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-Jon
Monday, March 26, 2012
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
January 20, 2009.
November 4, 2008 was not a good day for me.
It was such a monumental event for history and equality in the United States, but I wanted John McCain to win control of our nation at war and flailing economy, not Barack Obama, the rookie out of Illinois.
After reading both of their platforms, I believed that McCain would be the surest bet to lead our country out of a state of turmoil with his prior leadership experience in the military.
But McCain never got that opportunity, so I shifted my focus to the new face of our nation.
The day before Obama was to be inaugurated as our 44th president, I met up with a group of Boy Scout volunteers at a buddy’s house and we were dropped off at the Vienna Metro station in Oakton.
We were heading to a vacated office building in a secured part of the District of Columbia, in which we were to sleep and prepare to assist with “crowd control” in the ceremony.
We woke up and left our refuge at 4:39 a.m, hoping to arrive at our destination, the Washington Monument, an easy 11 blocks away, in 21 minutes.
Our deadline fast approached and we arrived just outside the flags surrounding the monument on time. We met up with our supervisor for the day and he gave us our instructions for the morning task: greet people as they collectively and calmly herd into the National Mall for the ceremony and answer any questions they have about bathrooms, food or first aid.
By the time 9:30 rolled around and about a hundred thousand high-fives later, “the rookie out of Illinois” showed me something nearly 18 years of living had not.
The only thing that ever came close to what I saw that morning happened on Sept. 11, 2001. As I sat watching the coverage of the tragedy that shook our nation, I thought about why someone would do something like that and how our country would unite and react.
I went to church that evening with my mother, and I sat holding hands with various members of my congregation I didn’t know.
I saw a collective crying and grieving over what had happened as I observed quietly from my pew in the back center of the sanctuary, unity I had never before witnessed in my 10 years of innocent living.
Back on the mall, I high-fived women and men, blacks and whites, young people and old people and those in between, Asians and Europeans and Middle Easterners and Indians, Jews and Christians, people with various accents, gays, a women in a wheel chair who I instead had to pat on the back because she couldn’t move her arms, and a 95-year-old woman from Georgia who traveled just to witness the history of Obama’s inauguration.
What they all had in common, what united them, was the joy and love they showered upon me and their overall pure happiness of just being in D.C. for a single day for a single man.
If the election of Obama could unify this many vastly different people this fast, I pondered what was in store for our wonderful nation these next four years before the next inauguration, and that overwhelmed me with respect I never before had for the basketball-loving family man.
For the latter part of my volunteer time I was responsible for distributing some hundreds of thousands of American flags to the crowd.
I had already given away hundreds of flags when Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John G. Roberts’ voice thundered on the JumboTron near me and I stopped to pay attention.
After Obama finished his oath, I noticed a black woman behind me to my left, and as I started to hand her a flag, she told me she had been at Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech and started to compare the two equally vital events of American history in her eyes.
She asked me what I thought of Obama up there, motioning to the Capitol at our right, being our first African-American president. Words could not and did not come to my mouth, and I remained speechless for a good four or five seconds when she said it was absolutely wonderful, and I concurred. Our brief yet marvelous conversation caused tears to come the closest to my eyes without gushing out for as long as I have been alive.
I did not get the woman’s name, and we most likely will never be reunited, but our meeting and my volunteer work this day will remain with me forever.
What also will remain with me forever is the inspiring cheerfulness and celebration I felt the entire day, millions of people united around one man and one country.
Who knew a rookie could have such amazing game?
It was such a monumental event for history and equality in the United States, but I wanted John McCain to win control of our nation at war and flailing economy, not Barack Obama, the rookie out of Illinois.
After reading both of their platforms, I believed that McCain would be the surest bet to lead our country out of a state of turmoil with his prior leadership experience in the military.
But McCain never got that opportunity, so I shifted my focus to the new face of our nation.
The day before Obama was to be inaugurated as our 44th president, I met up with a group of Boy Scout volunteers at a buddy’s house and we were dropped off at the Vienna Metro station in Oakton.
We were heading to a vacated office building in a secured part of the District of Columbia, in which we were to sleep and prepare to assist with “crowd control” in the ceremony.
We woke up and left our refuge at 4:39 a.m, hoping to arrive at our destination, the Washington Monument, an easy 11 blocks away, in 21 minutes.
Our deadline fast approached and we arrived just outside the flags surrounding the monument on time. We met up with our supervisor for the day and he gave us our instructions for the morning task: greet people as they collectively and calmly herd into the National Mall for the ceremony and answer any questions they have about bathrooms, food or first aid.
By the time 9:30 rolled around and about a hundred thousand high-fives later, “the rookie out of Illinois” showed me something nearly 18 years of living had not.
The only thing that ever came close to what I saw that morning happened on Sept. 11, 2001. As I sat watching the coverage of the tragedy that shook our nation, I thought about why someone would do something like that and how our country would unite and react.
I went to church that evening with my mother, and I sat holding hands with various members of my congregation I didn’t know.
I saw a collective crying and grieving over what had happened as I observed quietly from my pew in the back center of the sanctuary, unity I had never before witnessed in my 10 years of innocent living.
Back on the mall, I high-fived women and men, blacks and whites, young people and old people and those in between, Asians and Europeans and Middle Easterners and Indians, Jews and Christians, people with various accents, gays, a women in a wheel chair who I instead had to pat on the back because she couldn’t move her arms, and a 95-year-old woman from Georgia who traveled just to witness the history of Obama’s inauguration.
What they all had in common, what united them, was the joy and love they showered upon me and their overall pure happiness of just being in D.C. for a single day for a single man.
If the election of Obama could unify this many vastly different people this fast, I pondered what was in store for our wonderful nation these next four years before the next inauguration, and that overwhelmed me with respect I never before had for the basketball-loving family man.
For the latter part of my volunteer time I was responsible for distributing some hundreds of thousands of American flags to the crowd.
I had already given away hundreds of flags when Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John G. Roberts’ voice thundered on the JumboTron near me and I stopped to pay attention.
After Obama finished his oath, I noticed a black woman behind me to my left, and as I started to hand her a flag, she told me she had been at Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech and started to compare the two equally vital events of American history in her eyes.
She asked me what I thought of Obama up there, motioning to the Capitol at our right, being our first African-American president. Words could not and did not come to my mouth, and I remained speechless for a good four or five seconds when she said it was absolutely wonderful, and I concurred. Our brief yet marvelous conversation caused tears to come the closest to my eyes without gushing out for as long as I have been alive.
I did not get the woman’s name, and we most likely will never be reunited, but our meeting and my volunteer work this day will remain with me forever.
What also will remain with me forever is the inspiring cheerfulness and celebration I felt the entire day, millions of people united around one man and one country.
Who knew a rookie could have such amazing game?
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