As the crowd around him screamed, danced and embraced, one man stood immobile, tears flowing down his trembling cheeks.

‘A black man is the president of the United States. That’s crazy,’ Henry Beals said.

Every TV in Carbondale’s overcrowded Buffalo Wild Wings flashed the news of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s win at 10 p.m. Tuesday, a moment Beals, a senior from Chicago studying sociology, said he thought he’d never see.

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‘People actually got a chance to dream that they can actually do something now,’ Beals said.

Chiquita Watts, president of the Undergraduate Student Government, said Obama’s win would encourage black people to believe what their parents and second-grade teachers told them ‘- they could be anything they wanted to be.

‘I cried today when I voted,’ Watts said. ‘This is definitely a historical moment.’

Obama supporters flooded the streets, filling the Strip and the street in front of’ Brush Towers.

Cars parked in the road with doors open and stereo systems blaring. People jumped on them, waved political signs, sprayed the crowd with alcohol and led chants of ‘Yes we can!’ ‘Obama!’ and ‘Change for all!’ Some shouted expletives about Republican nominee John McCain.

People leaned out of car windows waving Obama signs while drivers honked and flashed their headlights.

Police cars and officers decorated the outskirts of both the group marching the Strip and the ones dancing in the street at the Towers.

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Liz Petre, co-coordinator of Students for Obama, said she and her husband have been campaigning for Obama for two years. Moments after the announcement at BWW, she struggled to find words.

Instead, she cried.

‘That was so cool when everyone started yelling,’ said Petre, a doctoral student from Michigan in speech communication. ‘It’s been so long, I can’t believe it.’

She said Obama’s presidency would initially involve fixing the nation’s troubled economy.

‘We’re in some serious trouble in the U.S.,’ Petre said. ‘If we want to develop our economy to be better in the world, we have to think about globally what this world is going to be in the future.’

Watts said Obama’s youth and fresh outlook would serve him well in the White House, whereas McCain has supported the current administration and was tied to old ideas.

Meredith Stine, the public relations director for the College Republicans, said McCain’s experience brought hope to voters and gave him stronger character than his Democratic opponent.

‘I think right now our country needs someone who has that experience,’ Stine said. ‘There’s always next time. There’s always another election.’

No election will compare to the one that put a black man in the presidency, said Brittany Washington, a freshman from Chicago studying advertising.

She said he promised everything she hopes for, from taxes to abortion rights.

‘All of our dreams are coming true now,’ Washington said.

Brandy Oxford can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 255 or’ [email protected]’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘