On Labor Day, I attended my first political rally. Kal Penn came to N.C. State to support Barack Obama’s candidacy. Well, it was kind of a rally. There weren’t terribly many people there. I had expected the union of Barack Obama supporters and Kal Penn fans to have a much greater cardinality, but we only constituted a small slice of Harris Field. Meeting Kal was great, and despite the fact that he would not tell me what would happen in the next season of House, I’m glad I went.
I learned that, at political rallies, one should be prepared to wait. I showed up at 11:30 a.m., when the nice “Obama Lady” told me they would start, and Kal did not come on stage until 12:15 p.m. That was three-quarters of an hour past the expected time on this three-day-weekend, and I just want to point out the Holy Trinity-like implications of “three” and “waiting” that foreshadow the revelations Obama will bring to the White House. Clearly, the creators of this event knew what they were doing.
As noon approached, the organizers of the rally told us to stop waiting in the shade and to sit in the sun, probably so we could absorb some of the sunlight that Obama had brought to our slice of the world. They were nice enough to give us bottles of water, which we gratefully used to baptize our dry throats.
We did much more than sit in the sun. The “Obama People” went around making sure we were registered to vote and telling us to call more people, which we couldn’t, since it was a holiday and most college students don’t know how to tell time before 3:00 p.m. on a weekend. They played a lot of loud music which made us really excited and pumped up. I was ready to vote the heck outta Obama.
Finally Kal came on stage! He gave a brief 15-minute speech telling us why he was supporting Obama, and subsequently all of us rushed to the stage to get his autograph, a picture with him, and not talk about Obama, probably because everyone at the rally is going to vote for him anyway. Kal’s entourage was very nice about taking our pictures and making sure we did not talk to him for too long, because there were other people who wanted pictures too. So it goes.
It was really a nice experience. The fellowship with other political activists and the chance to shake hands with someone who has met Gregory House has absolutely solidified my faith in the future of my favorite medical drama. I can’t wait to see the flood of changes that take place when the new season starts.
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