WOW

I finished performing last night (a fun concert) and got in the car to drive home. Turning on the radio, I was three minutes onto the highway when the NPR announcer got very excited and announced that McCain was about to speak to his folks. When he began and I realized what he was saying, I starting crying so hard that I had to pull the car over for a moment.

I will always remember sitting with my husband and daughter (who came downstairs in her pajamas), holding hands, with my sister on the phone long distance from Ohio so we could do it together, and listening to President-elect Obama make his speech. There were fireworks set off somewhere over town, cars beeping outside, people yelling downtown at the clock tower, I think.

I remembered my grandfather, a Jewish lawyer who was blacklisted by the FBI for working civil rights cases for African Americans and Native Americans, and how his neighbors stood up for him as a community and refused to let hate and prejudice win.

As a mom, as a teacher, as an American, yesterday meant so very much. And today means even more.

I can't wait to see my students in a little bit. They were so excited yesterday (I teach in a majority Hispanic neighborhood that was very much in general for Obama/Biden)...

Score a big one for hope today...and as he pointed out last night, now it's time to workk.

Well, darn it...

Prop. 8. Now I want to cry for other reasons and none of them good.
Gee, we're right back to my first election ever as a voter and Oregon trying to
make it illegal to be gay. The ACLU has the paperwork ready to challenge this piece of *insert expletive here*, right? Like the second it's passed? 'Cause that's a really awful contrast to what just happened with the presidency last night. Discrimination based on a religious rule can't hold against the constitution, and I want to see them try. How do I explain that to my daughter? Yes, we just elected the first African-American president, but a lot of Californians think that only certain people deserve equal respect under the law? Not looking forward to that today.

Frustration and Happiness all in one day

Well, since I'm trying not to feel miserable-er over the open bigotry that is Prop 8, I'll focus on the coolness of my students, at the request of rhapsody11, 'cause teenagers can sometimes be amazingly cool. (and remember that the damn thing is being challenged as we speak, so it can't go into effect yet, I don't think)

I arrived at school to the accompaniment of three or four boys running up to me as I reached my classroom with cries of "We're going to do something this morning that's about Obama, right?!"
I showed my kids the tape of President-Elect Obama's speech, and also prefaced it with explaining that Senator McCain's speech was respectful and well done as well. We watched The Speech together, and it was fun to see my first class get so into it that they were applauding whenever the audience in Chicago did on the tape. :) And of course, this being a mostly bilingual class in an immigrant/migrant community, they totally got the connection to "Yes, we can" to Cesar Chavez's civil rights work and were happily chanting that along with the on-screen audience, too. They were really excited, and it was lovely as a teacher to see that. We ended up waiting for a bit for our Language Arts lesson, as they had a bunch of really good questions about what happens next and what everything will mean. Some of them had been in the celebrations downtown in their city last night, with bands playing and parties, and some had watched the speeches with their families at home.