Experiencing History

Washington DC is a quick 4+ hour drive away from 'lil Endicott NY, so the night the nation elected the first African-American president I decided I had to go. This was something not that long ago I was quite certain I would never see happen in my lifetime, but thanks to a superstar candidate and a "perfect storm" of national circumstances... it happened. And thankfully I've got a good friend in DC willing to provide the floor of his very nice condo and an air mattress for a few days, so on Jan 18th I headed down, with a stop in NYC to pick up my big sister who wanted to come along too.

I could go on for a while detailing all I experienced at the Inauguration, but one thing (among several) that struck me was the crowd. We headed out at 7:30am on January 20th to get a spot by a screen on the Mall and ended up midway between the Capital and the Washington Monument. Friends that left around the same time we did were all the way back by the monument so we got a decent spot considering. (I found out later I was close to a NY Met player who showed up without a ticket and stood in the crowd.) Once we settled in our spot, I looked around and was blown away by all the people. The largest crowd I've ever been in up to that point that I was able to quantify was at the Lousiana Superdome, which holds close to 100,000 people, which seemed HUGE to me. And here I was standing in 20 superdomes worth of people. To look forward, back, and around and to see nothing but shoulder to shoulder people for a mile is something else. And with all these people, there was this incredible vibe... a vibe of hope and optimism. It was like nothing I have ever experienced or will probably ever experience again. And to experience it with SO MANY people was just so frickin' cool. Looking around seeing everyone waving their little American flags with joy, seeing broad smiles and eyes filled will tears from the emotion of the moment. It was like the biggest rock concert on earth and more. And something I can recount with pictures and stories to my kids and grandkids, and say, 'I was there'.

This president has inherited a mound of considerably difficult tasks and I don't think anyone there forgot that, but it was incredibly to have a moment where people were able to celebrate history and the hope of a better tomorrow.