UPDATE: These amazing photos have been linked hundreds of times since I posted them. They’ve been featured on some really high-profile sites, which is gratifying, but I’ve been frustrated by not being able to credit the photographer.
Today I got an email from Nida Vidutis. She was there that night, and took these pictures.
NIDA IS 17 YEARS OLD.
I asked her to tell me about her experience at the rally, and this is what she said:
“We went to Obama’s very last rally, at the Prince William Fairgrounds in Virginia. We were part of 90,000 people who came to show their support. We stood for five hours waiting for him, after having stood and walked all day. But it didn’t matter. And I know it’s cliche to say, but the crowd was so diverse. We made friends with the people around us, and when we took a picture, we managed to cover pretty much the entire skin color spectrum. And this fact cannot be undervalued. Obama is not black, he is not white–he is Indonesian, Hawaiian, Kenyan, Caucasian, and about a million more.
Obama is, in part, an idea man, but in his being, in his person, he takes these ideas and gives them a reality, and this is what you understand when you see him. He gives lofty thoughts and progressive dreams substance and tangibility. Yet, he is a pragmatic progressive. His ability to address problems gains its strength from his ability to recognize nuances, to turn a problem up and down and mold it into something that can be changed, that must be changed and that will be changed.
And there was this kid at the rally, I think he was about six years old. He was black, and sitting up on his dad’s shoulders. He had an Obama-Biden sign, and for what I swear was about 3 hours straight, he held the sign straight up, with the most determined look I had ever seen on a six-year-old’s face. And then this other kid appeared, a white kid, on his dad’s shoulders. And all of a sudden they were sharing the sign back and forth. And then, then they held it together. And…it was so simple, SO simple. Yet, at the same time, it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, and the great part was that they had no idea what they were doing. Everyone looked at them, people took pictures, but they were just holding a sign. “Little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls…” It was so simple.
And then Obama came out. We listened to him talk, we wondered about the emotional roller coaster he was experiencing–his grandmother had just died hours before, and here he was at one of his biggest rallies ever, after 21 months of campaigning, only 21 hours away from winning the presidency. It. was. amazing. And I was so proud to be just one of those 90,000 people, to blend into the crowd, just to be there to listen to this man. It was incredible.”
64 responses so far ↓
1 coasterboy // Nov 6, 2008 at 3:26 am
Sez it all, huh?
2 phoebefigalilly // Nov 6, 2008 at 3:40 am
Yes!
3 Dylan // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:23 am
4 John Foley // Nov 6, 2008 at 6:02 am
Terrorists.
5 Yoeman // Nov 6, 2008 at 7:50 am
Wow, that is awesome………
6 Nusa // Nov 6, 2008 at 8:25 am
I see a papercut waiting to happen!
7 Global Spin » Bwah! // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:34 am
[...] Sniff. [...]
8 American Guy // Nov 6, 2008 at 11:36 am
A stunning series of photos outlining the redistribution of wealth that Obama offers us. The change is all ready happening!!!
9 thomasfortenberry.net » Blog Archive » What Happened Tuesday // Nov 6, 2008 at 11:39 am
[...] This is a nice summation of the American dream in action. [...]
10 Obama's election in 4 pictures. - Digital Radio Central // Nov 6, 2008 at 11:40 am
[...] election in 4 pictures. April Winchell Tuesday __________________ "Power concedes nothing without a demand." -Frederick [...]
11 Stretch99 // Nov 6, 2008 at 11:59 am
later that evening the Dad’s decided to get married but …..
12 The Crossed Pond » Sappy // Nov 6, 2008 at 1:28 pm
[...] But cute. posted in: Main [...]
13 jasonthegreat // Nov 6, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Looks like socialism to me.
14 pal Jacky // Nov 6, 2008 at 2:12 pm
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/celebs/palin-bags-a-bigfoot/
hopefully the last we hear from palin for a long time.
15 Speedy Cerviche // Nov 6, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Hey, that black kid stole that white kid’s sign.
16 Photo of the Day. « Opinionated Old Fart // Nov 6, 2008 at 6:59 pm
[...] OK, they say one picture is worth a thousand words, so I only posted this one but check out the entire photo montage from Obama’s election eve rally in Virginia. It says so much. Bring [...]
17 naughty zoot // Nov 6, 2008 at 10:59 pm
The tag says it all. Now if we can just gun down Prop 8 in the courts, all will be well.
18 the election in four photos « Mollytics! // Nov 7, 2008 at 7:32 am
[...] 7, 2008 by molly j. This four photo progression says it all (h/t to [...]
19 nvidutis // Nov 7, 2008 at 10:26 am
photos taken by Nida Vidutis
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32174989@N02/sets/72157608724709446/
20 This just about sums it up « Only Moment Alone // Nov 7, 2008 at 12:32 pm
[...] VA the night before the election. These photos have been traveling the web (original HT: April Winchell), and I thought I’d share. “Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same [...]
21 Stretch99 // Nov 7, 2008 at 1:13 pm
…when did the site go all italic?!!!
22 David // Nov 7, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Yeah, a bit strange. Earlier everything was centered.
Thank you Nida for sharing these photos and your thoughts. I wish I was able to attend a rally. That was an incredible moment.
23 scoodog // Nov 7, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Very touching. I just can’t get over the effect that Obama has on people. This very blog posting suggests to me a possibility that history may view Obama as the person who healed the wounds of our society and brought us all together toward a brighter future.
I just watched Obama’s first press conference (Friday afternoon). It was short but WOW — did it pack a punch. It is quite obvious that he is taking his new role very seriously and that he’s going to do what he can to help our society.
This is the change we need!!
24 Stretch99 // Nov 7, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Thank goodness you see it too
I thought maybe the vertigo set in
ZOINKS!!
25 In a state of thixotropy » Blog Archive » As it always should have been. // Nov 7, 2008 at 4:49 pm
[...] As it always should have been. [...]
26 pal Jacky // Nov 7, 2008 at 5:20 pm
okay, this is off topic but I’ve had i with this american express commercial. You’ve seen it. The guy wants to buy engagement ring and his credit card is maxed out. Instead of wondering if the guy is a deadbeat cad, the clerk sets him up with an american express card and the guy’s fiance is fine with this.
27 Stretch99 // Nov 7, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Commercials I currently hate:
The Amish-made heaters and the SNUGEE – the blanket with sleeves
28 ShannonS // Nov 7, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I would offer her a job as a reporter on my newspaper in a heartbeat.
If the economy wasn’t so bad and every one I know is out of work.
Instead, I have to run an Attila the Hun editorial about how wonderful prop 8 is. I just wish I could bring it to the attention of the land of the gays and they would voice how ignorant it is and maybe my publisher would stop running her spew.
Any takers?
29 Yes. We. Did. « // Nov 7, 2008 at 8:38 pm
[...] Photo by Nina Vidutis. [...]
30 pal Jacky // Nov 7, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Weekly World News | The World’s Only Reliable News!
Shanon, It seems there is an opening at the weekly world news
31 Speedy Cerviche // Nov 7, 2008 at 9:18 pm
The Snugee commercial is hilarious. That old guy reading the paper looks like a red-cloaked druid.
And as long as this site is in italics, I choose to read all posts to myself in a cultured English accent. To me, italics always seemed kinda snooty and British.
32 beetlebug // Nov 7, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Nice pictures indeed. I’ve put my cynicism on hold for at least a week after the election so that I can just feel that my lack of faith in my fellow man (and woman) was all wrong. Election night was exciting here in Virginia where people used to bleed blue. Heck, Obman and Biden both visited our small, small city. I don’t know how they got around so much. My representative seems to have lost by around 600 votes to the challenger. I hope it holds up because that guy is like a southern Dick Cheney. If you ever hear him talk you want to pelt him with something.
33 pal Jacky // Nov 8, 2008 at 6:29 pm
so ‘grey’s anatomy’ got rid of the lezbotic storyline. The obvious reason has yet to be mentioned. The one they fired was the ugly chick in the basement in ’silence of the lambs’. ‘no one wants to see her sucking face with anything let alone another woman.
‘bones’ is doing it right. the girl on girl action this week was between two hotties. One a regular and the other ho’fully will become one.
34 clevelandphil // Nov 8, 2008 at 11:46 pm
the ugly chick in the basement in ’silence of the lambs’.
“Come back here, you fucking bitch!”
35 John Foley // Nov 9, 2008 at 2:47 am
Was she a great big fat person?
36 eBayEnigma // Nov 9, 2008 at 11:33 am
I am proud to say that I voted for McCain, but if Obama becoming President is all it took to unite Americans in some way, I’m really happy to say that I’m glad Obama won and I’m truly sorry that this didn’t happen sooner. I think that he’ll be a great President if just for his power to give all Americans the opportunity to come together. I look forward to the next 4 years.
37 pal Jacky // Nov 9, 2008 at 12:54 pm
She says she gained weight for the role in ’silence’. I guess she lost weight after. A sort of toni collett without the tuna boat smell. the stench is a known fact about australians. What is still an enigma is why men smell worse. My guess is they never wash their dicks or shower in general. The closest thing most australian men come to that are the blowjobs they gave each other when they were twelve.
38 pal Jacky // Nov 9, 2008 at 2:54 pm
this fish market smell australian’s private parts have also accounts for one the divorce of tom cruise and nicole kidman.
no told him that the odor from australians was much worse than those from real people and he when got to the vagina part of his ‘homo-nomo’ scientology course, every attempt at sex with nicole failed and tom spent the evening whacking off to a DVD of ’saturday night fever’. After turning her next husband into a raging drug addict, nicole has a new motto. ‘a dusche in time’
39 pal Jacky // Nov 9, 2008 at 4:16 pm
fun with racial slurs…
Can anyone name the racial slur which originally didn’t stand for black, but for a white minstrel in blackface?Here’s a big hint it originated in the irish section of new york.
40 JohnnyBoy // Nov 9, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Could be Zip Coon, but hey, who knows?
41 JohnnyBoy // Nov 9, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I’m still trying to establish if Jigaboo was around in the 1860’s…so far no luck
42 JohnnyBoy // Nov 9, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Speedy, ought we not to be pronouncing Italics in an Eyetalian accent?
43 pal Jacky // Nov 9, 2008 at 8:35 pm
The second one is right. Actually, the irish section of new york did not disappear in the 1860’s. What is fascinating is how much influence irish had on what we think of as ‘black music’ from the turn of the last century. When An irish man in blackface went off to played his traditional music (hence ‘jig’) in a minstral manor to fill out a performance of three or for legitamate works.
Also most people think Dvorak used the spiritual ‘going home’ for the second movement of his ‘new world’ symphony(composed in the 1890’s). However, the symphony actually came first, and the melody was dvorak’s idea in the style of a negro spiritual. Words were added and it became popular and soon passed for ‘authentic’.
44 pal Jacky // Nov 9, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I didn’t mean dvorak with Irish. It is just a fascinating that one of america’s best known native forms of music had a heavy european influence that is no longer politically correct to even acknowledge its existence. Jews got into it to. take al jolsen or the gershwins’ ‘porgy and bess’.
45 Stretch99 // Nov 10, 2008 at 1:44 pm
O’Bama is part Irish!!!
46 JohnnyBoy // Nov 10, 2008 at 2:01 pm
William Frawley performed Mammy before Jolson even
47 MyMonoclePoppedOut // Nov 10, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Ah, so you went from disliking both candidates to shilling for one of them. Interesting that practically all of the things that John listed as the reason for no longer liking McCain had to do with how other people were acting, and not actually how McCain was behaving. I wonder how much of a “victory” this upcoming presidency is, knowing that the Republican candidate didn’t have a chance in hell. How there are an unstoppable amount of people that can’t distinguish between McCain and the pinhead we currently call our “leader”. How the simple fact that John McCain actually has a brain inside of his skull would mean he would have been superior at the job, in contrast to what we’ve had.
So nice to see that the people who view your web page as their own personal forum are still at it. It’s really all about them, anyway. I guess nobody listens to them in “real” life, so they have to bore the rest of us here. -Idiots.
48 jasonthegreat // Nov 10, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Monocle, you devil!!!! You’re at it again: spreading joy and good cheer wherever you go!
Love ya, Mon, you little ray of sunshine, you!
49 pal Jacky // Nov 10, 2008 at 4:34 pm
monocle, john McCain may have had a brain once, but oldtimers has set in. His choice of Sarah palen with only one interview shows that. even my dad who is older than McCain said he was no longer mentally fit for the office of president. he didn’t vote for pres this year.
One personel question. If this place is filled with idiots Why do you bother showing up here every once in a while to offer your pithy observations? I get it, so every once in awhile it can be about you. Like john McCain and Sarah palen, it is time for you to become nothing more than a bad memory.
50 pal Jacky // Nov 10, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’ve got a recording of Al Jolsen singing gershwin’s ’swannee’ with a picture of AJ in blackface!!!
It is part of a great 2-cd set on sony classical called ‘In Gershwin’s time’. all historical recordings. IE before nelson riddle confabed them into he syrupy messes we think of oday.
pearl has a like one for Kurt Weill called ‘from berlin to broadway’.
51 Election Ponderings « Ponderings from a Procrastinating Prognosticator // Nov 10, 2008 at 5:03 pm
[...] These pictures have been making the rounds and here is a link to an article about them. They cause more tears to flow because they sum up the hope I and others dare to feel once more. [...]
52 clevelandphil // Nov 10, 2008 at 7:30 pm
William Frawley performed Mammy before Jolson
Oh Fred!!
53 ScottP // Nov 10, 2008 at 7:50 pm
No, Lucy, there’s no ruhm in the show for you… I’m gunta do Cuban Pete an then Fred’s gunta do Mammy, right Fred?
54 JohnnyBoy // Nov 11, 2008 at 7:16 am
Sure, Ricky, but I’ll put on my makeup after I get to the Babaloo, otherwise I won’t be able to get in
55 Stretch99 // Nov 11, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Its 11:11 on 11/11
COOL!!!!
56 April // Nov 11, 2008 at 12:18 pm
You think that’s cool, wait until 4:20.
57 JohnnyBoy // Nov 11, 2008 at 12:59 pm
cause that’s when the blackbirds come out of the pie
58 pal Jacky // Nov 11, 2008 at 1:46 pm
11/11 means george noorey is going to have an extra stupid show tonight. I haven’t listened to AM radio in a long time. But it might be worth tuning in
4/20 is hitler’s birthday. hopheads and Wagnerians celebrate with pot and beer respectivly. The most fun comes from teens in colorado who like to dress in trenchcoats and play ‘hide and go seek’. personally I just whip my DVD of ‘ilsa, she wolf of the SS” and bemoan the fact the the seventies were the greatest decade for film. You know, ‘chinatown’, ‘godfather’, ‘bloodsucking freaks’
59 JohnnyBoy // Nov 11, 2008 at 1:59 pm
and Ilsa was filmed on the Hogan’s Heroes set, so especially good
60 Stretch99 // Nov 11, 2008 at 2:41 pm
“You think that’s cool, wait until 4:20.”
I love April – must go back and listen to John and April’s adventures in Amsterdam.
How did the Shoot go?
I hear they have to make that “artificial snow” at Big Bear again…
61 Classic G&T Links » Ayyyy! // Nov 13, 2008 at 2:51 am
[...] Ebony and Ivory, some classic pianoforte (AprilWinchell) [...]
62 Ebony and Ivory » Teeny Manolo // Nov 14, 2008 at 12:30 am
[...] April Winchell: And there was this kid at the rally, I think he was about six years old. He was black, and sitting [...]
63 reel big fish cheer up mp3 | Digg hot tags // Nov 19, 2008 at 10:22 am
[...] Vote April Winchell » Tuesday [...]
64 America has come a long way! « Earth Central: the Water*Energy*Environment blog // Nov 20, 2008 at 10:21 am
[...] Obama rally photos from Virginia [...]
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