Journey through the nomination & inauguration of Barack Obama

In the spring of 2007 my husband, Darryel, brought Barack Obama to my attention. He was interested in his ideals and refreshed by his ideas. He purchased the book “The Audacity of Hope,” read it and encouraged me to read it. I started to read it, but, in all honesty, once I got to page three and read about the media consultant dismissing him because of his name I thought “yeah, I understand that … too bad buddy” and I didn’t read too much further.

I mean really, here’s a country affixed on killing a person named Osama bin Laden, … there’s no way this Country is going to embrace someone named Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States. C’mon are you kidding?

Summer of 2007 turned into Fall … and still Darryel was fixed on Barack Obama … and he got me to listen. Against all odds Mr. Obama continued to make headway. His drive and ideas began to excite me … his burning passion to give the United States of America back to the people … now that was an idea! I often wondered, “Is this guy for real?” But the more he stayed ‘on message,’ the more he stayed true to the course and didn’t change his mission statement at the slightest change of the tide … the more hopeful and excited I became.

But seriously, is there any way that a man with such lofty ideas, a less than desirable name and less than 3 years experience as a senator, can beat a Clinton?

Fast forward to January 3, 2008 … OMG, OMG, OMG … how did that happen?? The Iowa caucuses – did Barack Obama really win?

I don’t know about you – but for me, the men and women responsible for beating the pavement in Iowa deserve a lions share of the credit for ‘President’ Obama. Hands down!! It was the shock, the jolt that America needed to really open its eyes to the possibilities. It was the action that had us all believing ‘Yes, we can!’

By the time February 12, 2008 rolled around, the time for the Virginia primaries – I swaggered into the voting both with such an heir of confidence about me … it was almost comical. The long battle was over when Obama became the presumptive nominee for the Democratic presidential nomination on June 3, 2008
On the evening of November 4, 2008 Darryel and I stayed at home and tuned to CNN … until I just couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to be with people… I could be watching a significant day in our Nation’s history and I wanted to soak up the energy. We went to Crystal City Sports Pub where there were lots of TV’s and a good amount of Obama fans. As I watched Barack Obama win Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Florida (Tim Russert’s ‘Florida, Florida, Florida’ will forever ring in my head) … and then win the election. … I shouted, I smiled and I cried. I said to Darryel that night that I was in such awe … of us, of our Country, of what we had accomplished. …and I said “Baby, you’re taking 1-20-09 off and we’re going to this inauguration!” Wow, I didn’t know at the time how many other people had the same idea.

I live less than 6 miles from Washington DC but sometime around January 1 I got scared off from going to the inauguration of our 44th president. Every radio station, TV station and website was my ‘Inauguration Station.’ Crowds were forecasted from 1 million to 4 million people. I started to wonder if we’d be able to walk to DC, bike ride in, Metro in … would we even be able to get into DC? Maybe we should just relax and sit on the sidelines and watch the day’s events at home.

On Friday, January 16 I was still indecisive about going into DC to watch the inauguration. At some point in the morning a thought hit me that made the decision an easy one.

On 9/11 I lived in NY on Long Island. The day was a roller coaster ride to say the least … the most emotional day I have lived. Many of my friends worked in NYC, one of them died and all of them have a significant story to tell. Yet, despite all the craziness, the fear, the 10 hours waiting for her husband to come home from NYC and the emotional homecoming when he finally did … I remember my friend Stacey telling me that she would make sure to get the newspaper in the morning because this is history. Stacey has two young children and wanted to make sure she preserved this bit of history so that, when they got older, they could read about 9/11 from the same newspapers as she had.

On Friday January 16th I thought about Stacey … and about how she would probably pick up the newspaper on January 20th … and save yet another piece of history for her children. And then I thought about how incredibly ridiculous it would be for me to stay home because the crowds might be ‘too much.’ How silly am I to sit on the sidelines of history when I could be living it?

On Sunday January 18th I worked at my store and watched the concert from the Lincoln Memorial streaming live on my computer … and I scolded myself for not taking the day off to go and watch it. The excitement in DC was mounting and I wanted to be a part of it! On Sunday night I asked Darryel if we could get up bright and early to head into DC and be a part of MLK’s Day of Service. Other than wishing I’d given him a little more notice he was a great sport about it …and off we went! We spent the morning at RFK stadium assembling packages for our soldiers serving overseas. There were thousands of volunteers and every single one of them was smiling! We met people from all over the country who had come to witness the inauguration. The energy was amazing, it crackled in the air …it was a wonderful mixture of excitement and pure joy. There were some celebrity sightings and Michelle Obama even made an appearance – too bad it was about a half hour after our shift had finished! Later that evening I heard from someone that wouldn’t be able to attend the inauguration and had two tickets that were ‘way in the back’ but did I want them? Sure … I knew I was going to be watching far from the Capitol but at least this way I wasn’t two miles away.

On Inauguration Day Darryel and I got to the Metro platform somewhere around 8am (I thought the people that got there at 4am were nuts … but in hindsight they were the smart ones). The trains were PACKED. I have never seen so many people crammed into a train car like that. It quickly became apparent that if we were going to be able to get on a train we’d have to ride away from DC and get on at a station where the trains were less crowded. When all was said and done it didn’t take us too long to get into DC but they had closed the train station where we were supposed to get off at due to overcrowding so we exited on the opposite side of the Mall. Darryel and I surfaced at China Town (or as I fondly refer to it, China Block) and began the journey of getting ourselves back to the south side of the Mall where our ‘Silver Gate’ entry point was. Surprisingly the police officers were fairly well informed. Although they said the game plan was changing by the minute they managed to point us in the right direction. Along the way people were singing, cheering, smiling, laughing and just generally happy. Everyone was fairly polite; everyone was on their private mission and trying to find their own little slice of history on the Mall. Entrances were blocked, people weren’t sure where to go – yet despite the disorganization most people took it all in stride. We were all there for a common purpose and, in the spirit of Obama, I didn’t hear anyone shouting or being angry or disrespectful. This was the journey! This is why I was there! And I soaked up every single bit of it!

It took us about 30 minutes or so to get to the ‘Silver Gate.’ I could see the gate right in front of me, it was only about 50 feet away … and there were 5000 other people next to me looking at it too! As we waited patiently for our turn to go through security we had fun hanging out in the crowd. Everyone chatted and joked, we were all in a common dilemma of ‘what is going on, why isn’t the line moving?’ We had ‘sign boy’ and ‘rescue man’ to keep us busy and informed. For almost two hours we stood there, pretty much in the same place… oh so close, and yet so far!!
At about 11:15 I looked at Darryel and said “We’re getting to the point of no return.” We hadn’t moved and if we didn’t bail out soon and either go further back on the Mall to a Jumbotron or hit a TV somewhere we were going to miss the historic moment all together. No one was giving us any information … finally someone climbed a tree and said it didn’t look like they were letting anyone through security. We decided to bail! We were standing 2 blocks from L’Enfant Metro station…and about 10 blocks from where we’d be able to see a Jumbotron. We jumped on the Metro, crossed over back into Virginia and watch the swearing in with about 100 people at Joe Theisman’s restaurant while having a superb lunch!

As Obama was being sworn in I looked over at my husband and he had tears in his eyes. After lunch we strolled around town and enjoyed the cold winter air. When we got home we ordered in Chinese food and got toasty under the covers to watch the parade and coverage of the balls.

It was a spectacular day, a spectacular few days, to be a part of. I have to admit that I was a little melancholy on January 21st and wished I could to it all over again! (only this time I’d go to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial and get into DC on inauguration day a wee bit earlier)

And now the work begins! In the face of adversity America has always been able to emerge victorious. Our challenges today are big ones, but I have no doubt that my fellow Americans are up to the task and what a terrific President we have to lead the way!