"Hope It Does Good"

March 15, 1965

Dear Diary,

President Johnson is making a speech about voter registration. Hope it does good. Asked Ricky for his class picture and he said maybe! Got a cello and I might keep it. I don’t like Cindy. No reason but I just don’t like her.

Shocking, isn't it? Despite my flagrant crush on Ricky Heidiger and my intermittent girl-feud with Cindy McCormick, I somehow put politics first on that ordinary fifth-grade day. LBJ, I hope you're listening up there, because it done did good, didn’t it?!

Like everyone else, I’m overwhelmed with thoughts, feelings, images, and memories this week—trying to grasp the reality and implications of Obama’s historic victory. So many eloquent essays and reflections have flooded the papers and TV and Internet. Here are some moments and musings of my own, and some links to savor.

Share your favorites in Comments!

Wrapping Up

• On Tuesday, after voting, partly to stave off a massive anxiety attack, I went to another calling party and reached African-American voters in Richmond, Virginia, including one Clarence Wimbish, 82, a retired Marine, who had waited in line for two hours in the rain at 6 a.m., and Ruby Taylor, 88, who giddily told me, “Baby, we all voted today, the whole household! It’s history, baby, history! We will win!”
  
  
• As if my tears weren’t drown-worthy during the midnight speech from Grant Park, I was swept out into the sea of change when the Obamas and Bidens shared the stage—realizing that the black man was the top man, the leader, the one with more power; the black family was the first family, not the second. And tears of relief because McCain and Palin and Bush and Cheney, they're over, done, toast, irrelevant. Free at last!
  
  
• Wednesday morning, driving around Watertown for a half hour in search of a New York Times. All out! Finally found one at a convenience store on a side street run by two Nepalese men who shared their joy and hope for America and the world. Everyone on the street was smiling—a sense of community far richer and a lot more fun than a Red Sox World Series win! Or two.

Random Musings

• How's Hillary?
  
  
• Who will fill Obama’s and Biden’s Senate seats? And if a governor makes the appointments, will Caribou Barbie appoint herself once Stevens is tossed? Can you see Hillary and Sarah on a committee together?
  
  
• How is it that people can take two years off from their jobs to apply for another job and not get fired?
  
  
• Will he say “Barack Hussein Obama” at the swearing-in?
  
  
• How will Sasha and Malia fare? I’m happy and sad for them. But I think they’re in good hands. Stay safe, kids. Stay real, if you can.
  
  
• That Rahm Israel Emanuel is one hunky dude.
  
  
• Did you see Obama's first press conference? JFK reincarnated. Energy, intellect, gravitas, humor, strength, actual full grammatical sentences! And that smile! Swoon.
  
  
• Is there a little girl writing in her diary this week, hoping the election of our first African-American president does good? I want to hug her and hold her tight and tell her it will. It can. It already has.
  

Debfeb's Election Faves

1. Barack Obama on The Daily Show, 10/29: So how does the Bradley Effect work if you're biracial?
   
   
2. The View on Wednesday morning—especially Whoopi Goldberg’s opening remarks.
   
   
3. Oprah’s Post-Election Special, with a stirring panel discussion, including David Gergen, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., John Lewis, Gloria Steinem, and Peggy Noonan.
   
   
4. Harry Smith interviews Maya Angelou, who recites “I Rise” on The Early Show.
   
   
5. “Song of Purple Summer,” a hopeful anthem from the soon-to-be-departing-from-Broadway-oh-no-my-life-is-over Spring Awakening.
   
   
6. Judith Warner’s powerful essay, “Tears to Remember,” on the 11/7 NYT blog.
   
   
7. The Pointer Sisters perform “Yes We Can” on Soul Train, 1973!

Oh Yes We Can I Know We Can Can, Yes We Can Can, Oh Why Can't We If We Wanna, Yes We Can Can!