Our Obama Moment

On Saturday, April 19th, 2007, we got a phone call from a fellow supporter of Barack Obama, saying that Obama was speaking at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan that day. We'd been attending organizing meetings for two months in the Lower East Side. Everyone thought we were delusional to support this guy Barack Obama. Almost no one had ever heard of him, and he had a funny name.

At first, I was backing Hillary, but went along with Hannah just to be with her. Soon, though, I got the itch.

We quickly got ready and took the subway down to the New York Sheraton on West 53rd Street. The conference room Obama was speaking in wasn't that large, holding, maybe a couple hundred people. Our seat was in the fifth row.

It was truly exciting to see Obama enter the room. His speech, of course, was superb.

Afterwards, we went to the street and found a small crowd gathered around Obama. His handlers were trying to get him into a waiting SUV. I pushed through the crowd to try to shake Obama's hand. Although I reached way out, I was about two feet short. Then he disappeared.

We were excited to hear Obama speak, and to almost shake his hand. Heading toward the subway, we walked down 53rd Street. After a couple of blocks, we saw Obama's SUV double-parked on the side of the street.

Security personnel were posted to kept people away from the SUV, although there were no people around to keep away.

Hannah and I walked across the street facing the SUV. Obama was in the back, talking on his cell phone. He looked up and saw us. Enthusiastically, we waved to him. He waved back and gave us his famous smile. That was our Obama moment. It made our day.