Where were you? My experiences on election night/

Where were you?

We all love to ask ourselves that question when a seminal moment comes to mind. However, it seems to always represent some moment of great tragedy; that is until Nov. 4th 2008.

The Doug Fir lounge was packed by sardines by the time Ohio was announced and the election began quickly to resemble a forgone conclusion. All packed together to witness the high water mark we’ve been waiting for. Equal parts pep rally and prom, with concentrated anticipation spread on top.

As 8pm struck the gathered mass counted down the closing of the west coast polls and as the clock struck: 00 so did the election, the long awaited words were on the screen in front of us: “BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES”.

What followed next was quite possibly the most remarkable moment of the evening, silence.
It only lasted a millisecond but it was there. A millisecond where everyone realized the ultimate goal had been achieved, a millisecond where all the sadness of the last 8 years and the potential of the last two collided in our minds like when you combined vinegar and baking soda in science class to create…an eruption.

And that eruption was like few things anyone in that room had experienced before. This gathered mass was resplendent with unmistakable joy. Tears were shed by Man and Woman alike, embraces shared by people who had never met before. It was hard not to imagine some anthemic fanfare in your head, as if you were in the final scene of the feel-good movie of the fall.

The house DJ cranked up “America, F&@K Yeah” from the Team America movie, and while the song is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, it was oddly fitting. Fitting because many of those in attendance were consumed by feelings they hadn’t yet felt in their lifetimes: Pride and Patriotism. Now that’s not to say, regardless of what some may say, that those in that crowed concert hall weren’t patriots before, or didn’t love their country prior to this evening, but finally these long suffering patriots could feel that their country got something right.

No one in that room was making the mistake that everything would be OK when they woke up the next morning, but at least we all could embrace the potential that possibly the most dismal decade in our country’s history could end on an definitive up note.

As the new President-Elect delivered his acceptance speech you could hear a pin drop. And as one of the most significant speeches this country has ever seen reached its close, it was met by yet more tears and again more embracing.

“Fight the Power” the next song in the rotation, seemed to take on a whole new meaning. Public Enemy’s anthem of the plight of African-Americans in this country seemed to change and represent all of us, who stood arm in arm over the last eight years, together in disagreement of the travesties put upon us by this administration. We had fought, and seemingly, we had won.

Not unexpectedly, the party poured into the streets of Portland well into the night, and this united mass was a shining beacon of that one word that had been bandied about so much the last 2 years that it almost became a cliché: Hope.

No one will ever forget where they were that evening, and just over seven years after “Where were you” took on the most negative connotation possible, if for one night only, everything had seemingly come full circle.