News - Local/State - Andrew Dys

Saturday, Nov. 08, 2008

Race wasn't a factor for these local college-age voters

At York Technical College lunch tables this week, the people who forever changed the world with their first-time vote talked about the election of Barack Obama.

These younger people, who backed him so overwhelmingly here and everywhere, are both Republicans and Democrats.

Brian Gifford, 20, stated, "I am a Republican."

Then he said in the next breath he voted for Obama.

Daniel Sajbel, 19, stated, "I am a Democrat."

He, too, voted for Obama.

"My parents are Republicans, hard-core," Sajbel said. "I haven't talked about it at home."

And 18-year-old Samantha Stuart voted for Obama.

"My grandfather is ..." What she said cannot be printed in a family newspaper. Her grandfather is upset, is the translation.

Dan Tran, 20, son of "big-time Republicans," and no liberal, said: "I voted for Obama, made a decision right at the end. I thought about it and decided. His race made no difference at all."

All these young people voted for Obama. Not because they are young and liberal -- like these clowns in the national press think about college kids -- but because each said the future mattered, and Obama was the one to carry all of us there. They only brought race up when I did.

Jocilyn Kohler, 18, voted for Obama but almost didn't. She was scared Obama would be hurt by someone who sure does have problems with race.

"I was so nervous. There are so many people who might want to hurt Obama that I didn't want to help put him in a situation where it could happen," Kohler said.

Gifford, the 20-year-old Republican who knew all the election issues from health care to taxes to the economy and bank bailouts, said exclusion by race isn't allowed at their lunch table. It isn't allowed in their lives.

"Race has nothing to do with politics," Gifford said. "I want the man who will get the job done."

Around the table, time and again, the words "best man" rang out.

"It might be a cliché, but I look past race," Sajbel said. "People are people."

Other than Tran, who is Asian, the whole table was white.

And then I realized if it wasn't for people like these at this table, the young, we wouldn't be having this conversation about the new black president. So many people of all colors had to vote for Obama for him to win.

Voters younger than 30 are traditionally the least likely age group to vote. Yet one exit poll after Tuesday's election found a jump in young voter participation from a little more than 40 percent in 2000 to more than 50 percent Tuesday. Obama took voters younger than 30 better than 2 to 1.

Sure seems like that rang true at area colleges.

At another table sat four black students. Tyisha McCullough, 19; De'Adrea Evans, 20; Kayda Crawford, 20; and Shannon Clark, 21. All voted for Obama. All talked of the pride in having a president who looked like them. Yet both Crawford and Clark voted for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Talk of race only came up when it was asked of them.

"I voted for my future," Crawford said. "And the future of every person in this country. I want who is best. Isn't that what we all want?"

"I voted for Obama because I respect his views," Clark said.

All four said this presidential race excited them, got them involved.

At Winthrop University, 19-year-old student Mike Kozlowski said he knew before the election that most of the students he knew were going to vote for Obama. There were impromptu celebrations around the campus when Obama won.

At Clinton Junior College, more of the same. Celebrations about the future, and excitement about the first president who looks like the students at Clinton, a historically black college.

But not just excitement for blacks, said Antwan Garfield, 23.

"We were raised that race isn't the way to judge people," Garfield said. "I have been happy, excited, since I found out Obama won. But the whole country is excited."

A 19-year-old student at Clinton, Jordan McBride, said Obama's election means for him, anything is possible. But not just for him.

"He's the American president," McBride said. "I'm proud, but I don't think of his race. Obama is about the future. That future belongs to everybody my age."

The young, the future of you and the future of me, aren't their parents or grandparents. They respect the people who came before them, but they think for themselves.

So many want the future to be Obama -- and they want Obama to be the president, not the black president.