Over the weekend we attended a rally for presedential hopeful Barack Obama. It was the first time doing something like this for either one of us so check out our views, a video package put together by TheDad and our full photo gallery post to see what it was really like.
HER VIEW:
The Newport News shipyard served as the backdrop for a day I won’t soon forget. I was excited to be a part of that day, I felt like I was a part of history and one thing that impressed me the most was how the older people were out there standing for hours to wait to get a glimpse of Barack. Just the thought of him being there made people emotional and had folks breaking down into tears before he even got to the stage. I couldn’t believe I was there watching him in person, you see him on TV all of the time but to be there and that close was surreal.
HIS VIEW:
I filed away this day in my memory along with previous one’s like the Million Man March. Days when I feel like I’ll later reflect back on and have stories to tell my children or grandchildren when they ask what were you doing or where were you during this time or event. It definitely was an experience and something I’ve been wanting to do ever since the primaries. Let me advise you that going to a rally of that type is not for the weak or faint-hearted. We stood for hours on top of hours just to get a short glimpse of the man people are talking about around the globe. People were literally dropping like flies in that hot sun as they stood waiting for Barack and on a personal note I was trying to remember if I’ve ever stood up that long for anything. Don’t think so but it was worth it.
It was interesting to see old and young, black and white all in one place and all feeling so passionately about the same person. The event was advertised as being able to hold 10,000 but later new sources said that the final number was closer to 20,000 and most of those folks couldn’t even see him or probably even hear him, at least not good. Luckily we were super early so we ended up being only about 25 feet away from his podium.
Check out the short video we put together below from our trip and his speech and make sure you check out the full photo gallery of the days events.