Yes, Dorothy, We Can
I woke up this morning before the alarm clock went off, and in that kind of half dreamy state, images from the movie “The Wizard Of Oz” surfaced in my brain.
Oddly, this has been a recurring theme for me this week. When the numbers were looking good for Obama, the lyrics, “Ding, dong, the witch is dead,” kept coming to mind. Today, post-election, I feel like Dorothy did in the movie’s final scene: home again, in a place I used to know and love.
As I said to my husband last night, I didn’t fully realize how alienated I’d been feeling, politically speaking, until yesterday, when things turned around, and suddenly, it seemed to me I was in the right country again, a place where the predominant values and ideals are consistent with my own.
A whole lot of us have been feeling like this for years, like Dorothy and Toto did in Oz: strangers in a strange land. It’s great to wake up today and feel good about America again, to say with certainty that there’s no place like home.
Congrats!!!
As an Aussie, and may I add, long time fan of your film work, it’s good to wake up and feel good about America again down here too!
Saw a photo of people cheering in Sydney!
Just saw this one, Jessica, two weeks after the fact (I’m behind on absolutely everything), but just wanted to say I’m still feeling the afterglow. I was one of those invited to the Grant Park rally on Election Night (I’d volunteered for the Obama campaign quite a bit, starting with the primaries.) It was every bit as transcendent as you’d imagine. When Barack gave his victory speech, I held my cell phone up so Lily could hear it in New York — she was dancing in front of the Apollo Theatre, along with jubilant Harlem residents and most of the student body of Columbia U. I did tell you about how “Barack” was the first thing I said when I came out of a medically-induced coma two years ago, didn’t I?…
xoxo
Moira
Yes, yes, it’s so much better. Working in the grassroots trenches when the Administration had it’s ugly little targets on the grassroots, I tried to be brave and cheerful, but sometimes it sucked, like when my computer was hacked or stolen or I was put in the “extra attention” line at security. The TSA people were always apologetically nice. But I sometimes felt guilty about that, ’cause I knew it was because I looked so American.
It really is as if everything suddenly changed back to what we know. I am happy – both of what I did to help us get here – and to be here. And to be looking forward at last! To reading more of Blahblahblog!
Yeah! those of us who know how hard you have worked on our behalf, in the trenches, salute you Mimi…