After giving up on the excruciating computer graphics and talking heads of MSNBC’s election coverage, my friends and I got on the train and headed up to Harlem. We arrived at 125th and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard not a minute before Barack Obama was declared winner. The enormous crowd, pouring into the streets far beyond what the barricades had planned for, was ecstatic. I could do no justice to the things I heard said by attempting to repeat them here. All over Harlem, traffic slowed to a stop because the streets were the people’s—embracing, screaming with joy, dancing, greeting strangers (if there were any strangers at all anymore)
This is only the beginning, and one can’t help but worry about inevitably false promises that politicians make. Or even the shortcomings of the promises. This is anything but the end. But what a beginning.