Obama candidacy spurs activism
This ethereal dream floats on a higher plane than the mundane analysis of Super Tuesday states won and delegates gained.
"Our time has come. Our time has come. Our movement is real and change is coming to America," Barack Obama told an adoring crowd Tuesday night.
"This is the tipping point," predicts Lauren Greenwood, 25, who grew up in Arlington Heights, as she stands among fellow Obama volunteers gathered in Chicago to cheer their candidate's late-night speech.
JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. -- their words, ideas and actions inspired people; not for an election, but for a lifetime.
"A lot of people who got involved because of Barack Obama will continue to be involved in politics," says Kevin Roos, 26, of Glenview.
With hundreds of media members gathered from around the globe, the crowd of believers erupts in cheers when Obama is declared the winner in Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and Utah. The longer the race goes, the more chance he has to win Americans' hearts and minds, this group figures.
Obama has brought change regardless of whether he or Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination.
"A black man won in Georgia," says Cynthia Greenwood, 52, of Arlington Heights, mom of Lauren, who has a historical perspective her younger peers do not.
Greenwood jumped on the Obama bandwagon long before it had wheels. When the unknown Obama seemingly was locked in a meaningless struggle with former Chicago school board President Gery Chico to see who could finish third in the 2004 Democratic Senate primary race, Greenwood already was looking to the future.
"I heard him at a 2000 fundraiser for (Democratic Rep.) Melissa Bean," says Greenwood. She was inspired enough to be at the front of the line when Obama later spoke at a Wheeling school.
"He just wowed the crowd," says Greenwood, who has seen the presidential version of Obama wow family, friends and neighbors.
"I'm talking to a lot of people who might be voting Democratic for the first time in their lives. It's exciting."
Obama already has outlived John Kennedy by a week, but the 46-year-old Illinois senator connects with younger voters. The sensation created by the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am making a song out of Obama's "Yes We Can" speech hits an emotional nerve with young people who seek him out on the Internet.
"MyBarackObama.com -- that's how we started the group," says Chet Farley, who, with girlfriend Kelly Friskics, both 25-year-old Palatine residents, founded Northwest Suburbs for Obama a year ago.
"For the longest time it was Kelly and me and a bunch of 50- and 60-year-olds," says Farley. An influx of youth -- some not old enough to vote -- has swollen membership to more than 250.
"If I see an Obama bumper sticker while I am driving to work, I hop out and give them a card," says Farley, who wears bright green Adidas and sports an Obama pin on his "Vote or Don't" T-shirt.
The inspiration came from Obama. "I was politically agnostic until now," says Farley, who notes this is the first time he's voted in a primary. "Obama really got me."
Lauren Greenwood had to be persuaded. "It took me a little longer to jump on board. It was hard, as a woman. You really want to support Hillary," she says.
Regardless of Tuesday's votes, the campaign -- and the dream -- march on.