Random Speak

Since I know you've all been up all weekend wondering what I did with my Thursday evening, lemme tell y'all what I did with it. I took myself and my curiosity to the Fort Worth Convention center and listened to (the) Barack Obama live! I decided to become part of history and I am glad I did. Forget that it took 40 minutes to find a parking spot despite arriving 15 min before the center opened which was 2 hours before the man himself was scheduled to address the crowds. It was all worth it. So many people from all walks of life. I mean Indians (whom I had to acknowledge are underrepresented given their huge numbers as I saw them), blacks (so many! I hope they will remain this interested in their lives after this), Hispanics (plenty of them in the fort worth neighborhood) and whites. Many people seemed to have arrived directly from work. Others had closed businesses early and others simply took the day off to get there early enough to get good seats.

Kudos to the staff at the convention center. The queues, many as they were and longer than they were many moved really quickly. Security was tight just like at the airport and people were many. As soon as I got in, I knew I would have to use my imagination to get close enough to witness this as I wanted to. And details spared, I did. Wrong side though, he came and left from the opposite side. But I saw him clearly and close enough as he spoke.

He wore the demeanor of a winner, the attitude of a simple man, and the intelligence of a leader. It was like an epiphany. I understood why he was where he is at with his life. The speech was in many ways repetitive for anyone who has been listening to his every word via barackobama.com as well as CNN and anywhere else they'll air it. The same theme, the same statements, even the same punchlines here and there. But it would get very simply personalized for the immediate crowd. And I understood why the message was the same everywhere.Simply because the message is one and the same throughout. And most of those at the rally are not like me, haven't been looking for Obama news everywhere. They are hearing a lot of these things for the first time. hence the need for rallies. Frankly, people like me are just taking up space since we know we are supporters.

Entertaining moment when he breaks with the "has someone fainted... EMT... water..." line that CNN had been making fun of his super stardom with clips of such moments during his rallies. It's simple why they faint. They stand for 2 hours while waiting for him to arrive, not including the time during which he is talking and their queue times. It is wise to choose to sit at these moments. Even more interesting, as he points in that one direction, lady behind me and about 3 people to my right, despite being sitted needs an EMT as she is about to pass out. That is about the sheer excitement going on. People were all abuzz, excited, just completely ready to vote for him. I talked to a few people, all different age groups.

This older white man said to me that its been too long since Barack came along. Everything is wrong at Washington and Barack just has to be the next president. OK. Black middle age lady. She told me that this moment was the reason she worked 2-3 jobs to take her kids through college. She told them they could be anything and this man (Barack) was evidence to her she had been right about that all along. That I thought was very interesting and personal. basically, barack chose right with the message of change. He represents it and all his supporters are craving change one way or the other. Hence his success. That was helpful to me. I've been a little fuddled about how he was successfully able to kick Mrs. Clinton out of her assumed nominee role. I get it now.

There's still a whole lot to do in TX to get him the victory here. And as I left, I talked to volunteers and understood what they had planned for this weekend. They have been busy and were actually recruiting volunteers for between then and Tuesday right there as people left. I hope they will reap handsomely come Tuesday.

Odinga and Kibaki, about time they grew up. Now can someone please define the roles of all these new positions and explain to me how Kenya is going to finance these salaries which will be hefty and can we be told what these salaries will be. Anyone who reads this blog knows I think that Kenya needs no addition to it tax payer burden within the governing circle. What it needs is better job descriptions and effective management. But for the sake of peace, this might be a small price to pay. I just wanna know how small. However, what I really want to say about that is I'm glad we're past that and can these two parties save us any further drama and start rebuilding the devastation they have caused in terms of jobs and country pride.

Next on my agenda? Tuesday. Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. Rhode Island and Ohio right now per the polls, not pleasing me. They better intend to surprise the hell out of me come Tuesday. Keeping my fingers crossed!