they always taught me that this was not our country because we are not white. It was very disheartening to grow up that way. It made me feel like I could never have any choice or say or control over anything. Going from that state of mind – that feeling of isolation and powerlessness within my own minority status, feeling like a prisoner of my skin color – to becoming the president-picker is a huge and wonderful journey.

As a campaign surrogate, I gave talks about what Obama meant to me and answered questions about his policies. This was easy to do, as Obama meant a lot to me because he represents inclusion. He is one of us – a minority – so getting to represent him was thrilling because I felt like I was standing up for myself.

I got talked into it by Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam, House and The Namesake), a longtime Obama supporter. I was originally a Hillary Clinton supporter, but when Kal offered me an autographed photo of Hugh Laurie, of House fame, I changed camps immediately.

I am really glad to have Obama in the White House, even though I still haven’t gotten my autographed photo of Hugh Laurie.

Read more responses.

What does Barack Obama’s election mean to you?

11 thoughts on “Personal reflections on a historic moment

  1. It means that I have a candidate for change, and that I have to hold his ass in the fire to make sure it happens. It’s nothing personal. We should hold every candidate responsible. ‘

    I was thrilled to see him win. To see the old white man regime end. It’s like seeing Tiger Woods win another event and shut out all the country club elites. It’s magic. But so far, I’m simply not that impressed with the attention given to the gay community, who was very vocal in getting him there. So I must press him. We all must.

  2. You go! Yes. I too was a Hillary supporter, and Barack was my “second choice.” But today i was proud. And I thought of my parents who also believed that this could never be our country because we are not white. I was immensely touched, touched to tears from pride. We elected a person of color as our President, and the imaginations and minds of children everywhere have just expanded exponentially.

    Can you imagine how different our childhoods would have been had we grown up with a person of color as president?

    And grrrrrl–you better get that autographed Hugh Laurie photo! You DESERVE IT.

    p.s. I love you, you are the BEST! I am one of your biggest fans. (been to all your big shows, and saw you at the Punchline and have watched you for years and years and officially freaked out and stammered in front of you when I went to one of your book signings). You, like Obama, are a PIONEER and an inspiration.

  3. I’m thrilled he was elected. It’s wonderful to have an articulate, intelligent, personable and reasonable guy in the White House and to have him not be white is the yummy, yummy chocolate icing on the cake.
    Now I would just love to see an Atheist and a woman in there and I will feel that enough of America has been represented so this country wont feel like a farce.
    I hope Obama does a wonderful job as President but even if he doesn’t (and really, he couldn’t do WORSE than Bush) this country has taken a huge step forward in it’s evolution.

  4. his presidency means the world to me. literally. i want to be apart of this world. i want to make peace. i want to help finish what i didn’t start; i want peace! i want to share! i want to sacrifice so that my neighbor… my friend, or my enemy, can eat… go to the doctor… go to the art gallery… get shitfaced at the margaret cho stand up act in dallas… i just want people to be free to be happy. not that shaking shimmering happiness that quick money often brings. not that shiny proud feeling that having a spanking new armani watch nurtures. you know… the kind of happiness you have when you know you are right. the kind of beauty you see when rolling over still drunk from the night before to find out that you made it home in a cab with the sweetest, hottest person alive!

    i want that. i want you to have that. freedom, and peace– true peace. i want the fanciful growth of a million trees to blossom inside us. we have great potential (for evil, but for GOOD too) and we are blessed. that is why we have the responsibility to help right the wrongs in the world. and obama might just be a baby step in that direction. his actions already have drawn the world together in a coo of hope in harmony. i hope too. but i work in that hope. and this is what this presidency– obama’s presidency– means to me.

  5. I personally do not understand why so many people want to eat the corn out of his poo….

    His election terrified me in that the media just went off the hinges with biased reporting and the DNC manipulated the primaries.

    In my mind, his campaign parallels Regan, in that it was all icon driven and no matter what he did, or how unqualified he is, nothing would stick to him.

    If he were fat, short and white he would not be where he is right now.

    I could give a crap about his color, when more qualified people, or people who would never
    betray the American public also ran and got trounced because of BO’s brilliant, well funded machine.

    I HOPE he walks as good as he talks, but I really don’t think so.

    I am however, completely relieved that Bush is gone and the lesser of two evils is sitting there now.

    I also liked Aretha’s hat.

  6. I don’t expect Obama to be everything we could hope. The most important thing to me about his being elected was the willingness of the voters to go for someone with dignity and (as far as we can tell) a drive for ethical government. I felt real joy not so much about what Obama might do but about what US citizens want.

    I also feel like his election creates opportunities for other countries to view the US differently than they would have if McCain had been voted in, where they might have looked at us and thought that all we ever want is more of the same.

    I was very moved by the joy in NYC after his election. I’ve never seen people react to an election with such deep emotion. It was way beyond, “Yay! Our team won!” It was more like everybody felt part of that deep willingness, that hunger for more than partisanship and rhetoric and blame.

    Whether or not we get the change we want, it’s beautiful to know that people WANT IT. It’s a very big deal to see so many people in the country feel so hopeful.

  7. We are rejoicing today in Seattle that Barack in all of his wisdom has appointed a huge, useless, deplorable sack o’ shit, Ron Sims to be the head of HUD.
    Ron Sims cannot even manage the King County Animal shelter. The conditions were deplorable and inhumane on his watch.
    http://www.kcaccexposed.org/

    Good Luck poor people!
    Good riddance Ron

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