The Day The First African American Became President.

We started the day a little later then I wanted to. We just needed sleep so badly that I could not get up at 3:30 AM. I woke up at 6:00 AM and got the kids going. It was a little harder today because we were so worn out. But excitement only took a few minutes to kick in. Unfortunately we just missed the bus and had to sit outside and wait not knowing when the next one would get there. It was a full 40 minutes and today was the coldest day so far here in D.C. We got our hand warmers in place and as we got on the bus, we saw everyone else on the bus with that same look on their face, the one I talked about in earlier posts. We knew we had done it, and what was happening but it was still just a thought roaming around our heads.

We got on the Metro Train and headed for the Capitol. Smiles and happy thoughts filled the train. People there were all covered in Obama gear, hats, scarves, bags etc. We looked at each other and commented on the great deals we made on our gear and who had the best looking things and asked what street we got them on. This great day had begun and we were among friends.

The feeling as we got off the train abated a bit as we saw the huge number of people who were already there. Many of the people had tickets as we did and had gotten off at the same stop because the "Purple Tickets" we had told us to get off at the Judiciary Square stop. We all started walking to Constitution and 1st. Oh yes! The line started several blocks behind the "purple entrance" sign we had seen yesterday when we came to check it out. But we knew we were later than we thought we would be by a couple of hours so we deserved to wait. It was about15 min before they said the gates were to open.

We waited for an hour in this line. We could see a big city bus parked sideways ahead and blocking the road. Everyone started chanting "move that bus!" It was pretty funny. Then we were doing the "OBAMA" chant and "fired up, ready to go". After about another 1/2 hour some people came through the crowd. I thought who thinks they can get ahead? We turned around and it was none other than Al Sharpton and his group. He smiled all the way by, but I only got a picture of the back of his head! dang!

Finally the crowd started moving and we were so excited that we had picked the right side of the crowd to be on. We were very dejected though as we got past the bottle neck just to find out that we had to go around another road and get in yet another very large group of humanity! The "yellow tickets" and the "purple tickets" had now been mixed! There seemed to be two very large lines, we went for the front of the on that started at Constitution and 1st, like the tickets said. We moved here and there for another hour and no one opened the gate. A tall guy told us that they were going in the "yellow" gate. So someone started a people train and we kept going until we got close to that gate. (they never did open the purple gate!) there was no one around with bullhorns or any other type of organization. It was very very disorganised as the police outside the gates could not tell us what was happening. This was at about 1030AM. When they finally started really letting people in we happen to have been on the right side of a light post that they decided to start funneling people in from. We had to have our tickets out and held up. It kinda felt like we were being released from a refugee camp. I am not kidding. We were lucky. A lot of people who were there before us did not get in from what I hear.


We went in the gate and got searched and moved to our area. We could not directly see the stage as the platform was on both sides and really obstructed the view. We were on the left side of the Capitol Building and the jumbo tron was there but obstructed mostly by a tree in one area and the large speaker "scaffolds". So we could see it, but yeah it was not a great shot. You will see my pictures when I get home. It was about 1045 when we got settled in. People from Alaska were in front of us and we had met a nice man that was part of the Parliament from the U.K. All around us was all of America. Waiting for this moment in time. We were there with 3 million of our friends!

As the list of people made their way to the capitol and were seated, you could tell it was a liberal crowd. Newt Gingrich did not get much of a response, but Bill, Hillary, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter were met with tremendous applause. Of course George W. got a big boo and a send off in his helicopter with "hey hey hey, good bye" I am sure that got played on the news over and over again. To me he looked like he knew it was coming. Some around said he looked smug. I like to say that he was happy to be leaving.

When Barack was walking down the receiving hall, he looked very serious. The smile that had always been on his face through the campaign was not there. At first I thought maybe he would run the other way and say "you got it Joe". I think of all the things that could be going through his head. What an awesome responsibility he is taking on, not only in this time of great troubles with the economy and a nation at war, but also at being the first African American President. Growing up I am sure he did not picture himself as this. No matter what his kindergarten paper said. This dream to African Americans was unobtainable until this day. How proud he and his family must be. Do his daughters know what this means? Can they? What of his beautiful wife Michelle? They are all so grounded. Did they jump up and down in their bedroom on November 5th? Smiling and yelling hooray under their breath so that their daughters did not hear them down the hall? And what of Michelle's mother? How would she have ever known that her daughter would marry a man who would become president.

The time ticked on and we got to about 10 min before noon. People were getting worried because the law states that the president must be sworn in before noon. Rick Warren got up and was booed and met with clapping. The people ahead of us turned their back on him. Then in quick succession Biden and then Obama was sworn in. As I looked around there was not a dry eye in the house. I did not realize that they shot off cannons as soon as the president is sworn in, so when the first one went off, I just about hit the grass because I thought something blew up. I think we were all waiting for something to happen for the entire weekend.

To note is that nothing happened that I saw. There were only two protesters there in open site. One group for Christians and one that had signs about Obama sending troops to Afghanistan. The rest of the millions were there to revel in the sites and sounds brought by the history.

Never again will America be the same. We will have always known a black man to have been president. My children will grow up knowing that there had been a black president. The door is open in America again.

I can say that I am proud to be American again. We as a people stood up and made our vote count. We put those who would see whole races of people as inferior and unfit on notice. The world is changing and they will be left behind if they do not listen. We activated the young to stand up and listen, make choices and make a difference in their community and in the world. I now pray that they will continue to keep it up.

Obama is in the white house, but he is just a man. We have to do the work on the ground, we have to be the ones that pay attention and hold our local governments accountable. Obama is going to make government transparent, we need to look up the information and give notice when there is something we don't agree with.

History starts today!