Election Night
Election day in SF was amazing. I went to vote in the late morning and there was an elementary school across the street with kids playing outside and walking by on the sidewalk. Looking at the line of voters across the street, they started yelling Obama! Obama! Vote for Obama! I was amazed to see that nine-year-olds, or whatever they were, could be so politically enthusiastic. I can't help but think that it's a great thing for the country, whatever people's leanings are, to have a generation of children who have been engaged in civic life from elementary school. I had no idea who my parents were even voting for at that time! I think the amount of enthusiasm felt by people of all ages during this election is going to energize our typically apathetic country and help us to get on a path that more people feel comfortable with.
San Franciscans were very, very happy with the presidential outcome, and I can't imagine anyone who supported McCain was saying much about it last night. Cheering could be heard from apartment windows right after the results were called, and hipsters packed into bars to revel the night away.
But local propositions were a different story. Up to now, it looks as if gay marriage will be banned by a proposition defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Many gay couples were married in the days running up to the election anticipating this change, and sadness was in the air today from that camp. Proposition H, another big one for SF, would have had the city run by renewable energy by 2040, but the majority opposed it. So it felt a little contradictory that our country, usually known as center-right, elected a democrat and its first African-American president, while the state of California, known for its groundbreaking lefty moves, seemed to shift right.
