Here’s an excerpt from an editorial in the Tracy Press, Hepcat’s hometown newspaper. Sounds like they’re feeling the Obama magic in California’s Central Valley, hit hard by the recent economic downturn.
“So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.”
— President-elect Barack Obama, Nov. 5, 2008A local grocery store clerk talked animatedly to a customer the day after the election.
For the first time in her life, she said, she felt patriotic. She wanted to do something in answer to the new president-elect’s call to pitch in. Maybe it was a flashback to the idealistic ’60s, with President John Kennedy’s eloquent call to service. Or a sense of pride that the country had finally broken through historic barriers. Or maybe it was just the visceral awareness that the depressive Bush years would soon be over.
But what? Should she quit her job and join the Peace Corps?
That same day, a new generation of activists gathered on 11th Street outside Tracy High School and waved “Yes We Can” and “Yes We Did” signs in jubilation. As the afternoon wore on, more joined the group, smiling wildly.
Obviously, the magic of Tuesday’s election of Barack Obama and the wave of change is contagious, bringing forth a mosaic of intense personal feelings.
But does this new spirit of patriotism, this enthusiastic resolve to pitch in, have to be one that takes us outside of our own communities? Isn’t there work to be done in Tracy?
Evelyn Tolbert thinks so. Even though she didn’t win her bid to be Tracy’s mayor, the day after the election she said she has no intention of stopping her efforts to “change the face of Tracy.” She said she’s moving full steam ahead on projects as a city councilwoman with another two years in her term.
Plenty of Tracy people know what’s possible, because they’ve already made a difference in their schools and churches and neighborhoods.
For more than 30 years, Dr. A.R. Glover offered free flu shots in town, simply because he believed it was a way to save lives, and he became a mentor for Dan Schack and so many others.
Brighter Christmas was started when Gene Birk and a couple of others decided to help needy families in town 28 years ago. Their efforts snowballed and continue to this day.
A 9-year-old girl named Rainey Lomolino, now 17, wanted to see what it was like to spend the night in a cardboard box and started Kids in a Box, now an annual fundraiser for McHenry House Family Shelter.