Election Night In Hollywood

I was driving to an election night party in Echo Park when the official news came over the radio. IT'S OBAMA!!!!!

I was alone in my car and felt the need to do something to commemorate. I was stopped at a red light near Sunset and Hillhurst and saw some young hip looking people with a bicycle near by sitting on a bus stop, looking like they might have recently rolled out of a vegan restaurant or an artist loft downtown. Thinking that they seemed like people who were more likely Obama than McCain supporters, and assuming that since they were sitting on a bus stop in the street when the news was announced they didn't know what had happened, I rolled my window down and yelled "OBAMA WON!" at them at the top of my lungs. They looked a little nonplussed for a second, but by the time the light changed and I drove away they were dancing on the bus bench. The next evidence I had that this was not a normal night in Silverlake was a flash out of my peripheral vision as I drove by of a streak of people dancing off the curb waving sparklers and skipping down the street.

I had a pleasant couple of hours with friends at a house on the top of Echo Park Ave. watching the Obama victory speech and discussing the likelihood or not of any real political changes happening soon. After drinking a glass of wine and sharing pastries and good feelings with some cool people that included a visiting activist from Columbia , along with several friends from places like Chile , Honduras and El Salvador , I started home. It was then that the real impact of how this victory is affecting people hit me. We often hear about people dancing in the streets in far away places like France ....but seeing it on the streets of Hollywood really blew me away. People were out everywhere! They were gathering on street corners popping open bottles of champagne and yelling at honking cars. People stopped their cars on the side of the road and joined in. People ran around the crosswalks in intersections yelling and cheering. It was fun! It was amazing! I saw some friends, some old Indymedia compas and jumped out of my car to join them. The screamed ANNA! and opened their arms to welcome me to the celebration. I was lifted up by someone and getting pulled into the excitement I yelled and threw my hair back! What a night! What a celebration! We've created a space where maybe change can happen!

So Hey all, let's celebrate and cheer and then rest and catch our breaths. And then lets start doing the work to make a revolution REALLY HAPPEN!