All Fired Up About the Outcome

After eggs and biscuits, a philosophical salon affectionately known as the M Street Club comes into session. This is where a crew of D.C. firefighters figures out the world, hanging out in front of an engine, the firehouse door open, a warm day.

"Just the fact of having a black president, it gives black kids one more job possibility when they grow up," says John Ford III, 23, wearing dreads.

"There is hope that when you tell your child he can grow up to be anything he wants, it won't be a lie," says Raymond Brown, 25, who was thinking of his toddler son when he cast his ballot for Barack Obama.

"I'm moving to Canada," jokes James Busi, 34. His white head is shaved beneath his D.C. Fire Department ball cap. He voted for John McCain.

Seriously, Busi says, what difference does Obama's race make for workingmen like them? "Being so far down in the food chain, nothing's really going to be different overall. Whether there's a black president or a white president, we still come to work in the morning, cook breakfast, sweep the floor, wash the firetrucks, look out for the citizens."

"I concur," Ford says. But he insists Obama's race matters in the realm of inspiration and possibility.

"I voted Republican, so I'm not too inspired," Busi says.

"Come back in one year, I'll be laughing," says John Culver, 34, another white guy who shaves his head. "You Democrats all can't see through the smoke."

Two black guys, two white guys. Two ecstatic over Obama's triumph, two not so much. Can the M Street Club members move on together after the election? Can America do the same?

The club is what these guys (no women evident today) call their home away from home at the West End firehouse, on M at the corner of 23rd Street NW, also known as Engine Co. 1/Truck Co. 2. They work 24 hours, 7 a.m. to 7 a.m., then get three days off. Busi is one of the self-appointed cooks. They take turns sleeping upstairs and slide down the four shiny brass poles when calls come in.

A shift has 14 firefighters, and they commute from as far away as that swing state Pennsylvania. Culver lives in Hagerstown, Busi in Fort Washington; Ford and Brown were born and raised in Washington and still live in the city. They are white and black, Republican and Democrat, hard left, hard right and straight down the middle.

They talk smack about politics, life. This is between calls.