We walked to Oak Street in Chinatown and were excited to see the longest line we’ve seen there. As we moved closer, we saw that it actually snaked around the block!

It felt like there was electricity in the air. I had goosebumps thinking about it. Looking at the older Chinese people, the young Haitian and Dominicans, we appreciated anew how diverse this city and our neighborhood is. Or at least can be, in a moment. It still doesn’t feel this way in daily life.

But this is what this election is about. It’s about how things might be, it’s about hope, it’s about seeing the best in our selves and saying Yes we can.

I had goosebumps in line. Every time I think of what it must feel like to be a African American parent and now be able to look your child and say truly, there is no door shut to you. Of course it’s not true, but the visible hope that it might be true, one day, is before us. It appears within reach with more substance than suggestion.

When they show the tapes of the Civil Rights movement: the fire hoses, the dogs, the police - the power of the white/majority State unleashed against her own citizens seeking the dangerous benefit of being granted the privileges of exercising their full citizenship and humanity - how can you not cry? And people who lived through those attacks get to feel the sense of a promise fulfilled. It’s so incredibly moving.

9:45 PM - Ohio, Pennsylvania both have been called for Obama. Our little Enna three years old, called us to let us know she wants Obama to win, and Ennyn her little sister is on the potty.

11 PM - while steeling ourselves for a long night we see the announcement : President Elect Barack Obama.

3 AM - have not stopped welling up, tears of joy spilling down my cheeks, often.

I feel vindicated. The weight of every racist attack I’ve borne, rests lighter on my psyche. I didn’t know I was still carrying them. That the weight of approval was no longer behind the those who would be victimizers. The moral pendulum has swung in favor of all of us who have come so close to having our spirits crushed.

My heart is singing for every parent of a child of color who can now hope for better things for that child. For every parent who can make them promises, and encourage dreams and really believe it, perhaps for the first time.

I note that the McCain campaign headquarters is uniformly white. How does one even find a room so homogeneous? How does one do it while proclaiming the podium to speak “for the people.” That McCain’s concession speech was gracious and expressed values in stark contrast to the racist, fear-mongering campaign he ran. This belies his allegiance to politics of old.

The multiple thousands of people, from every walk of life from celebrities like Oprah and Rev. Jesse Jackson, to regular citizens, women and men, parents bringing children to witness this historic event.

President-elect Obama's victory speech was somber, acknowledging the considerable challenges we face:

I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

But also inspired us to be our best selves, as individuals and as a citizenry:

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

He wisely called on history from both sides of the aisle. The speech was in many ways, like well-written wedding vows. It predicted the tough times ahead and the likelihood that we will not love him the next four years the way we do tonight. But he promised to help us be our best selves; to be honest with us. We are much better off for facing these challenges with this partner and how we weather them will be a measure of our character as much as it is a measure of our political process.

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Imagine our current economic crisis as a family crisis. Let's say the young adult child maxes out her credit card and cannot get out from under the debt. 

Imagine a parent willing to bail the kid out. Give her a fresh start. If that parent did so without placing any penalty or consequences on the child, and never added a repayment requirement, this would be the stuff of reality show dressing-down. Any of us now knows, there are no bad children or dogs, simply bad parents and bad owners who must assert authority in appropriate ways. Children, dogs and bankers need that kind of discipline. 

Why should everyone of us bear the burden of their highly risky but personally profitable actions? Their willingness to tank our whole economy for their personal gain seems to be going unchecked. Those following behind, like a younger sibling, will say "Oh, I see how it goes. All risky fun and profit for me, no consequences if it doesn't work out. And, I get bailed out! Yippee for me!"

Maybe we need one of those scary nannies or...

Better Still...imagine you have a dog that's acting out. In the case of our economic crisis; we've had LOTS of Dogs acting out, for too long. No one has established alpha status to rein in the bad behavior. All the other dogs are behaving just as badly as they see they can get away with.

Bring in that hair-dresser turned dog-whisperer, Cesar Millan to smack some sense into those jerks on Capitol Hill. Actually, Cesar is firm without physical punishment. In Cesar's opinion, no one should ever hit or yell at a dog to correct unwanted behavior.

I'd like to see it go something like this: [pretend you hear Cesar's voice here or scary nanny, if you prefer...Mr. Spitzer down in front, please.] 

"If we (the government) are going to give you (banks, insurers, i.e. DOGS) a huge bailout at the taxpayers' expense, then we are going to set some criteria for how the repayment is going to go..."

You see how that works: Action: consequence. Gift: repayment. Pretty neat and tidy, eh?

This is a perfectly rational solution to the crisis we are in and it seems to me that no one in our emergency-session congress is raising this as a requirement for a bailout at taxpayer expense. They're just looking to get their mug on the evening news and make some election-year hay out of our future which hangs in the balance.

There's even a precedent for the repayment contingency plan. Read here about how the Swedes handled a similar debacle in their economy.

From Cesar's website:

Though changing some behaviors can appear to happen in a relatively short period of time, none of those changes will "stick" unless the human (authority) acts consistently with his or her dog (Wall Street firm, actually dog works, too) every day to keep unwanted behaviors from returning. 

We are giving the bad dogs on top of Wall Street permission to piss all over our living room rug, bite the mailman, whatever. We have let them act badly without consequence every day for years. Somehow, we believe if we bail them out now, they and their successors will magically alter their bad (and personally profitable) behavior out of the goodness of their hearts?

Cesar would never stand for it. Cesar Millan '08. His Veep could be a scary nanny. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I may have a new candidate.

If Obama can't get his campaign back on track (why the hell are we still talking about Sarah's glasses??!!) I'm writing in Russell Brand.

His routine is peppered with hysterical comedy and the eejits who are incensed, only prove his point. How embarrassing for the US. 

"But I know America to be a forward thinking country because otherwise why would you have let that retard and cowboy fella be president for eight years? "We were very impressed. We thought it was nice of you to let him have a go, because, in England, he wouldn't be trusted with a pair of scissors." and this shows how he's putting us on....

Brand joked about his lack of fame in the US: "My persona doesn't really work without fame. Without fame, this haircut could be mistaken for mental illness." It's all the better because I just watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" on the flight home from San Francisco and he plays a character very similar to his persona here.

City Hall - a good place to start.

The Info Booth with City Hall in the back. Despite emitting the carbon equivalent of a Jurrasic Park Velociraptor on my RT flight between Boston and San Francisco, I believe my place "at the table" was justified. Here's why the Slow Food Nation (SFN) "Come to the Table" conference was a success for me: First, I got to speak with farmers of heritage breed pigs, turkeys and sheep. I learned a ton from every conversation I had, and session I attended. I will be able to share this information with a broader audience and to do so from a more informed position. And I've got a good start on my book. Second, I got to view three films from the Berlin Film Festival that hauntingly portrayed the connections between food choices and politics. (More on these in a separate post. Soon.) Third, I got to eat and drink good, sustainably farmed foods and to sample artisanal and sustainable beverages. Stay tuned for my posts on DrinkBoston and Foodbuzz. Fourth, I got to re-connect with West Coast friends, newlyweds, food writers and chefs. Queue for Taste Pavilion Inside the Taste Pavilion. Did I mention lines? It's shy of a week past now and already the pundits are praising, critics are skewering, and proponents defending all sorts of things about SFN. I did not go to SFN with an expectation that four days of this stuff would solve world hunger or answer the fair trade issues among producers and consumers. Call me crazy, but that just never entered my mind as a possibility from this one event.

Remember, the longest journey begins with a single step. And, sometimes, a bus.

As an inaugural event, I would have to say this was overall, quite successful. I base this on my highly objective personal observations, my valid and reliable survey of cab drivers hired to transport me from venue to venue, and the official press release. Cab drivers, you say? More carbon? Yes, SF has Muni and BART. Yes there was a free bicycle storage pen. But, Ft. Mason was way too far away and my events were happening close in time, such that public transport was not always feasible. Why no shuttle buses or pedi-cabs? And that's a good example of my final analysis of the event. Not perfect maybe, but great. Will the Victory Garden feed the hungry of San Fran? No. Is it a productive way to use otherwise unused space? Yes. + Will it foster discussions about organic farming and food supply issues? Probably. + Will it provide organic produce to local food banks? Yes. + Using my unique mathematical abilities, that all = success.

"Taste" Sessions I attended

• The Apple in the Pig's Mouth- Prosciutto and American Cider - learning to taste, appreciate the differences aging and production makes. La Quercia, Aidell's, Zingerman, more.
• Heritage Pork and Sparkling Mead - Ossabaw is a rare heritage breed pig with unique characteristics and history. Sparkling Mead was a revelation.
• Eat it to Save it, Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste - Poppy Tooker, a force of nature as usual, explained why the Ark of Taste is so important. Food (including American Guinea Hog) and demos combined with lectures and laughs.
• Slow Spirits - Irony on the side.

And the Taste Pavilion lines were really too long for much sampling, but I managed. Salumi, anyone? (Getting a theme here?) Coming up: What I ate; people I met; comments I heard...as well as, links to other posts of mine on aspects of this event and products. Lessons learned.