The day began about like you would expect a day to begin, provided you planned that day to attend a presidential rally near downtown of the most sprawling metropolis in the United States… Up at 5:00 to get out of the house by 6:00, a quick bite at the Original House of Pancakes to carb load ahead of what was sure to be a grueling day. A quick check of Google maps while traversing the 22 fwy lead us to choose the 91 to the 110 instead of coming up the 5 to the 10 which was my original plan. Traffic cooperated and the next thing you know we were parking in structure a few blocks from the venue, 8:00 A.M. and I’m feeling pretty damn good about things.

The feeling didn’t last, as we turned at Jefferson and headed for the entrance a volunteer said “just down there, you can’t miss the ginormous line”.  We couldn’t miss it. As we walked along the line trying reach the end we realized the line was almost growing at the pace we were walking, a quick shift of gears got us a place but just a few minutes later the end of the line was more than a hundred yards back. I began to wonder if I had been too casual about the timing, I didn’t come to watch the President on the Jumbotron, I was here to see him speak, to experience the energy of others, to engage people about what brought them, what hopes, fears, aspirations, disappointments or desires lead them to be at this rally.

Ten minutes into our time in line volunteers with Organizing for America were getting people fired up by chanting “Fired up”? I have never been the bashful type so I was eager to lend my voice to the hype. Twenty minutes into our line time OFA volunteers came around asking for volunteers to make phone calls while waiting in line, calls to encourage voters to the polls and ask for support. Mrs. Paine has phone banked for Obama on many occasions and we immediately stepped up to get our call sheets. Precisely at 9:00 we started dialing the numbers on the sheet, a few calls in we were approached by another volunteer of OFA who was so pleased to see that we were making the calls she presented us with a pair of blue tickets and said “Come with me”…

The blue and green ticket line was a whole different deal; we were maybe four or five hundred people from the entrance and completely flabbergasted at our good fortune. The other striking thing about the line was the company. Everyone in the line had been pulled from the general line for making calls, exhibiting enthusiasm, wonder or some other attribute that caught the volunteer’s attention while interacting with the crowd. Though the general line was fun, this line was populated by people who were literally thrilled to be there, and willing to share their joy with everyone around them. If we didn’t get anything more from the day than the opportunity to spend time talking to these people the day would have been a complete success.

Entering the venue we were herded through the metal detectors and down the walkway marked “Blue Tickets” which to our amazement and delight placed us directly in front of the podium perhaps thirty-five feet away from where the President would speak in just a few hours.

Standing in very close proximity to lots of people for several hours is about as close to the perfect hell for me as you can get, but this crowd’s enthusiasm made it significantly better than bearable. A few striking moments:

The eruption of applause when members of the LAPD were spotted in force on top of the building directly behind where the President would speak.

The cooperation in the passing of water bottles to make sure that those in the crowd in need had something to drink.

The woman who briefly passed out while Ozomatli was performing, EMT’s were called by USC personnel in the crowd but the woman staunchly refused to leave preferring to pour a bottle of water over her head and neck and stand her ground.

The moment when no less than ten people in my immediate area spontaneously burst into tears when the Presidents helicopter passed over, the excitement was visceral and very touching to witness.

Speakers included Antonio Villaraigosa, Kal Penn, Hilda Solis, Kamala Harris, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, Jamie Foxx did a fine job whipping up the crowd but the real standouts were Denise Eger the President of the Southern California Board of Rabbis and Marquis Olison with Organizing for America.

Denise offered the most inclusive prayer I have ever heard touching upon the tragic suicides that have resulted in the bullying of the LGBT community. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to shake her hand when exiting the venue and to thank her for her stirring remarks.

Marquis is simply wonderful, he inspires passion in people by displaying his abundant passion for the cause. I would not be at all surprised if OFA_CA doesn’t get many new volunteers based on the strength of his words.

Watching the President of the United States speak from a distance of thirty-five feet is quite simply an awesome experience. The President has a presence that fills up a stage and draws in a crowd. The remarks were not new, the themes familiar, the stories are updated but we’ve heard them before, the content of the remarks was quite simply not the point.

The energy that the President brought to the gathered thousands in the final days before the election was only a portion of the dynamic I witnessed at this rally. The American people give a President his power by virtue of the vote. These people give this President a portion of his power by virtue of their hope, aspirations, admiration and love. We need him to energize the electorate to get involved, get excited and get out the vote, but he needs us too, he is not invincible, he has one of the hardest jobs in the world in one of the hardest times in decades and he is doing it in the shadow of obstruction, division and racism. The energy that the President draws when speaking to people who are passionate about the future of the country is apparent and restorative. The President is no doubt exhausted, the pressures of office are enormous and the pressures of the politics to make governance possible have to be crushing but what I saw yesterday was a rally of spirit that mutually benefitted the participants and that ultimately was the point

Thank you Mr. President for the inspiration, hope we were able to give a little back to you.