Planning for the big day the night before - and modeling the special ware.
5:00 a.m.:
Getting ready to head out, and on to the Metro.
The Mall before sunrise, testing the 'jumbotrons'.
It was cooooldddd!!!!
23 degrees at 7:00 a.m.
Our group
The walk back to the Metro, with 1.5 million other happy people.
PARTY TIME!...Our own 'ball' at Galaxy Billiards
It was tough to say 'good bye', so instead we committed to do it again in 4 years!
REFLEXION
What an incredible view it was! To be in front of the Washington Monument, looking towards the Capital during President Obama's Inauguration was truly a special personal, family, and community experience.
Our local community organization (IMPACT Silver Spring) was honored to host 15 staff and volunteers from the Lawrence Community Works (a NeighborWorks Organization) for this momentous event. To see the event through their eyes was simply beautiful. The three Latinas that stayed at our house were jubilant beyond words. None had ever come to Washington, DC. And all were simply ecstatic to be here for the day.
We got the buzz going the night before the Inauguration when we had dinner at the house of one of our volunteer board members. The tears started rolling when we went 'around the room' and asked folks "why are we here"? The responses were too emotional to hold back the tears: "I can now believe it myself when I tell my son and daughter 'you can be anything you want'"; "This is the reason I came to America"; "As a first time voter, it is awesome to see my friends - all under 25 years old - be so totally into it"; "My grandson will see this day in the history books and I want to make sure he knows I was there"... And my favorite - from a bumper sticker: "I am here because as of today 'HOPE > FEAR' (hope is greater than fear)".
Then came the tough decision: How early should we go down to the Mall? The young people decided they'd go in the first Metro train, thus getting down there early enough to stake out our location in front of the Washington Monument. They assumed the others could follow much later. Ha! - not a chance!... EVERYBODY wanted to head down early. Our three guests - or rather, our new friends - told my wife and I: "not a minute later than 5 a.m.!"... And, when we got down to Mall well before sunrise, they were not satisfied with the view from the Washington Monument: They ran - literally! - all the way down to get as close to the Capital as possible. (The rest of us opted to stay put, however, at the foot of the Washington Monument - a major transcendental spot for the moment, to say the least.)
We passed the time by playing a bit of football (before the crowd got so big it became impossible), and chanting - en Español - a chant the folks from Lawrence brought to us: "O-B-A-M-A Obama ya ganó"... We were so loud that one of the news stations picked it up!
Given the impossibility of keeping a group of 25 people together, we had arranged to meet in the afternoon at a local office space before taking the Metro back home. (And, boy-o-boy, did that hot chocolate and heated space feel good!)
Later in the evening, we had our own version of a "Ball" at the local pool hall in Downtown Silver Spring, where the monitors usually reserved for watching Redskins games were all tuned to the different news channel... So, we danced the night away with our friends from Lawrence while commenting on all the beautiful people and enjoying the visuals from all the other "Balls".
When it was time to say 'good-bye' this morning, it was not easy... But, amongst the hugs and the tears we simply resolved to "do it again in four years."
Reemberto Rodriguez
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House, Washington, DC
On the occasion of your inauguration as the forty-fourth President of the United States of America I offer cordial good wishes, together with the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you unfailing wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high responsibilities. Under your leadership may the American people continue to find in their impressive religious and political heritage the spiritual values and ethical principles needed to cooperate in the building of a truly just and free society, marked by respect for the dignity, equality and rights of each of its members, especially the poor, the outcast and those who have no voice. At a time when so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world yearn for liberation from the scourge of poverty, hunger and violence, I pray that you will be confirmed in your resolve to promote understanding, cooperation and peace among the nations, so that all may share in the banquet of life which God wills to set for the whole human family (cf. Isaiah 25: 6-7). Upon you and your family, and upon all the American people, I willingly invoke the Lord's blessings of joy and peace.
Pope Benedict XVI
MINI MOVIE MOMENTS
NOTE: If you want to understand why I am so elated about this Inauguration, you may want to see my story from our last Inauguration (January 2005) HERE
