The day Obama called home

Now look, I’m reminding you of this wonderful speech because I was just reminded of it myself.

I woke up this morning to a surprise on my niece’s Facebook:

OBAMA JUST CALLED ME!!!!!!!!! ❤

All I can say is that was a life changing experience. That is one DEVOTED man, and any doubts people have should be swept out of their minds! That is unheard of!!!

Mom, with whom she’s staying,  gives a little more detail:

Not for nothing that he knows the value of “his little people,” as Maggie says. This was a conference call to I don’t have a clue how many of his volunteers, and Maggie got a phone call to say we’re putting you on hold, please wait for the President. Of course, she thought it was a joke at first. But fortunately, she said they were playing music, so we said she should keep holding. And then…his campaign person came on and said, ‘we’re waiting for the President, and poof! There he was, live on the conference call. Nice little talk to say how much he appreciates the hard work of “you guys,” a bit of campaign rhetoric, then why we’re doing this for the people, please hang in and keep making those phone calls and talking to people for the next 12 days, some more appreciation and thanks, and over. Maybe five minutes. I do believe Maggie stopped breathing, at least when she wasn’t hyperventilating. Impressive doesn’t begin to describe it.

She put it on speaker phone, so 5 other people heard it. Witnesses!

When we can get the photo off an older mobile, we will post the picture of Maggie’s face when the President’s conference call was patched through live. Great moments! Everything we ever heard about civics and democracy in action, right in front of our eyes at the dinner table.

My niece has, as she says, been ‘volunteering her butt off!!’ for Obama – in North Carolina, which is not exactly like doing it in Woodstock, New York, where she was till a month or two ago. No, I’m sure she’s knocking on doors that are being opened by perfectly lovely older white people with southern accents who have always voted Republican and – er – possibly never for a black man… I’ve seen her in action on Facebook, arguing the case for Obama with a crystalline clarity that comes from utter conviction and inner peace.

Maggie has youth, energy, beauty, idealism, complete dedication, manners, good spelling, and necessity on her side. You don’t get to be 20 twice, and at this horrific juncture in world affairs I wish lots more of us – including myself – had her untrammelled faith and bounding energy. I wish the left were able to stop carping about things that no one can change, and get with it. Stop kvetching about the goddamn darkness…

When she says, ‘This is a life-changing experience’, that’s Obama – lighting a candle.

Great moments indeed!