Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Becky is OBAMA!!

I am sitting in my bed here in Florence, Italy, with will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” video playing from Youtube.com behind this window I type in. It’s noon, and I spent the hours since I woke up this morning, greeted with the NYTimes.com’s headline of “OBAMA,” avidly reading the American papers online, watching Obama’s acceptance speech in three videos on Youtube, updating myself on my friends’ and fellow students’ responses on facebook to the joyful win of Obama and the disappointing win of Prop 8 in California. I watched a video posted on facebook called “The exact moment Obama became President Elect,”a video of Stanford’s Coho, packed to the walls with students standing sitting clapping cheering beaming smiling. I watched as the camera panned around the room, hundreds of voices chanting as the giant CNN screen counted down to explode with stars and the sober and mighty words BREAKING NEWS: BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT ELECT and the explosion of cheers and amazement among my fellow students that this day has finally come.

Yes We Can.

It has been interesting watching this historical journey from across the Atlantic. My methods of procrastination have expanded to include a daily scanning of the NYTimes.com’s campaign 2008 section, reading new articles and checking how the polls have changed from the day before. I watched the second debate at an event organized by Democrats Abroad here in Florence, and I went to a presentation by my Stanford professor Shultz and another Italian professor about the American elections, explaining what would probably happen, why, and how our complicated electoral college system works to the many Italian students in the crowd.

Last night as my host mom was clearing the table I talked with my host sister about our elections, again explaining the electoral college, showing her what the odds were of Obama’s win, noting the importance of the senate race this year. She listened avidly, hopefully understanding most of what I was trying to say. The electoral college is hard enough to explain in English, nonetheless Italian, but with the help of an occasional translation from my host mom she got it. She enjoyed the will.i.am video, although she admitted afterwards that it was really hard to understand. I told her that with the overlapping speech it was hard even for me and she laughed.

I had the election result webpage open all day yesterday, although I knew the first polls didn’t even close until midnight my time. Kelly and I headed over to an election watching party hosted by Stanford and an Italian think tank here. We were amazed at how many Italians were there, interested in our election to the point of staying up into the morning hours to watch the first results come in. In fact it was so crowded with non-Stanford people that at first Kelly and I thought we went to the wrong place. The event ended at 2:00, but Kelly and I got a cab home at 1:30 so we could switch from the Italian news show they were watching which called states WAY too prematurely, to watch the CNN and NYTimes websites. I updated screens, monitoring results until 3:30 in the morning which was still before all the polls had closed. Relatively confident of an Obama victory, I went to sleep with my computer lying at the side of my bed so that the first thing I could do when I woke up this morning, before turning on the lights, would be to reach down, turn on my computer, and confirm Obama’s win.

It is an amazing day. And I have experienced it all online, virtually participating with the anxiety and celebration of the election. I sort of wish I could have been in America, at Stanford, and actually experienced all this in person. But I have my small pin for “Americans in Italy for Obama” to put in my memory box at home to record this unique experience.

Let me share with you some of the words and websites that have sketched, defined, and declared the shape of this election and experience for me.

A NYTimes article on the international view on Obama’s Election. The global aspect has been much in our awareness here in Florence.

A NYTimes article from the Day Before: last minute updates, and how this election has been modernized including the role of Youtube

Obama’s Speech on Race from Youtube

"The election wasn’t a distraction like a celebrity arrest or a royal wedding, it was something that actually mattered and wasn’t painful." The rarity in recent years of an event such as this helps explain why the optimism inspired by President Elect Obama is so intoxicating (from an article from NYTimes on watching the results come in).

My screen this morning. Note the number of tabs open, connecting me to as many articles and videos of the day as possible.


The current statuses of my friends on Facebook, the way that I am a part of my American community right now:

Becky Wright is OBAMA!!
Eric is ashamed of California, but so proud of his friends. Love to you all.
Jennifer is why, California? WHYYYYY?!
Julia is hoping that Prop 8 passing will cause the issue to be raised on the federal level.
Kim is happy.proud.shocked.amazed.andexcitedforchange. OBAMA08!
Ryann is proud of her fellow Americans and proud of her president. We are living history. :).
Kate is still ridiculously euphoric about Obama, but going to bed with fingers crossed for CA. Prop 8 is too scary for me to watch anymore.
Daniel : HELL YES! The world just got a bit more hopeful. On the other hand, what the hell California?
Andrew is ready for a new era...for so many things.
Katie is he is an amazing man. ♥ .
Othman is ecstatic.
Kevin: likes his old home state of Pennsylvania a bit more than his new home state of California right now. COMMENTED ON BY Mathew: "CA has spoken! A chicken's right to stretch its legs is more important than marriage rights and equality."
Sam is Barack Obama is President Elect but dammit Prop 8 passed.
Ian is proud of Ohio for stepping up.
Ana Maria didn't sleep last night to see OBAMA WIN!!!!! So worth it!!! :D.