After about a year living in Chicago, I’ve gone out of my way to make sure that I take part in every activity that seems even remotely interesting to me here in the city. This has involved several personal sacrifices (most of them financial), but the results have always been satisfactory: I travel out-of-state much more on holiday (hopefully to Alaska this winter for the Iditarod with Adam), and I am tentatively planning a trip to Italy or Germany next summer; I have been able to spend a lot of time with the people I miss in Grand Rapids; I am almost always out of my apartment for various shows, (and I have made new friends as a result); and I am more involved in causes that have become important to me. All this has proven very useful, even as my crummy apartment has become less so.

So now that my first 12 months are up, I was especially happy that thanks to Margaret’s quick e-mail, I was able to get a ticket to the Obama rally in Grant Park last Tuesday night. Like most people I took the bulk of the day off work, and since the city recommended that downtown businesses let their employees out at 3 pm, it wasn’t too difficult to get to the park on time.

It goes without saying that this election was important to me, and what was so amazing about the rally was the outrageous diversity that I miss out on during my commute between Wicker Park and Hyde Park. I have never felt so comfortable with strangers. The weather was perfect, and Obama’s victory speech was articulate and serious. Despite my natural aversion to crowds, I finally let myself relax on Tuesday night; my friends from Michigan kept in touch and were able to celebrate with me, and I finally felt comfortable enough to hope that I was there for the beginning of something good, instead of the simply the end of what was bad.

The New York Times used a 96 point type for Wednesday’s headline, announcing an Obama victory that I was a very small part of. They have done that just three other times in the paper’s history. According to Kottke, they are as follows:

  • MEN WALK ON MOON
  • NIXON RESIGNS
  • U.S. ATTACKED
  • OBAMA

It would be fair to say that I am not especially hopeful for simple solutions at this time, but what little faith I have was gently pushed forward on Tuesday night. I was also happy to read about what happened in Michigan and Kent County, as I had voted in favor of both proposals. The only thing that becomes a bit more difficult is that after a year away from my family and friends, the rally seemed to punctuate a part of my life across the lake that I didn’t necessarily want to distance myself from. I suppose I should have seen that coming.

Well outside of Grant Park, the crowds were already enormous. This was taken around 6 pm.
The initial line for ticket holders. We waited for about 30 minutes before the crowd started to move.
The second security checkpoint, which I was happy to be finished with.

Darrin makes it past the final security checkpoint.
This is the first thing you see coming down into the park. Well over 60,000 people in the ticketed area alone.
Another young person in his late 20's.

People were literally dancing in the empty streets as people poured out of the park and headed toward the El.