Today, I watched, with a few hundred other students packed into that room. I watched as history was made. We got loud when Vice-President Biden was sworn in, and we jumped to our feet and got even louder as President Obama was sworn in as well. And it felt like, once I had returned from class to the huge crowd in something over at least 100 that had gathered only half an hour after I left what was a nearly empty room, that the whole world was watching and cheering along with us.
I don’t know what it was — the electrical excitement in the room, the fact that I was witnessing something I had helped to bring about by voting, the fact the everyone around me was expressing such raw emotion over this — but it just seemed magical in a strange way. Call me childish, but being in that room with all of my fellow students, jumping and screaming and cheering for Obama, made it feel like I was at DC, at the Inauguration, being a part of it all too.
In the span of two hours, I watched history being made. Martin Luther King Jr. must have been smiling down at us. It was fitting that the swearing in of our first African-American president was the day after we remembered MLK’s legacy.
And the whole time I was thinking to myself: I voted and helped bring him to this day. And now, Obama will help us get back on our feet as a nation and move forward.
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I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:40 am
[...] Baker writes: I don’t know what it was — the electrical excitement in the room, the fact that I was [...]
That brought tears to my eyes… For the 1st time in my life of 52+ years, I cried when I heard that….
I hope everyone in DC hears it and remembers… “for the people, by the people…”