COLUMBUS, Ohio: To 70,000 Ohioans, he’s not black or white ...he’s just right. “Forget Joe the plumber, Here’s Paula the trucker...” sat a female truck driver with a sign. “Mission possible” and “I want to be like Barack” read some t-shirts. The atmosphere, electric, had thousands chanting, “yes we can!” It was Barack Obama’s rally at the Ohio State House, in an effort to push for votes, two days before the election.
Sheryl Dean, 46, had driven for over an hour, all the way from Logan Ohio. Wheelchair ridden, she came in a special handicap modified vehicle. “I was here at 7.35 a.m. (though Obama’s appearance was scheduled at 1 p.m.) I always like to see who I’m voting for.”
Dean said she was attracted to Obama’s candidacy because of health care reforms. An assistant principal, Dean was laid off from one job and had just joined another when she became the victim of a car accident. “I was on a 90-day probation at my new job and therefore did not have any health coverage. In that time period I’ve accrued a bill of $225,000.”
Dean said that the color of Obama’s skin did not bother her. “My father was Italian with dark hair. Once on a Florida vacation my father got heavily tanned. A restaurant we went to refused to serve us because they thought my father was black.” Prejudice was not a new concept for this Caucasian.
“I am also voting for Obama because I think he will end the war. President Bush lied to us about the reasons for going to war. He didn’t pursue Osama Bin Laden. McCain voted 90 percent of the times with Bush... we don’t want another Bush.”
Sisters Naina and Navina Khanna, from California, were also at the Ohio rally. “We both took a few weeks off from our jobs to work as volunteers for Obama.”
Both of them paid for all expenses out of their own pocket. Naina said that as a South East Asian she was pleasantly surprised to see that Americans were ready to accept a man of color for the highest office.” The US is moving in a new direction. Obama is not Black, he is multiracial. We are in a very exciting phase where there is less segregation and more cultural and racial diversity.”
Shireen and Jamal didn’t mind their six-hour wait to see the man that stirred and entire nation. “It’s such a beautiful moment. You feel such a bonding among the crowd. Everyone is singing, clapping, cheering and putting their heart out for Obama,” Shireen said.
Jamal, on the other hand, became so emotional and overjoyed he couldn’t find the words. “It’s hard to explain how wonderful you feel. You really just have to be there to know it.”
