My Date With History: Inauguration 2009

I am proud to say that I braved the cold with about a million and a half of my fellow Americans and witnessed the peaceful transition of power in the United Stated as Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th president.

I have been out in the cold since 5:45 am, and my fingers are slightly frostbitten making it a bit painful to type these words. I am thoroughly exhausted, and despite the fact that I have been indoors since about 4:30 this afternoon, I can’t seem to get warm. To top it off, when I got back to my car this evening, I found a flat in the right, rear tire. Joy.

I will post my account of my day tomorrow. Until then, I am happy and proud to fall asleep under the watch of the first African American president in history. God is good.

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I wrote this post last night after having stumbled into the house exhausted and with a bit of frostbite on my fingers and toes. I was then too sleepy to post it on my blog, so I crawled into my bed piled on the blankets and drifted off to sleep while watching coverage of the inaugural balls on TV while one of my little ones rubbed my feet. I ended up falling asleep before I could post it, so here it is.

I awakened this morning finally having shaken that freezing cold to the core feeling, but my body still does not feel quite right. My fingers still feel tingly and numb at the same time making it quite challenging to type accurately. I also feel a residual aching in my bones that I am sure will subside eventually.

But most of all, I awakened this morning feeling fantastic about our brand new president. I awakened filled with a realistic hope in his energy and ideas and refreshing brand of leadership. I also awakened with pride–a pride in my country that our new president helped to engender within me. I know that he can’t fix our broken economy on his own nor do I expect him to do so. But I trust that having Barack Obama at the helm will help us to navigate these treacherous waters and come out the other side better people than when we began.

The following is my first-person account of my day as one of the huddled masses on the National Mall watching the 2009 inauguration of Brarck H. Obama as he was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

Leaving Home Pre-Dawn
I left the house at 5:30 in the morning on inauguration day filled with excitement for what the day would hold. I dressed warmly in three layers of clothing, two pairs of socks and insulated leather gloves with thick woolen mittens over top of those. I affixed my Obama button to my wool cap and set out on my way wearing my insulated snow boots to keep my feet warm.

The air was cold so I moved quickly to meet my friend Claire at McPherson Square. As I was leaving, she called me to let me know that she had made it on to one of the Metro trains and that she would meet me at the station soon.

I made it to McPherson Square Metro station quickly, but I did not see her. The station was heated, so I hung around inside waiting to see her appear in the throngs of people coming up out of the subway that morning. I sent a message to twitter filled with my excitement and enthusiasm, and then I sent a text to my daughter to find out where she planned to go to watch. I impatiently paced around eager to get going, but Claire was terribly late. Just as I began debating whether I should press on ahead without her or not, she appeared. She was blushingly apologetic about having been late and making me wait, but the train that she had gotten on initially broke down at the second stop, so all of the passengers on that jam-packed train had to be off-loaded on to the station platform. She then had to try to squeeze on to the next train that arrived.

We walked at a brisk pace down I street to 19th and turned on to Constitution where we got on the mall. It was still pre-dawn and the people we saw ahead appeared as shadowy figures moving around in the dark. It was cold but there was a palpable sense of electrical excitement in the air. Everyone was feeling festive while we all had a common goal–to find the best spot possible to view history in the making.

Finding a Place to Stand

The first jumbo-tron that we saw was north of the monument, and silly me, I suggested that we keep going and see if we couldn’t find a spot at a jumbo-tron within view of the Capitol. I would come to regret this hair-brained idea later. We kept on walking and finally found a spot near the fourth jumbo-tron from the Capitol–which is about at the halfway point on the mall across from the Smithsonian Castle.

We settled in and then Claire made the mistake of telling me that it was 7:15am. Of course that meant that we’d be standing in that spot for the next three hours waiting for things to get started. Slowly, the sun came up and shone quite brightly for awhile, and I had hopes that the temperature would rise above 32 degrees. We chatted up our neighbors a bit and found that the people in front of us who had blankets spread out and had staked out quite a spot were from Illinois. There were people behind us from London, and others from other places in the U.S. all just thrilled to be here in Washington D.C. on such a momentous day. Claire and I chatted and tried to keep moving to keep warm and to relieve the fatigue I was beginning to feel in my feet from standing so long. Then they started to run the ‘We Are One’ concert that was held at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday on the jumbo-tron. We all sang and danced along with the performers on screen. Just as the concert was wrapping up, the live feed from the Capitol began.

Our Witness to History
We all watched and cheered as the procession of dignitaries began and we saw assembled there on the Capitol the entire United States Government in one place, along with celebrities and othe famous folks. We commented on all of the living former presidents as they and their spouses were introduced. Because we were watching the live feed with no media commentary, we were all guessing who some of the people were whose entrance was not being announced by the Seargent At Arms. But when the One–President-elect Barack H. Obama appeared, there began the famous chant from the campaign rallies: “Obama, Obama, Obama!” The crowd chanted his name and you could feel the sweel of pride among us as we saw our hero taking his place on the world stage. The feeling that each and every one of us had helped to put him there made it that much more special.

We watched the inaugural ceremony and cheered as he made his speech. The crowd erupted with cheers when he took his oath of office, and then I felt that it had all been worth it–to get out of my warm bed and stand here in this cold to witness this important moment in person rather than on TV.

Now when the video of this inaugural is played throughout my lifetime I can tell my children and my grandchildren that I was there. I stood there and held space for my grandparents and all of my ancestors who worked, fought, struggled and died so that I could experience this moment. I held the space for my three daughters who are going on before me to carve out lives of their own with there feet on my shoulders and the shoulders of our forebears. But I also stood there for me because Obama’s rise proves that the promise of the American dream is real. This man who was raised by a single mother, had an absent father and none of the priviledges of wealth could rise by sheer hard work, determination and strength of character to the highest office in the land. This to me is an inspiraiton and give me new hope and a re-newed sense of purpose in my life.

Making our Way Back Home
As Elizabeth Alexander, the inaugural poet began to read her poem, Claire and I decided to sneak out whilst the crowd was still watching the jumbo-trons with rapt attention. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones with this idea, and as we tried to squeeze our way through the tightly packed sea of humanity others followed suit. Soon the whol crowd turned from having been standing still in orderly fashion, to a teeming flood of people urgent to get out that area that we suddenly found ourselves boxed into. This tide of human beings flowed down towards 12th Street, but that exit was blocked. We then streamed towards 14th Street and also found that blocked off. We ended up standing there for over 30 minutes until the police finally released the barricades and let us go. We later found out that they were concerned that we would try to go to the parade route, but most folks were trying to get to their buses or to the Metro Stations. While we stood there waiting, we saw several people being treated for hypothermia. By that time we had been out in the sub-freezing temperatures for seven hours. I had not been drinking anything because I did not want to have to use one of the thousands of port-a-potties lined up along the mall. I was hungry and tired and by then both my feet and hands were numb. I just wanted to find someplace warm to sit down and rest my feet and warm my hands.

Claire and I stopped at the International Food Court in the financial district. Our first objective was to use the bathroom, but we had to stand in line for about 15 minutes in order to do so. Then we were somehow able to snag a table in that crowded food court where hundreds of people had descended to get warm, find some food to eat and rest from the morning’s activities. That excited buzz among us was now tempered with sheer exhaustion. I saw some people had put their bags on the table and rested their head on their bags and were fast asleep. We ate our food and then we parted ways. Claire went off to the Metro station and I headed home. As I emerged from the warmth of the food court back out into the cold and wind, I knew that I suffered from exposure because I could feel that the cold had settled into my bones. My fingers and feet were throbbing in pain and my head felt a bit light. despite it all I was thrilled to have been there, and I would do it all over again.

Daily Musings