My friend Blayne Amir Sayed, an Egyptian-American medical researcher, lives in Chicago with his talented wife Amenah and their daughter. Blayne and Amenah are both observant Muslims, and for what it’s worth Amenah covers her hair with a hijab.
Tuesday night the two of them left their daughter with Amenah’s parents and headed down to the gigantic victory rally the Obama campaign organized in Grant Park. The next day Blayne wrote a great short reflection on the experience, which I’m happy to publish here with his permission. Thanks, Blayne!
- Grant Park
by Blayne Amir Sayed, Nov. 5, 2008
As we spilled out of Grant Park into the streets of downtown Chicago last night, I was surrounded by familiar faces: men and women, young and old, Black and White, Latino and Asian, bearded and clean-shaven… all smiling, laughing and shouting. Shining countenances indeed! Couples gay and straight walked hand in hand. Men in suits perched atop the large planters lining Michigan Avenue, ties crooked and faces flushed, slapping hands that reached up with tattooed arms from the sea of people below. Complete strangers embraced ecstatically. We held each other up, dazed with disbelief… euphoria… and relief. The last eight years have taught many of us how to protest… last night reminded us that we haven’t forgotten how to celebrate.
Middle aged parents lingered in the streets with their children, both clearly pleased to be out past their bedtimes, the history lesson well underway. Octogenarian couples strolled slowly down the sidewalk arm in arm, murmuring to each other in hushed awed tones, “Did you ever think…?”. Amenah ran from one hug to another as she picked out other Muslim hijabis in the crowd – many in redwhiteandblue. Shy smiles were shared as we continually caught eyes, often red with tears, with African-Americans young and old – “The importance of you being here is not lost on me” we seemed to be saying to one another.
And at the corner of Michigan and Wacker Avenues I bought a shirt with a portrait of Obama and “CHANGE” written underneath. But not without a bit of trepidation – less about the man but more about the pedestal. I have faces on many of my T-shirts – artists, musicians and revolutionaries… but a politician? What will his foreign policy look like? Can he make affordable healthcare for all Americans a reality?
This morning I pulled it on over my Virginia T-shirt (first time Democratic since ’64!!!) as I stumbled out of bed. And as I waited in line for a much needed cup of coffee the gentleman in front of me turned and asked, not unkindly, “Do you really think anything will change?”. And I responded, also not unkindly, “They already have.” The fact that we will have a President whose face resembles mine… and whose name echoes mine… and whose family, like mine, is divided between two continents… these things mean something. Not just to me… not just to Chicagoans, or African-Americans or children of immigrants. These things mean something to all of us. They mean something about all of us. Our country has changed. We have taken a profound step forward.
Regardless of the political course President Obama charts, we have already done something. And I’m proud to have been a small part of that.
This is a beautiful and much needed story. During the election I was cringing at the anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab smears (with no knowledge that Muslims aren’t all Arabs and Arabs aren’t all
Christians) that were forcefully rebutted only by Colin Powell. Now that the election is over, I think one of the priorities of the new administration must be public and forceful recognition of America’s Muslim and Arab citizens as patriotic citizens and “real” Americans like everyone else. People of faith need to speak out about Islam as a world religion that shares much with Christianity. What groups will or should take this up ?