After watching the election results in a bar in Murray Hill, and a mad jaunt uptown to be part of the celebration in Times Square, I headed home on the L train. It was after midnight and my voice was raspy from cheering and eyes red from the occassional emotional overwhelming. Although it was late, the platform at Union Square was crowded and the arriving train full.
Four years ago, I was up in the middle of the night watching the results online from my apartment in France. I felt like I was the only one awake that night, desperately hitting refresh on the NYTimes website every few minutes to see changes in the Bush-Kerry contest.
Last night I was one of many. Happy, hoarse, and tired, it was a rambunctions train ride. A woman with a drum stood at the end of the car hitting a beat that kept the crowd chanting along. At each stop along the way, when the doors opened and passengers departed for their beds, a loud whoop went up the stairs and turnstiles. I was tempted to stay on till the last stop to see if the good spirits remained until the cars were empty. But my bed was calling and I wanted to check on Indiana.
At the start of the night, in the bar, a couple visting from Germany sat at a table behind me, asking for details on the entire process. They seemed to get the idea of the Electoral College, but the notion that some states had longer voting hours and different methods for counting wasn’t sinking in for them. Also perplexing was the fact that with only 1% of precincts counted the newscasters were certain that Kentucky was going for McCain.
I can’t say how many people on the train had a grasp of our process, but the mood was high, proud, satisfied, jubilant, energized, relief.
No comments:
Post a Comment