Blogging Live From Barack Obama Headquarters in Dallas!

Standing in the Barack Obama campaign headquarters in Downtown Dallas feels like going to a grown up high-school prom decoration event. People are everywhere making signs, handmade and sometimes not very well art directed, these signs reflect the genuine grass roots of the campaign. The slick printed signs and bumper stickers are on back order there is so much demand, but that doesn’t stop these people.

The media is here in abundance, interviewing volunteers and capturing the activity. There is a palpable feeling that everyone is doing something to help. Their faces reflect an optimism I haven’t seen in a long time and that is a good sign for America!

Located in the South Side Building on Lamar Street, a place now bustling with young professionals and the new urbanites who live in the lofts above the offices , Obama headquarters occupies a large storefront. It’s devoid of much décor save for the large posters of Barack and the dozens of laptop computers volunteers have brought for the business of getting out the vote.

I find the location of the place a bit ironic. When I was a child, this building housed a big Sears & Roebucks store and a catalog warehouse. The irony comes from my memories of that place. It was here that I wandered into a “colored only” restroom. Not being able to read at the age of 5, I just followed several boys into what I figured was a restroom. It was, but not nearly as nice as the ones I had been in at the store previously. That experience with segregation and its inequalities stayed with me, and even as a child I delighted in drinking from the black pedestal drinking fountains just because it made grown-ups very uncomfortable. Now that same store houses the headquarters for the man who may well become the first African-American president of the United States.

Sometimes I feel like my grandfather who used to shake his head and marvel at the changes that happened in Dallas over his lifetime. Now I shake my head and feel the same amazement. It’s time for this change, just as it was time for segregation to fade away in my childhood, it’s time for the old power structures to do the same.

Tomorrow I plan on attending the rally and listening to Barack Obama in person. It is my hope that I will be hearing the words of the man who will be president in a few short months!