The Terryl Lee Band

Cross-posted from Jeff’s other website.

VOTE, originally uploaded by Ben Kimball.

So I was sitting in my soon-to-be-tableless livingroom watching Full Metal Jacket in preparation for my brand-new Film as Literature class. I marveled at how joyless the recruits seemed, and how willing they were to put up with the abuse of their drill sergeant in order to become Marines. And then my mom called, telling me to put on HBO, which apparently is free today so that the Inauguration festivities can be watched everywhere.

Right now, all I can think about is the joy that so much of the country and the world is going to feel on Tuesday at noon. It’s more than just having your guy win the election for the first time in three campaigns. It definitely goes deeper than the almost-too-sweetness of will.i.am, Sheryl Crow, and Herbie Hancock performing the most bizarre version of “One Love” that you can possibly imagine.

I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the Obama victory since it happened. I remember when the election was finally called for him, late on that Tuesday night. I still have the text messages saved:

“Yessssssssss!” (my friend Megan)

“Mazel Tov! Yasher Koach! now we dont have to move to canada” (my sister Hannah)

“Happy best election day ever!!!” (my friend Kirsten)

“We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion to this campagin. All of this happened because of you. Thanks.” (Barack Obama)

And now, watching Garth Brooks performing “American Pie” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, with the President-Elect watching, slightly bobbing his head, a huge grin on his face, I’m beginning to feel something like hope. I’m seeing the reflecting pool surrounded, even in crappier weather than you would expect, by happy Americans and, I presume, foreign visitors. There’s a festive air that I haven’t seen in TV images of Washington in a very long time.

I can’t help but worry about what might happen, though, if Obama doesn’t solve all of the problems that he inherits. I’m not talking about immediate solutions. I’m just wondering about what happens if, by around 2011, our economy’s still in the crapper, we’re still involved in a wasteful foreign war, our national education system still turns out ignorant students who can answer multiple choice questions but can’t think critically. Will the people who already think Obama is the Antichrist blame those problems, the ones he failed to mop up completely, on him? Will his Presidency really bring us all together, or at least more all together than the divisive politics of the past few decades have done? Am I, at the age of 31, about to be prouder and happier to be an American than I’ve been since, well, ever?

The question is, then, how much of this is really about Barack Obama himself, and how much is about ordinary Americans finally getting together to see through some–not all, but some–of the lies that have been foisted upon us by cynical political operatives for so long? I feel now the same way I do when I read a book by Dave Eggers or listen to the Flaming Lips–that so much sadness and pain can give way to hope, a wise hope that we can learn from and progress and become better people.

When my grandmother died, almost two years ago, I was devastated. The older I got, the more I wanted to know about her, and I felt, when she passed, that I was losing a major connection to my personal and family history. Grandma knew stuff that I’d never know, but that I hoped to glimpse. When I got that call that she’d died, I knew that everything had to change, and that I had a responsibility to keep moving forward and only do things that would make her, and my entire family and circle of friends, proud.

Tonight, the Terryl Lee Band plays at the Inauguration Funk Fest at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. Tonight, we hope to take the stage and bring our very best to a hopefully-crowded room of people who are ready to get down TOGETHER. Tonight, we want everyone smiling and dancing and toasting and not stopping until they throw everyone out of the club.

Tonight is our night. And the day after tomorrow, it becomes our world.