For me, the Obama Legacy Dinner was a demonstration of the growth and ideals of the McLean County Democrats. Speaker after speaker began their time at the podium discussing the early-year gatherings of three or four while standing in front of a sold-out Radisson conference center. The whole event was a proper pep-rally; we celebrated our elected officials and our soon-to-be elected officials, we lamented our current national leadership while remembering and proclaiming the kind of leadership our country deserves, and we knew that as we go forward we are in this together.
I felt at home as the stage was filled with two keynote speakers who looked like me— a young Black man and a Black woman— both from my very own state, with interests and aspirations very similar to my own. I saw myself in them, and I saw them as role models as they spoke to our party— our congregation— with conviction and care. My pocket notebook is now home to a dozen scribbled quotes from Ja'Mal Green, powerful words that I will carry with me as I graduate and decide how I am to spend the next chapter of my life. Then, as Lieutenant Governor Julianna Stratton rattled off Illinois' list of achievements since our new Governor took office, we stood and clapped not from obligation but from an overflow of joy and pride. The last victory she read seemed to echo off the walls and fill every empty nook and cranny, settling thick in the air and connecting me to each and every hopeful body…
"770,000 people will be eligible to receive a second chance at life," she said, thanks to the record number of expungements as part of the legal adult-use cannabis bill. Seven hundred and seventy thousand. The room roared, and I whispered to my partner, "I'm not crying, you're crying"— the phrase we always say to each other whenever we both are in tears.
Last night, I got to clutch my copy of Becoming as I dressed up like one of my favorite heroes. I took pictures with her cardboard cutout and was taught my new favorite bragging point: Obama routinely grabbed hot tea at the McDonalds on Market Street on his way to Springfield! I decided to become a sustaining member of my local party, and I erased any doubts about running for an office one day. Ja'Mal said it best: too many politicians are holding our future hostage. We need public servants, not career politicians. We are done playing politics— it's time for progress, and we cannot make progress without ruffling a few feathers. It's time to take the torch.
