I shook Barack Obama's hand. [UPDATE: Scroll down to see it!]
Twice.
I was an enthusiast that became a volunteer. I was a volunteer that became an usher. I was an usher that became a human arrow. And I was a human arrow that returned to being an usher.
At the end of the night, I was the fanboy in the front row of Mac Court, attending his first Presidential political rally, shaking the hand of the next commander-in-chief - not once, but TWICE!
This is my story.
At 10am, I turned in my last final of winter term, did a little dance and headed to breakfast with my friends Johnny and Kelsey, who were going to the Obama rally just like me. We ate Who-Cakes and Green Eggs and Ham (thank you corporate partnerships), and then I went over to campus to turn in my course books. I walked out of the Duck Store with $57 in my pocket - not quite the $200 I paid for the books in the first place, but what's $143 between friends?
At this point it was noon, so on a lark I decided to see how many Obamaniacs had started lining up outside the doors of Mac Court.
At this point, I should point out that obviously the photo-taking capabilities of the Palm Treo 680 leave something to be desired. The fact that I took this picture while navigating my car down University Street didn't help either.
But at noon, six hours before doors would open (and seven hours before anyone THOUGHT they would open), there they were - lined up for about a hundred yards from the front doors of Mac back to Esslinger.
On the other side, the line was a little better:
At this point the line extended halfway toward the corner of 18th and University, a line of about fifty yards. I found out later that people started arriving for the rally at 5:00am
I sent my buddy Nick (who would be working until 4pm) a text saying something like "Chances of you getting in are about 70% right now".
Went home. Took a nap (the ultimate luxury for a full-time college student that works 30 hours a week). Drove back over to campus by about 3:00pm.
At this point, the lines had gotten longer, but still weren't as epic as they would be.
Both lines had extended down University to the corners, and turned down 17th and 18th
...meaning there were probably about a thousand die-hards in line on both sides of the building, four hours before doors were supposed to open.
Part of the fun of seeing all of the Obama supporters flocking to the rally was getting to witness the creativity some people put into their attire for the event. Here are some of those examples:
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The 5 ladies with the Obama shirts ended up in the "visibility bleachers" immediately behind the senator as he made his remarks, which they seemed pretty excited about. They told me later that they didn't have any idea how they ended up there, someone just saw them and pointed them in the right direction.
The "Shirt of the Day" went to this guy, though:
He told me he owns the "Barack Oballin" domain name, and was looking to mass produce them at some point in the future. I told him that some Kanye "Stronger" glasses and a fatty ring on his finger would add to the effect (you might not be able to see it, but Obama's sporting a huge stud in his ear on the shirt in the picture). I also warned him about going too overboard, since "Oballin" can turn into "Mr. T" pretty easily if you get too excited.
Anyway, after talking a little bit with some familiar people in line (Johnny and Kelsey both stole sweatshirts from me, since the wind was starting to blow - still haven't gotten those back, either, guys), at 3:45pm it was time to get down to "OFFICIAL VOLUNTEER BUSINESS".
First, I had to report to "OFFICIAL VOLUNTEER HEADQUARTERS":
Yes, I'll have the orange chicken with my activism.
Anyway, some guy with a very important jacket and a very important voice started giving directions to everyone in the "OFFICIAL VOLUNTEER HEADQUARTERS", and then everyone started walking to the soccer fields - excuse me, the "OFFICIAL VOLUNTEER SOCCER FIELDS" for further instructions.
There were about 150 of us altogether, some representing "Students for Obama" (that was me), some recruited by the ASUO President (the others in my group", some from the "Eugene for Obama" group and some people that figured that such a big group of people could only be going somewhere worthwhile.
The "Students for Obama" group was fired up, with one guy practicing his best "Si Se Puede" fist pump:
Blah blah blah, "thank you for volunteering", blah blah blah, "please don't physically harass rally attendees while wearing your volunteer shirt", blah blah blah. Lots of instructions from the rally organizers, people with the Obama campaign and the U of O fire marshals, then specific group assignments.
"ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO GO OUTSIDE AND WALK THE LINES, PLEASE LINE UP OVER THERE".
Crickets.
Arm-twisting. Begging. Blackmail.
Ten volunteers later:
"ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO BE USHERS..."
THERE!
Minutes later, our small group of ten volunteers, headed up by Luna and Carla, were given our assignment (patrol the 300 level, and help with the lower levels until then), and we were on our way.
Oh, and we were also given one of these:
Yes, that's right. The "OFFICIAL VOLUNTEER CARD". Pinned to your jacket, it made you marginally more important than the other people in the arena, provided you could find anyone who knew what in the hell they meant (as we would find out, those people were rare). I was drunk with power.
We then marched around the block, past all those stuck in line for another hour. Yes sir, we were riding our high horses, puffing out our chests at the mob of people that would be exacting their revenge once the doors opened.
5:00pm, and the volunteers were inside the building:
The floor level was set-up with two stages, one for Obama (the one in the foreground) and one for the press (the one with all the lights in the background):
For those of you who haven't ever had the joy of visiting historic Mac Court, these are what "cheap seats" looked like seventy years ago:
Yes, sir. The attic of Mac Court.
The views actually weren't too bad, provided you got a decent seat in your section:
People coming into the arena would be seated from the bottom-up - the most hardcore supporters would be rewarded with standing room right on the floor, the next group would fill the floor-level seats, the next group would fill the 100-level seats and so forth. Obviously that made our jobs on the 300-level useless for awhile, so we were went downstairs to be human arrows for the people coming in the door.
Volunteers in place, we got the news: The doors were going to open an hour early. At 6:00pm, I watched as Boomy, the head organizer for the rally (WHO WAS AWESOME!) asked security how to "pull the trigger". I texted a few of my friends:
"DOORS OPENING IN SECONDS!"
Then they turned on the music, the doors opened, and people starting streaming in.
"WELCOME! BIENVENIDOS! VILKOMMEN! PLEASE CONTINUE WALKING THIS WAY!"
I repeated that for about fifteen minutes, simultaneously being a traffic cop and a bouncer when people tried to get into the nearby handicapped entrance.
Then we were whisked back up to the third floor, preparing to wait about an hour to seat the latest arrivals. All of the volunteers took the downtime as an opportunity to rest, relax and shoot the shi...HEY! WHAT ARE THOSE PEOPLE DOING UP HERE?
Dozens of people came streaming out on to the third floor landing, and proceeded to sit in whatever seats they damned well pleased (as my brain silently screamed "BUT WE HAD A SYSTEM!").
Eventually we identified the issue - no one on the second floor was watching to make sure that people weren't ascending the stairs to the third floor. Awesome. Back to being a bouncer.
We managed to stem the flow of people coming up for another twenty minutes, until we got the call from the second floor volunteers: Let 'em upstairs.
MAYHEM. Thousands of people streaming down one hallway, about 80% refusing to follow instructions. "Please fill up the first available rows!". Blank stares. "Please leave no gaps!" Silence greeting me back. "Please fill up these sections first!" People walking around me.
Great. I was being punished for every time I snuck past or talked back to a security guard growing up. It was Arena Karma, and I was literally getting run over by it.
At least we had fun with it. When people failed to listen to us, we started shouting out instructions like "Everyone, PLEASE feel the rain on your skin - no one else can feel it for you! Only you can let it in! No one else, no one else!"
After about thirty minutes of shouting at people to cram in as much as possible, the security guards upstairs told us the news: Doors were closed.
9000 people were now inside MacArthur Court, waiting to see Barack Obama speak.
I heard later that thousands of people were turned away from the doors. Apparently both lines were still about a half-mile long when the doors closed, stretching back to Hayward Field. I also heard that the Obama campaign managed to get some of them organized on the soccer fields, where Obama came out and met with them awhile.
Once the doors closed, I was a free man - meaning I could go back down to MY seat.
Where was my seat? Well, you remember those bleachers that held the people that would stand immediately behind Obama's stage?
This is how close I was to them. The seat to the IMMEDIATE left of those bleachers when you looked at the seat.
Oh the perks of being a volunteer and reserving a seat before the doors even open!
If you look at some of the tape of the event, you can see some of the people that sat around me, meaning I would've been on TV the whole time if not for the fact that I moved down a little closer to the action:
That door is where Obama came out.
That's how close I was to the stage.
zOMG.
There was still plenty of waiting to be done, however. First, Susan Castillo (the superintendent of education in Oregon) came out and delivered some remarks about Obama's education policies. Then, Earl Blumenauer, congressman from Oregon's 3rd congressional district, and the only one of Oregon's congressional delegation to endorse in the primaries so fair.
After Rep. Blumenauer's remarks, I had the chance to go over and shake his hand and thank him for having the chutzpah to endorse Barack. I also asked him what was going on with his comrades in the congressional delegation.
He looked at me straight in the eye and said "We're workin' on 'em". I told him I had called my Congressman, Peter DeFazio, and he said "GOOD". It was good to know that someone's fighting for Obama besides just us dedicated volunteers.
Then there was more waiting. People did the wave:
And talked with the Secret Service guy at the door:
And prepared their cameras and attire for the "big moment". This lady would eventually try to kiss Senator Obama, but he obviously declined:
Then the penultimate speaker came out: A retired Air Force commander whose name and accomplishments escape me. He came out and asked the crowd "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a President..." who exercised good judgment in matters of war, who could speak with nuance and intelligence, who could lead in a way we've never seen before.
And finally, he spoke the line: "Your next Commander-in-Chief: BARACK OBAMA!"
Here is a blurry picture recap of Obama coming out:
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Yeah, so Ansel Adams I ain't. On his way out, Obama DID briefly touch my hand. If that was all I got out of the night, it would have been enough (like I said, fanboy).
Obama then started giving his standard stump speech:
HIGHLIGHTS:
*When Obama mentioned Abraham Lincoln's work in the Illinois Legislature, someone in the audience yelled "LINCOLN'S THE MAN!". Obama stopped mid-sentence and said "Lincoln IS the man", to laughter and applause. He then enthusiastically encouraged everyone to "give it up for Abraham Lincoln!"
There were several moments like this in the speech, where Obama heard someone yell out something from the audience, and responded to it in his speech. When someone yelled out a random Web site, he just said, "OK?". When someone yelled out "HONESTY!" to the list of traits that Obama would show that we're missing in the current administration, he smiled and added "honesty" to his list.
*His remarks about the "urgency of now"
*His closing remarks about how "we will not be distracted" from our goal, and stating that if we continue to work hard for this, we CAN change this country. I'm a sucker for the rhetoric, I have to say.
The rest of the speech was pure policy. Education, Iraq, health care...I know these issues are important, but at least in the primary it's just preaching to the choir. Nothing novel here, other than very strong commitments to making things happen ("We WILL end this war in 2009" being an example.
In truth, policy is my least favorite part of the stump speech. It's something that's so easily looked up. I was very much hoping for some of the "Obama magic" that inspires people so much, that makes us believe that our president and our country can be so much more. There was a little of that, but not as much as I could like. But the resounding response I heard from other Democrats was that they liked the speech, and just felt honored that he would come to Eugene.
Finally, at the end of his speech, Senator Obama stayed on stage as people gave him a standing ovation, took a drink of water, then went to shake hands with everyone standing around the stage.
My pictures of this encounter were a little better:
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And lo, I was even blessed with ONE GOOD PICTURE of the Senator up close. For that, I give special thanks to the guy with the "Barack Oballin" shirt. In this picture, Obama is looking at the shirt, which he seemed to really enjoy. He told the guy "I've never seen that one before!":
So thank you, Barack Oballin guy.
The last and best part of my night was the mulligan of the handshake. Senator Obama came over to me, and gave me a full, firm handshake. He had a soft grip, without venturing into "Hank Hill" weak handshake territory. As he walked by, I asked him to do just one thing:
"Do it for us".
I don't know if he heard me, but I hope he did.
And I hope he does.
We are lucky to have a man like this running to be President of the United States. And as the Senator said in one of his speeches, "I will not let this moment slip away".
Thank you all for reading this far :-). Please take this opportunity to visit www.barackobama.com and make a few phone calls or a small donation if you appreciate the effect this one man can have on an audience of thousands and a country of millions.
UPDATE: Wow. The rec'd list! Thank you all so much for your kind comments and recommendations. My family and friends were pointed to this blog, and have been saying how cool it is to see people praise the pictures - and I agree!
I thought I'd share just one last picture. My friend, Holly, who stayed behind in the 300 level, snapped this picture without my knowledge. When I saw it tagged on Facebook, I was ecstatic! You can even see the phone that took all of these pictures in the shot!
That, my friends, will be my profile picture on Facebook until the election.
Thank you!