From the moment I received this assignment to cover the inauguration for the Monadnock Ledger I felt a bittersweet sense of relief and a kind of sadness. Over the past two years I’ve traveled from New Hampshire to Iowa back and forth for the primary and then to the national conventions as a reporter covering them for the Franklin Pierce University Mass Communication Department.
While in DC I was highly impressed by the crowds; they were singing and dancing in the street at five o’clock in the morning in 20 to 30 degree weather. There was a kind of energy in the city that I have never experienced before. To put the size of the gathering into perspective, the crowd numbered more than the entire population of The Granite State.
It was sad to see the heckling of the Bush administration and the laughing that went on when former vice president Dick Chaney was rolled out onto the platform in a wheel chair. From a day focused on the message of unity and change I had higher expectations of the crowd who had so much to celebrate.
The opening prayer by Rick Warren turned out to be inspirational and not controversial contrary to expectations. While some were protesting during Pastor Warren’s prayer, I observed an overwhelming sense of unity throughout the assembly; it brought all 2 million people together. As the prayer went on the protesting signs went down. The musicians, though I later found out they were pre-recorded, were moving as they played their rendition of “simple gifts.”
President Obama’s inaugural address felt more like a stump speech, yet you could not help but feel the overwhelming sense of pride the crowd had in their new president and in who they where as Americans.
The ceremony was not as impressive when compared to the number of Americans from diverse backgrounds brought together in the District of Columbia for the event. As I moved about the crowds I thought back to how it might have been in 1965. You would not have had the integrated crowds huddled on the buses and trains through out the city. It would have been unheard of. It was a particularly emotional moment for me when an 80 yr old black woman pointed this out to me, as we sat together in the front of a DC Metro bus.
I agree with Lindsey Graham, republican senator of South Carolina, who, when asked how he thought the day was replied by saying “If you aren’t proud of your country today there is something wrong with you.”
I am writing this knowing it is one week and a few days later then it should have been had I rushed it. I could have written this in an hour, but this moment in the history of our country took four hundred years for it to happen, and several days for me to digest what it all means. The main message I take away from this historic event is that the time for change has come. Now we must throw off the chains of victim-hood that have kept us apart and answer the country’s demand for hope; pushing back the political dividers and remembering it was not a political party that won the election, it was its message.
While in DC I was highly impressed by the crowds; they were singing and dancing in the street at five o’clock in the morning in 20 to 30 degree weather. There was a kind of energy in the city that I have never experienced before. To put the size of the gathering into perspective, the crowd numbered more than the entire population of The Granite State.
It was sad to see the heckling of the Bush administration and the laughing that went on when former vice president Dick Chaney was rolled out onto the platform in a wheel chair. From a day focused on the message of unity and change I had higher expectations of the crowd who had so much to celebrate.
The opening prayer by Rick Warren turned out to be inspirational and not controversial contrary to expectations. While some were protesting during Pastor Warren’s prayer, I observed an overwhelming sense of unity throughout the assembly; it brought all 2 million people together. As the prayer went on the protesting signs went down. The musicians, though I later found out they were pre-recorded, were moving as they played their rendition of “simple gifts.”
President Obama’s inaugural address felt more like a stump speech, yet you could not help but feel the overwhelming sense of pride the crowd had in their new president and in who they where as Americans.
The ceremony was not as impressive when compared to the number of Americans from diverse backgrounds brought together in the District of Columbia for the event. As I moved about the crowds I thought back to how it might have been in 1965. You would not have had the integrated crowds huddled on the buses and trains through out the city. It would have been unheard of. It was a particularly emotional moment for me when an 80 yr old black woman pointed this out to me, as we sat together in the front of a DC Metro bus.
I agree with Lindsey Graham, republican senator of South Carolina, who, when asked how he thought the day was replied by saying “If you aren’t proud of your country today there is something wrong with you.”
I am writing this knowing it is one week and a few days later then it should have been had I rushed it. I could have written this in an hour, but this moment in the history of our country took four hundred years for it to happen, and several days for me to digest what it all means. The main message I take away from this historic event is that the time for change has come. Now we must throw off the chains of victim-hood that have kept us apart and answer the country’s demand for hope; pushing back the political dividers and remembering it was not a political party that won the election, it was its message.
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