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Braving the Cold for Obama

By Jen Threat

The weekend of the inauguration in Washington, D.C. was cold and the streets were packed. What in the world would possess me to go to the inauguration? I couldn't miss the swearing-in of our first African-American president, Barack Obama.
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It's me. Ready for Obama!

After President Barack Obama won the election, there was so much buzz about going to the inauguration. Many people thought about the crowds and the frigid temperatures and decided not to attend. For me, it was a history-making moment; I knew I had to be there. My husband, Kevin, and I packed up our little girl and we were off! Plus, Aunt Margie would watch our daughter while we were at the inauguration.

The night before the inauguration, we took the Metro, the train system for Washington, D.C. We rode the train and exited at Union Station, using cards with Obama's picture on them. Thousands of people gathered near the Capitol to take pictures of the seating for the next day. Kevin and I saw a glimpse of other famous monuments and vowed to see them again in warm, sunny weather. Did I already mention that it was brick (cold) outside? Anyway, we made a quick stop at my friend, Kenyatta's house and headed back to where we stayed in Maryland.
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I'm posing near the Capitol building.

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This was as close as we could get to the Capitol. This photo was taken the night before the inauguration.

Hubby and I rose the next day and headed to the Metro station. We were running on excitement, because we had very little sleep. We were all bundled up in layers and prepared to stand for hours. We started at 3rd street and were finally able to enter at 18th street. We passed street vendors with warmers for hands and feet, buttons and t-shirts. We made a pit stop at the port-a-potties (yuck!). I'll leave that up to your imagination. Then we walked for maybe another half an hour. At last, we found a spot, to the left of the Washington Monument.
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Crowds near the Washington monument.

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The Washington Monument

We were surrounded by families with kids, seniors with walkers and canes, people of many colors, U.S. citizens, people representing other countries and of different means (rich, poor). People traveled by cars, buses, planes and trains to witness history. Everyone was armed with cameras, all joined for one cause--the celebration of our new President. As President Obama mentioned in his speech, "We're bigger than the sum of our individual differences." People cheered the first family and all the presidents, with one exception, President Bush. Some of us in the crowd agreed that this was not the time to say, "boo" to former President Bush. This was President Barack Obama's moment and we wanted to represent positive energy and "one love."

With the over two million people who attended, there were no incidents of violence, except for some pushing and impatience after the speech.

I hope we can translate these positive vibes of the inauguration to our streets, our schools and communities by creating as President Obama said, "a new era of responsibility."