January 20, 2009 :: The Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States

“We are not a blue America or a red America…we are the United States of America.”

It was the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and it was then that I fell in love with a Senator from Illinois. Okay, “fell in love” might be an exaggeration, but I totally added ‘Barack Obama’ to my interests on Facebook. I then spent the next three years anxiously awaiting the Presidential election, never doubting the possibility that Obama’s name would be on the ballot.

Election ‘year’ arrived and I immersed myself in the piece of Iowa I take the most pride in- the run up to the nation’s first caucus. I met Barack Obama, volunteered at his ‘town hall meetings’, caucused for him, watched the Yes We Can music video a thousand times and proudly checked his name at the ballot box. The “possibility” ended November 4, and that evening I celebrated the future of this new Presidency and the fact that I, as a participant at ASP, would be able to witness this new beginning firsthand.

We’d only been in DC for two days, but it wasn’t difficult to find the action; one must simply get dragged by the crowds of people. The pre-Inaugural concert Sunday evening was my first exposure to the poignancy of this event. We joined tens of thousands of people in front of the Washington Monument to catch a glimpse of Bono, Garth Brooks, Usher and Beyonce [yes, please] on the jumbotrons set up nearly a mile away from the real action on the Lincoln Memorial. We sang, cheered and embraced the moment with our cold hands and violated personal spaces; genuine joy drowning out the chaos.

January 20^th arrived and we followed the same pattern as before, waking up at 6:30, hoping to find a place to stand on the Mall. Twenty blocks of sidewalk to sidewalk people, security checks and long lines left us frozen and without a view. A bit disappointed, Sarah and I ventured on to claim our seats in what we considered to be a VIP area of the parade route. Finding it necessary to take shelter from the 10 degree weather during our four-hour wait, we gathered with another crowd of people in a corner souvenir shop. We stood, eyes on the one TV, to watch the ceremony unfolding a few blocks from us. We applauded with each introduction, fawned over Sasha and Malia, joined in the Obama! Obama! chant, prayed in unison the Lord’s Prayer and giggled at the flubbing of the oath. Through my tears [I was a mess], I looked around at all of these people, strangers yet friends, black, white, Hispanic and Asian, young and old, from the North, South, East and West, and thought, dang, I am freaking happy. I am freaking happy to finally feel the meaning of unity and hope, to see such an impossibility come full circle and to be a witness of such history.

The ceremony ended and we all looked at each other in silence. Our faces said it all: Yes we did, America. Yes, we did.