Day Three and Beyond

by Greg Tate

The other night I talked about Schwerner, Goodman and Cheney.  Were their ghosts laid to rest when their murderers were brought to justice or not until last night?  That is what they gave their lives for right?  The day when a salt and pepper audience could gather in a room and cheer the landslide victory of a black candidate for President in a primary in a southern state.  I don’t know. 

I heard stories yesterday at the end of the day as people came in from canvassing.  A black man in his 80’s who had his original voter registration from 1964, when the voting act was passed and his wife also in her 80’s who had never voted in her life until today because “this is too important to miss.”   It resonated, it resounded in and around the headquarters in Columbia yesterday and into the night.  “It’s too important to miss.”  “It’s too historic to miss.” “Our ancestors died for this vote.”  I’m crying actually as I write this.  I had to stop for awhile to enjoy these tears and wipe my glasses.  I think now of my friends Lucy and Leon and all the people of our generation and our different ethnic backgrounds who came together a long time ago to make last night happen and how much the celebration belongs to them and all of them as well.

It is, however, still about black vs white, to differ slightly with Senator Obama’s speech last night.  When Bill Clinton said — “That’s okay.  Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 & 88 but didn’t win the Presidency.”  — he was declaring that in his eyes Barack Obama is just another nigger.  In what other context should I see it?  Consider.  John Edwards won South Carolina four years ago not twenty like Jesse, and not only didn’t win the Presidency but didn’t even win his party’s nomination.  Why not compare Senator Obama’s victory to Senator Edwards victory in 2004?  Because President Clinton was dealing with the past.  The fight goes on.  Senator Obama was right last night when he said it wouldn’t be easy and that it would be protracted. But he was even more right when he said that this election is about the future vs the past.  Who wants to hear hackneyed political lies about economic policies that don’t include the world community when they can hear about a future that changes the face of America, unifies instead of divides us and brings hope to a society on the brink of suicide trying to take the world with it?  I think that’s why young people respond to him so much. We always say that kids can tell when you’re bullshitting them, especially the ones who have been bullshitted all their lives.  I don’t think this guy is full of bull.  I feel him for real. 

Especially in light of what happened here yesterday!  The Clintons can try, the pundits can try, everyone can try to spin it to being about the black vote more than anything else but the the big thing that happened is that Senator Obama’s campaign beat the machine.  Not only beat but they put their foot knee deep into the ass of the Clinton machine and the South Carolina Democratic machine.  I was on the ground there.  I saw it and I heard about it. 

My sister and some friends went to the community of East Over, SC to canvass.  They came into the contact of Miss Berniece,  the local democratic chieftain,  who called them “transplants”, foreigners, in between threats to her own local people.  “I been working here for you over thirty years.  You know that.  I know you gon do the right thing when you get in that booth.”  The right thing being to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton.  And people used an old slave tactic.  I suspect a tactic used by a lot of us.  They repeatedly told Miss Berniece,  “Oh yeah I know. I know what to do.”, and when they got into the booth they voted their hearts and their hearts were with Obama.  Trust me, I’m not hero worshipping.  I was really close to him last night as I watched his victory speech at the convention center.  There was a man standing there.  A man who was saying stuff I agreed with and who had said some stuff that I don’t agree with.  But.  It was damned exciting to be in that crowd dude. And it was special. They didn’t cherry pick the crowd to give the Senator that multi-ethnic background against which he made his victory speech.  The entire crowd was like that.  I grew up in Chicago.  I understand machine politics.  And the machine in South Carolina was confronted, encircled, circumvented and ultimately smitten by a bunch of people who had and have a dream.  The didn’t just say — “Yes we can!”, they showed it.

I got up at 5am to drive people to polls starting at 7am.  Voters, canvassers, visibility, office volunteers.  I drove them all at one point over the course of the day.  At 7 pm I stood looking through a window at a young man who had been alone in his office all day watching CNN and entering data into a laptop.  The main room was crowded so I slipped down the hall to look through his window during the countdown to the polls closing.  The polls closed and they announced immediately that the Senator had won and I jumped up and yelled and at the same time watched this young guy stop typing for the first that I saw during the day and sit stunned, absolutely still stunned as if he hadn’t heard what he heard.  The he slumped back in his chair and relaxed and then saw me standing in the window smiling at the results and he jumped up and ran to the door and hugged me.  Didn’t know me from Adam.  Still doesn’t except that we have a common dream.  In the regard that Barack Obama can kindle that sort of fire dream, I think he’s a great man. 

This trip ends with me being very happy.  I volunteer for the Obama Connecticut campaign tomorrow.  If I don’t die in a fiery plane crash.

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