A Thousand UC Berkeley Students Celebrate in the Streets

Actually, I'm pretty sure the impromptu parade started at the corner of Euclid and Ridge when residents of two student cooperative houses learned that Obama had won. They marched around campus, picking up more people along the way and eventually ended up with a huge stationary group on Telegraph.

The beginnings of the rally actually come from the North side, where a large group of co-opers, mostly from CZ gathered to cheer Obama. The group grew to nearly a hundred people then moved onto campus, and ran through the main stacks chanting. The students continued down Sproul to Telegraph, growing in number continuously. They headed up to Unit 2 where they stopped in the courtyard, before heading towards the frats. Here they accumulated a large number of people, enough that they began taking over the entire street, and after a stop by the Free Speech Cafe, headed all the way down to Shattuck, passing the BART station. The group, now at least a 1000 strong returned upwards towards the campus, cheering and high fiving people in cars as they surged through traffic. At the intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph they came to a halt surrounding two police cars and began climbing on street posts and a trapped bus. The crowd then at its peak size, continued down Telegraph to rally in People's Park, before heading down College to the Campanille. At this point the crowd began to split more and diminish as some went to listen to a band play in front of Moses Hall and some returned to crowd the streets on Telegraph.

I received a call from my brother last night who is a UC Berkeley students,
I couldn't really understand what he was saying all I can hear was people
yelling and chanting "Yes We Can." He was so excited he forgot I was still on the phone : )
Hearing the young people celebrating for this victory made me feel good. Obama's victory
will show America that race does not matter. Its time for a change. Although, the election is finally over,
for Obama, its just the beginning. This is the day that people are beginning to have hopes. Its about time
that we come together as one.

Will anything really change with Obama? Good Cop vs Bad Cop. It's just a change of figurehead. Same oppression.

I saw some of the jubilation last night. Dozens of people on street corners widly cheering . Possibly thousands not only in Berkeley but in Jack London. People chanting, cheering , even crying with joy .
I really wished i could have joined the party. But i couldn't . I guess unlike many i have actually paid attention to what Senator Obama has said . He's not ''antiwar''. In his words he's just ''anti-dumb war' ! Re Iraq he says that by March 2010 MOST not all US troops will be ''redeployed ''from Iraq . Unknown numbers of Mercanaries will remain as well as a estimated 40. 000 US Troops . As for Afghanstan he not only wants to continue that occupation but like McCain pledges to ''win '' it (unlike the British, the Soviets , anyone in history ! ) He is publicly more miltaristic than McCain on Pakistan , doesn't rule out attacking Iran etc.
On the Home front he supports the death penality ,refuses to commit to revoking NAFtA and like McCain backed the corporate bailout .
So party on dudes and dudetes ! But will you be still dancing in the streets when the above comes to pass ?

I was split among Nader, Obama, and McKinney until the last minute. It's important to keep the green party alive, but there is also the issue of keeping Peace and Freedom listed as a party, Nader is so much more refreshing to listen to even when he's tired, and then so many of us hope that Obama has more progressive sympathies than his list of advisors might suggest.

Anyway, while it is important to remain cynical about elections, it is easy to catch the enthusiasm today because at least the liberals on the supreme court can safely retire during the next couple years, and won't be replaced by a bunch of total cretins who remain there for the next 30 years. Remember that there's always that.

I was there, and it was definately incredible. I did go with the group that ended up marching to the Chancellor's house to hear him speak at about 10:30 at night. I felt kinda bad for the guy, being woken up by a giant mob. But it was definately eventful.