Miracle at at the Los Angeles Obama Town Hall

I was disappointed that I missed the sign up for the lottery for the 200 free tickets that were distributed for Obama's Town Hall Meeting in Los Angeles, but I was not ready to give up so easily. It was the day before the event, and I immediately went to Craigslist.com and I saw that there were in fact a few tickets available, but some were asking for as much as $1000! There was no way I could pay that, but nevertheless I proceeded to offer some yoga instruction in exchange for a ticket. Although there were some expressions of interest in my offer, none of them actually came to fruition. The thought occured to me that I could simply go to the venue in person and see if someone happened to have an extra ticket.

I remembered my days in college at UC Berkeley when I would sometimes attend Grateful Dead shows. I remembered the tactics we would use to try and find a ticket when one person in our group did not have a ticket. Most of the time, believe it or not, we would succeed in obtaining a ticket. I suspected that similar tactics would work in trying to obtain a ticket to the Town Hall. For Deadheads, if you receive a free ticket to a concert, it is called a "miracle" as in Jerry Garcia singing "I need a miracle every day." Well, on this particular day of Obama speaking in California for the first time since being elected 44th President, I needed a miracle!

At first I thought it would be fun to invite a friend (like Obama Mama Juli) but then I realized that while finding one ticket was going to be difficult, finding two tickets would be next to impossible. What if one of us got a ticket and the other did not? That would not have been fun, so I realized that as much as I would have enjoyed having a friend with me on my adventure,I knew that this had to be a solo mission.

So the next day before I took the kids to school, I tried one last time to see if any tickets had been added to Craigslist. Yes, a couple had been added, but my offers were far too low as the highest offer was already up to $420. I knew I could not compete with those prices, so I accepted that I had to go for the miracle.

I dressed in my comfy jeans along with my light blue Obama T-shirt,the Shepard Fairey version with the word "Progress" across the bottom and I grabbed my black cap with the word "Love" on it because I knew I would have to stand in the sun for a long time. I quickly made a sign that on one side said "Just One Ticket! I need a miracle!" and on the other side it said "Hugs for One ticket!". I grabbed my backpack and tap water in in a cool reusable bottle and off I drove to the Miguel Contreras Learning Center in downtown Los Angeles.

When I arrived at the site, I wondered if there would be any others like myself who had the same idea. Would any other aging Deadheads be looking for an Obama miracle? It appeared that I was the only one which made me glad because I didn't want any competition for that extra ticket.

The area was blocked off with security all around. I followed the sign that read "Ticket Holders" to where people had started to line up. I loved the diversity of the people in the crowd, which I know is typical of any Obama event. I began to walk from one end of the line to the other with my sign.

People looked at me curiously and smiled and chuckled. I knew I looked like a crazy woman but I really did not care- I was determined to fulfill my dream of seeing Barack Obama speak in person, and something inside me told me that an extra ticket would turn up.

For about an hour I walked around with my sign which was fun because you could feel the excitement and the energy of the crowd. I walked past all the media to the corner where a protest was being staged about immigration reform. The crowd was very lively and jubilant. They were supportive of Obama. When I walked by one lady looked at my sign and said in a sisterly fashion "Me too, me too" about wanting a ticket.

All the way down on the opposite corner was another protest staged by teachers in opposition to the budget cuts and the 27,000 pink slips that were given out to educators in California. They chanted "Save our teachers!" Along the way, I saw Obama paintings and some Obama T-shirts caught my eye, but there was no time for me to shop because I was focused on getting my miracle.

Ruben from 90.7 FM KPFK (my absolute favorite news station) interviewed me and for some reason I became a little emotional. He asked me what I wanted to say to Obama. I said that there were so many issues that matter to me, that it was difficult for me to pick one. I said that maybe I would ask him if he really believes there is a military solution in Afghanistan. I would ask him if keeping 60,000 soldiers in Iraq is really ending the war. Since the event was occurring on the 6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, I think that would have been an important topic to discuss. I also said that I would ask Obama what he is going to do to move us to a green sustainable and socially responsible economy. Maybe I would ask him if he would prosecute members of the Bush administration for torture and war crimes, and give the country and the world some closure. But I did not comment on the outrageous AIG bonuses because I had a feeling that is what everyone would be talking about, and meanwhile it has been 6 years since the invasion of Iraq and our soldiers are still dying every day, and if they happen to survive they have other serious wounds both physical and psychological.

After my interview with Ruben, I continued strolling around and at one point a couple of nicely dressed older ladies standing in line called me over and pointed to a man in front of them who was talking on a cell phone, and explained "He has tickets!" They were excited to help me out. I waited until he was off the phone, and he told me that if his friend did not show, I could have his ticket. Hope for me!

As I continued to walk around a lovely young gal named Rachel who had glittery eyes and was wearing a cool hat and funky brown and black striped socks ran up to me and said that if her friend did not show, I could have the extra ticket. She also told me she wanted a hug either way! So of course, we hugged. This was more hope for me. Now 2 people possibly had tickets for me.

However, right after I met sparkly Rachel, the police started to tell me that I had to leave the area where the ticket holders were because it was getting closer to the time when Obama was arriving. Oh no! My hopes were shattered because I would not be able to see Rachel and the cell phone man if I could not be in their area. It appeared that time was running out and my chances were getting slimmer by the second. I was beginning to think that I wouldn't get my miracle afterall.

Right at the moment when I was close to giving up, I looked up and saw a beautiful young lady wearing a USC sweatshirt walking towards me. She saw my sign and calmly said, "Do you need a ticket? I have a ticket for you." I said,"Really? You do?!" And she said "Yes, here you go!" This young lady reminded me of an angel sent from heaven to grant me my wish.

I accepted the ticket and exclaimed "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I felt like Charlie receiving the golden ticket to go inside the chocolate factory. Some people standing nearby who saw what transpired called, "Now you have to give her a hug! Give her a hug!". I threw my arms around her and gave her the hug of my life! In my head, I screamed with joy "I just got a miracle!" I also pondered, who would have thought that going to all of those Grateful Dead shows actually taught me something useful- how to score a tough ticket!!!!

By this time the line had grown exponentially, and practically everyone had seen me walking around with my sign. As my angel Tiffany and I proceeded to walk to the end of the line, I folded up my sign and held up my ticket. The crowd started clapping as I held up my ticket and walked by. Some cheered, "You got one! You got a ticket!" I could feel the tears well up in my eyes as I made my way to the end of the very long line that now snaked around the corner. I felt both elated and relieved that I was holding that golden ticket and would get to see Obama speak in person and thus be a part of history.

So I guess it goes to show that miracles do happen! Stay tuned for Part 2 of my account of the Obama Town Hall Meeting.