8 AMAZING INAUGURAL MOMENTS
at the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 (6:13 am to 1:30 pm, approx)
1. Masses and masses of happy, hopeful people. The emotional voltage was so high and so positive on Tuesday that it was as though, for this brief moment in time, everything was right and fulfilling in our world.
2. There’s always a comedian in the crowd…THANK GOD! There is no way we could have endured seven hours of standing, with no room to move, without jokes! I even pulled off one or two. You know it must have been super cold if people were laughing at my jokes. Where I was, there were about three or four funny people in the group that keep us laughing and in good spirits. I have a new-found appreciation for funny, extroverted people. Ya’ll are life savers!
3. It was amazing to witness how many times someone would break out into “Hit the road, Jack! And don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more!” …and not tire of it. It was hilarious! It seemed like the thought of George Bush would pop into someone’s mind and then, from no where, you’d hear the chorus: “Hit the road, Jack!” We’d get energized all over again.
4. Black people carry the Electric Slide and the Cha-Cha Slide EVERYWHERE, LOL! Seriously, there was no place to move, feet damn near frozen, and you’re shivering non-stop, then somebody sings out “MOVE TO THE LEFT!” The crowd would explod with laughter as we…MOVED TO THE LEFT, LOL!
5. Brooklyn is EVERYWHERE! I was between a white couple from Wyoming and a black family from Brooklyn and we all became instant “friends.” Brooklyn is always in the house!
6. I don’t know if this was showed on television, but every time a Bush (George, George, or Barbara) appeared on the Jumbotron, they got booed royally. The booing was so loud and long and dark that it even surprised me. I think some of those boos must have emerged from our ancestors The sound was guttural, from a deep-rooted place! Dick Cheney got it too, of course.
7. When Bill Clinton appeared on the screen, he was cheered. There were two people, however, who wouldn’t give it up for Clinton: me and this other black woman. That was the only time I felt disconnected on Tuesday. Didn’t care one bit.
8. If we are to do labels, then this much is true: President Obama is bi-racial: got it! Most people don’t identify him in those racial terms, but opt for African American instead: true. Interesting to see this concentrated embracing of Black culture and the Black aesthetic from our new president. It was a lot and I ain’t mad. Aretha Franklin, Joseph Lowery on the program? Jay-Z a featured performer at the inaugural ball? WOW!