Jen Willsea, 40, an antiracism facilitator, was walking to the rally around noon with her husband, Mick Rehrig, a clinical social worker, and their 3-year-old daughter, Frances Willsea-Rehrig. Frances carried a small handmade sign that said: “Donald Trump is mean. Make him go away! All people love each other.”
“I was having a little trouble coming into my feelings of relief and celebration,” said Ms. Wilsea. “I’ve been involved in antiracism work for a long time, and for me this is just one win. We should keep our eyes on the long term.”
Noemi Griffin, 23, a Spanish teacher, and Ashley Meehan, 25, a public health worker, were ecstatic about Mr. Biden’s win, even though Ms. Griffin had supported the candidacy of Bernie Sanders and Ms. Meehan had supported Elizabeth Warren.
Ms. Meehan said she wanted to see serious structural change in the country on the issues of racial justice, the protection of the environment and health care. She was not sure that Mr. Biden, a moderate, could deliver, especially if he ends up facing a Republican controlled Senate. But she was still in a very good mood.
“I don’t expect all these issues to be solved in four years,” she said. “We just needed another driver of this bus to get in it and turn it around.”
The crowd of a few hundred people stood on a grassy hill and watched an exuberant drag performance, and listened to activists talk about the need for better protections for working people, more pandemic relief and the need to turn out again for two runoff races in Georgia that could determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Damian Denson, 43, a behavioral scientist, was in the crowd wearing a Stacey Abrams T-shirt. He had been planning to go for a hike but decided instead to go to the protest to help pressure government officials to conduct a fair and thorough count of the votes. He had been feeling anxious about the race all week. He stopped for coffee when the news came over his phone. “This is it,” he said. “This is the moment.”
Mr. Denson, an African-American who grew up in Georgia, delivered an unsparing assessment of President Trump, using words like “immoral” and “misogynistic” to describe him. “He’s all the things I despise,” he said. “It’s been a challenge these four years, knowing that he’s the leader of America.”
Mr. Denson, who, like nearly everyone at the rally, was in a mask, said it was the largest gathering he’d attended since the pandemic began. He said he wanted “competence” from the White House going forward, and “someone who believes in science.”
“This,” he said, “is a start.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/07/us/election-results/the-trump-team-is-planning-a-news-conference-in-philadelphia-this-morning
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