LaZae

Witness to History (yay Obama!)

Posted by LaZae on January 27, 2009

**To see pictures from my trip click here.

Going to the inauguration of the first African American president meant a lot to me and my family.  Being of mixed ethnic decent, this is the first time I have been able to identify with a United States president.  For my father, being an African American man who was born in the segregated south, this was a day he hardly imagined would happen in his lifetime.  Aside from race, I am also deeply inspired by our new president’s message of hope for our nation.  For the first time I am excited about politics in a way I have never felt before.  I am so thankful to have been a part of this glorious day in history.  The feeling of unity and camaraderie amongst those who attended was amazing.  I have never felt so close to my fellow American. 

January 19, 2009 –

Me and my dad got through lines that wrapped around the building to pick up our purple tickets.  I quickly twittered how I felt about the whole experience saying “feeling like Willy Wonka with my golden ticket to the inauguration (except it’s purple lol)!!!!” and The Huffington Post later quoted me.  Click here to check it out.

January 20, 2009 –

Fortunately, I was born to a family of stealth ninjas because that is the only way I can explain how we made it into the purple section of the inauguration.  We waited in line for 4 hours in what was more like human corral areas than lines.  The large mass of humanity waiting to get in was incredible!!!  I must say that I have never been so physically close to strangers in my life.  The beautiful thing about the whole situation was that even though people were frustrated about waiting for so long, everyone was generally in good spirits.  People were just so happy and hopeful!

Luckily, my dad was paying close attention at all times to where we needed to be to get in.  As soon as he got word that we were in the wrong section, he had us hurry to get to the right place.  If we had hesitated to move, we probably would not have made it in.  In the end, we found our way to the purple gate before they stopped letting purple ticket holders in. It definitely was NOT an easy feat to achieve, but we persevered. The main problem was that the actual location where they let us in, was not clearly marked. They also didn’t let us know that they intentionally weren’t letting purple ticket holders in early because they didn’t want us loitering so close around the vicinity of where President Obama was going to be located during the inauguration for security reasons (as I found out from my uncle who was texting me news updates as we stood in line).

Overall, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world, even the hardships of getting in. It is a story I will be telling my children and grandchildren one day who will be born into a world where having a person of color as president is truly possible.  So all of the confusion and struggle to get in was worth it. We witnessed history.