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A view of history 10 football fields away
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The one thing that stands
out in my mind about
inauguration weekend is
the numbers. We spent 12
hours traveling from
Georgia to the National
Mall, four hours standing
in 27-degree weather, and
three hours walking back
to our car, all to witness a
speech that, in its entirety,
was less than 30 minutes.
And I use the term “wit
ness” loosely. My friends
and I watched the speech
from 10 Sanford Stadiums
away, huddling together to
keep warm while standing
on our toes to get a clear
view of the giant TV
screens dotting the Mall.
Despite everything my
friends Aaron, Sarah and I
had to put up with, the
trip was definitely worth
while. As every paper and
news program has been
saying for months, times
are worse than they have
been since the Depression.
We hoped President
Obama’s speech would
prove to be on par with
former President Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s “We have
nothing to fear but fear
itself” speech, sparking
our last-minute decision to
pile in to Aaron’s tiny car
and torture ourselves for
two days.
Though the new presi
dent did not utter any new
great American one-liners,
the three of us could not
help but get swept up with
the crowd of roughly 1.5
million people, cheering
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CHELSEA COOK | The Red a Black
A Onlookers cheer during President Barack Obama’s inaugural address Tuesday afternoon.
COOK: We believed it was gonna happen’
>• From Page 1
just because of him. Even
though we elected Obama,
we have to do the work.”
There is something
about it all that just makes
people want to cry. It’s a
terribly difficult feeling to
identify and even harder to
put into words.
Dorothy Boyd, 72, and
her husband, Samuel C.
Boyd, 74, have been wait
ing for this for a long time.
“Being black, this is a
turning point in our lives,
we prayed that this one
day would happen, and we
believed it was gonna hap
pen, we just didn’t know
when,” she said. The cou
ple drove 23 hours from
Galveston, Texas, and
made plans even before
Obama won.
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our voices away as he laid
out the goals of his admin
istration.
As the speech went on,
I was drawn in by Obama’s
willingness to extend a
hand to countries our gov
ernment does not agree
with, so long as those
countries are willing to
meet us halfway. Sarah
was inspired by his call for
us to take baby steps to fix
the economy.
Even Aaron, a not-so
fervent Obama supporter,
was pleased when the
president boldly put the
blame of our economic
woes on a greedy few, call
ing on the productive
many to pull the economy
back up.
The speech seemed to
touch everyone crammed
onto that field. There
were few complaints about
the unbelievably awful foot
traffic, which I’m pretty
sure is still going on, that
began as soon as Obama
stopped speaking and
Elizabeth Alexander start
ed to read her poem.
I feel bad for that
woman. It must have been
disheartening to walk up
to the podium, ready to
share the art you have
worked on for months,
only to see 1.5 million peo
ple turn their heads and
walk away, eager to get out
of the cold since the main
event was over.
Even though we had to
get on the bad side of our
teachers and bosses by
skipping a few days of
Mateo Hinojosa, 26, who
is from Austin, Texas, but
has been living in Buenos
Aires, came to the inaugu
ration with other alterna
tive energy enthusiasts.
The group donned hats
with patriotic pin wheels
and “winds of change” on
their foreheads.
“There’s an oblique ref
erence to green energy,”
Hinojosa said. “But it
means that there’s a fresh
breeze of change coming
to our country, of hope. I
voted absentee, and I real
ly wanted to be here to
experience the collective
renewal and joy that this
inauguration is bringing.
The last time that we
experienced it all as a
nation together in this
kind of way was 9/11. It’s
pretty inspiring to see it.”
INAUGURATION
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CAREY O’NEIL | The Red a Black
▲ Frigid temperatures didn’t deter millions from viewing the inauguration even from far away.
class and work, not to
mention exhausting our
selves by driving for more
than 20 hours on nothing
but Starbucks and a few
Tuesday’s crowds the
estimated 2 million people
to trample the grass
between the Capitol and
the Washington Monument
held this heavy force of
community and cause.
“This is about all of us,
this is about the whole
universe. It’s enlightening
everyone’s heart and mind
today,” Boyd said. “There’s
been so much love
between the crowd of peo
ple we’ve met.”
The sense of community
even crossed party lines.
Lucy Partain, a 21-year
old University of Virginia
student from Dalton, Ga.
voted for McCain, but
ordered her inauguration
tickets before the results.
“Today, when we were
standing in line at the
Rabun House Office
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hours of sleep, the three of
us found very little to com
plain about. Details aside,
we were able to witness
history. The next four
Building to get our tickets,
there were women behind
us talking about how they
knew people who didn’t
work on the campaign and
they didn’t think the
should get tickets;”
Partain said. “And ... I was
thinking that I didn’t even
vote for Barack Obama,
and I’m getting tickets.
But... lam an American
citizen, I am a voter and I
think that I have just as
much of a right to be here
as anyone.”
For some, it was just a
simple calling.
“God let us live to see
this part of our lives,”
Boyd said. “This is why we
had to come.”
Chelsea Cook is the
managing editor at The
Red & Black.
The Red & Black [ Wednesday, January 21, 2009
years will show if this was
the beginning of some
thing great or the start of
a disaster.
Either way, we’ll be
CHARLES-R YAN BARBER j The Red * Black
A Eleanor Garrett, a freshman broadcast jour
nalism major, looks on from her front row
seat in the Tate theatre during its showing of
the inauguration ceremony Tuesday afternoon.
FESTIVITIES: Obama’s
demeanor, speech
lauded by Univ. crowd
► From Page 1
“I have full confidence in Barack [Obama],” Johnson
said. “I can’t wait to see his changes.”
Another student recalled Obama’s demeanor and
oratory skills.
“He carries himself in a way that doesn’t place him
above the people —but in front of them,” said Ryan
Michaels, a junior from Athens.
Michaels said his concerns lie within the solutions
for the nation’s economic woes.
“I think [Obama] is really focused on the economy,
which is a good thing since it is the biggest problem we
have facing us,” he said.
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able to say we were there
for the start.
Carey O’Neil is a news
writer for The Red & Black.
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