Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Being There When History is Made

I only have a few minutes so this will be a very brief description of what was an absolutely unbelievable event. The first time I saw Obama there were about 6 people and 15 feet between where I stood and where he stood. This time there was at least a million people and a mile and a half between where he stood and where I did. Guess his popularity has grown a bit.

I'm really not even sure where to begin with this. It was incredible but the most lasting impression was the attitude of the crowd itself. At one point tension was high where we were as we got stuck just off the side of the mall unable to move while the ceremony was just kicking off. Everyone wanted to move, to get to where they could see something, anything, but none of us could move. We had to hop over a barrier (again) and once again a few men stood there helping older women and children over, complete strangers with a common bond. I saw a person drop a scarf, and the stranger behind them picked it up and handed it to her, later I reached down to pick up a glove someone had just dropped when someone grabbed it up faster than I could and gave it to the owner. It was these small gestures that impressed me, it was the man from Ohio who we rode on the subway with. He and his family were also heading to the Smithsonian museums on the day before the big day. People were just happy, their really was a profound sense of hope running through the crowd. My only fear is that we are resting the hopes and dreams of an entire nation on the shoulders of one man, and while I am convinced that he is a great man, that is more burden than one human should be asked to bear, even if he did ask to bear it. He has told the truth that we will all have to make sacrifices, these are the times that try men's souls, we all support him now, I hope we can continue to do what needs to be done when things are at their bleakest.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought I saw you there on TV. You're definitely right, we all have our jobs cut out for us. This is the first time in my life where, if the president asked me to do something, I'd actually try to do it.