Hallelujah November 5, 2008

Hallelujah

By Guest Contributor
November 5, 2008

It was a great night. Time to sleep. And go to work in a few hours… More on the Obama rally soon.

For now consider this an open election thread.

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  • nowoo

    “Hallelujah” is a bit ironic for a Friendly Atheist blog post title, since it literally means “Halel Yaweh” or “Praise God”. One of my liberal Christian friends wrote tonight that he’s praising GOD for Obama’s win. I replied that I’m praising the American voters, but I’m as happy as he is.

  • The great thing about living in Europe is that all morning people have been congratulating me on the election, even refraining from saying “finally you people didn’t pick the wing nut”.

  • Dylan Armitage

    I’m still waiting to see the final results of Prop 8.

  • Congratulations and thank you, America!

    And yes, Sabayon, for once y’all elected the clever one! 🙂

  • I read this morning that in America seven generations ago someone of Obama’s race could be bought and sold as property and now he’s President-Elect. I think that says something about how far America has come and how far she can fall if things go wrong.

    No pressure though. 😉

  • «bønez_brigade»

    RAmen!

  • noodleguy

    Only one thing to say:

    OBAMA!!!!

  • Prop 8 looks pretty bad. Sorry to burst the bubble of Obama winning (hooray!) but this news sure burst mine. In one way, this is such a triumph for civil rights in this country–how come California has failed to provide those same kinds of rights?

  • Being a resident of the old Capitol of the Confederacy, I can only say that I am proud of Virginia for turning blue. Perhaps the politics of fear, voter turnout suppression, and otherwise wrapping bigotry in flags and purple cloths are on the decline.

    I was also inspired by both Obama’s and McCain’s speeches last night. As or the Republicans, the open question is how they will react to their losses. Will they moderate or lurch further to the right.

  • TXatheist

    Thank you Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado. I’m sorry about Texas.

  • Hallelujah was my reaction exactly.

    Donna (in Colorado!)

  • belongsomewhere

    Last night was amazing. I was at my boyfriend’s place, and we were flipping through channels trying to find CNN or MSNBC, and we stopped on FOX (of all networks…), which is where we first heard that Obama was the projected winner. Within 30 seconds, everyone in Greenwich Village was taking to the streets cheering. My boyfriend and I went outside (me in pajamas and socks and his jacket) and joined the impromptu rally on Union Square, standing under the giant flag and chanting with the masses of students and cops.
    I think “Hallelujah!” is a pretty fantastic response! I’m pretty sure the first thing I said was “Holy F**k!” (“Hallelujah” is a bit more eloquent, at least.)

  • I had spent my whole life growing up in Indiana thinking my vote would never
    matter… and I still can’t believe it’s blue. For the cynical young Americans,
    seeing we can actually make a difference is just what we needed.

    Go Obama!!!!

  • Rest

    Congratulations, America! As a Canadian, I had lost a lot of respect for America after you re-elected Bush. There is hope.

    And now some amusing posts from the right-wing blog, freerepublic.com.

    –
    ….that the Left can still play the race card now that they have convinced America that its OK to cheat your way to a “win”?

    The most unprecedented and massive Democrat vote fraud in history doesn’t make this coup and stolen election legitimate.
    –

    Buy a shovel and start digging for your bunker

    –

    Send him your bills so he can pay for them. Free gas and mortgage and all that.

    –

    I canNOT be big about this. I canNOT support him. He will NEVER be “my” president- he will always be “that one” to me.

    –

    My plan is to opt out and pay my taxes, period.

    Battening down the hatches, as they say.

    –

    Just wait a couple of months. These thugs will be wearing American Civilian Corps uniforms and will be armed and ready and willing to enforce whatever mandates the Anti-Christ wishes to impose.

    –

    The seeds of a new civil war has been planted.

    –

    I advise EVERYONE I know to stock up NOW on weapons and ammo. If you can get an UNREGISTERED firearm, EVEN BETTER!

    Get lots of ammo and lots of firearm training and practice

    –

    I will not support the self proclaimed coke-head.

    –

    Nice!

  • Larry Huffman

    Yes, this is a wonderful and historic event. I feel like our country has turned a corner onto a street we should have already been on. The reaction of the rest of the world alone should tell us something about the past 8 years and where we should aim for the future.

    Sadly, it appears that prop 8 is going to pass. The religious spent millions on the campaign…there were reports that the ‘yes on 8’ people spent more money than has ever been spent on a ballot measure in the state of California. It was obvious…they continually ran dishonest ads on tv leading up to the election. The mormon church alone spent a ton of money on the measure. On lies and fear mongering. At the end of the day, their lies shine a very bad light on the religious.

    The good news? 10 years ago it would not have even been close. 20 years ago and the notion of gay marriage would ahve been laughed at. I think gay people can take encouragement from the near success as well as the new direction our nation is going.

    I also think that our young people have shown that in the future, this and other civil rights issues will not be a problem. I think our youth mobilizing this year will cause permanent change on the political and social landscape.

    And to any Californian reading this who voted yes on prop 8: Shame on you for having all of the advantages that being an American offers and yet voting to take your fellow american’s rights. Shameful and unamerican. I am not sure how many of you have friends who are gay and married…my family has two couples who are close family friends who got married over this last year. When you put faces on the issue you see that this is not about any of the fear that the right instilled…it is merely about two people who love each other wanting the same relationship (in name and merit) as others. In the case of my two gay couple friends…they have been together much longer than most of my hetero friends marriages. One couple has been together for 23 years and the other for 12. I have at least 5 hetero acquiantances who in the last 10 years have had marriages that lasted less than a year. Yeah…heterosexuals know the sanctitiy of marriage.

    Anyway…the new direction our country has turned trumps the small defeats. It is a good day…and the beginning of a good future for American I am thinking!

  • Kelly

    I couldn’t be more proud today. As for those quotes from freerepublic.com-screw them. I understand being sad, even angry when you lose an election-I haven’t had my guy on the winning end since 1996-but the paranoia is mind boggling.

  • I think I saw you on TV (Sky News)! (Alsle seat, dark blue shirt, futzing with a camera?)

    Something else funny on Sky News: they’re talking to the “Naked Cowboy” in Times Square. Yesterday he had McCain stickers on his guitar, today it’s covered with Obama stickers. Well, what else from a guy who wears a diaper in public..?

  • Randall

    Congratulations to Obama for all of his success.

    He was without a doubt the best choice of the two candidates for presidency. However, all the promises he made during his campaign will soon have to hit the hard wall that I would like to call ‘reality’.

  • sc0tt

    “Hallelujah” is a bit ironic for a Friendly Atheist blog post title, since it literally means “Halel Yaweh” or “Praise God”.

    And good-bye lierally means “God be with you”, maybe we should have a secular phrase for that one too.

    Why am I not seeing lots of Hazzah Hagan posts? Nine percentage points!

  • Larry Huffman

    I think our lexicon has expanded to allow religiously originated words and terms to have other, more secular meanings.

    Hallelujah…while obviosuly religious in origin, is pretty widely accepted as an exclaimation of thankfulness…does not have to actually be to a god.

    For that matter…the term ‘oh my god’…while quite blatantly including the term god…has really come to mean “You have got to be kidding” or some other such phrase.

    The term ‘Jesus’ or ‘jesus christ’ is a term not unlike ‘shit’ or ‘damn’…and I use it as such today. It just rolls off the tongue in those situations…and I no longer have any ‘taking the lords name in vain’ guilt. hehe.

    So…While I think at any meaningful discussion level, we should all absolutely watch what words we use…I think some exclaimations and terms have come to hold secular meaning…even when blatantly religious.

    I think the term “Hallelujah” is very appropriate for last night’s event…and it has nothing to do with the fictitious Yahwe that it originally implied.

  • Spurs Fan

    Despite my sadness over Prop 8’s passage and Arkansas’ ban on unmarried (hetero or homo) couples adoption of children, this is an inspiring day. I don’t think I’ve been able to fully grasp what it means. Like Michelle Obama, for the first time in a while I feel truly proud of my nation and the steps it has taken.

  • Lyz

    I have an american flag that I was given when I earned my Girl Scout Gold Award. I have flown it only a very few times – 9/11, two 4th of July parades, and that’s about it.

    Last night it went out on the front of my house.

  • Cathy

    Haha, it is so like the republicans to think that registering voters is cheating (damn voting, it is the scourge of democracy) but illegally removing voters from rolls and purposefully denying poor districts enough voting machines (2000 and 2004, respectively) is A-OK.

  • I have a page on both myspace and facebook with combined a couple thousand friends, and I talk a lot about why I’m no longer a Christian (and encourage people to buy my book… 🙂 ). I try to stay away from politics, because I do know a good share of Republican atheists, and the main focus of my pages is religion, not politics. (Although I can’t, for the life of me understand rationale of atheists who are Republicans). Nevertheless, as we got closer and closer to Nov 4, I found it harder and harder keep quiet. Palin was the one who scared me the most. She is by far the most radical religious nutjob we’ve seen in ages on a presidential ticket.

    And I am SO GLAD that finally, after eight years of absolute disaster, the American People have finally woken up and picked such a fantastic candidate as Barack Obama. I’ve been on a high since about 8:30 Easter Time last night when it was looking like he’d win. YES! Hallelujah to **President** Obama!

    Jeff Mark
    Author, Christian No More (www.amazon.com/dp/0981631304)

  • First, I could give a rat’s ass what the rest of the world thinks of our election. Let them celebrate or condemn (or, in the case of Obama’s family in Kenya, slaughter a bunch of innocent animals). I think we made the right choice for Pres.

    Now maybe, just maybe, we can move past the minority disenfranchisement mentality of the past 50 some-odd years.
    … and maybe the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will stifle some of their howling now that “racist” America has elected an African American.

    It’s time to work together to make this country the best again.

  • Hally-Jew-ya. My hope is restored. However I am saddened that I live in one of only five red counties in NJ. I actually took my “Obama Mama” Sticker off my van when I went to vote so I wouldn’t be egged, or firebombed. I had small children with me. And my town is filled with red necks. Oh well, at least the rest of the state got it right.