Tuesday, January 20, was the inauguration of the 44th president of the US, Barack Obama. Opio Oloya was in Washington a day before the inauguration and writes about the mood before the historic event.
Monday, January 19, 2009, Washington, DC, National Mall, The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, 1:01pm.
At the National Museum of African Art, which is part of the Smithsonian Institute at the National Mall in Washington DC, there is live music by an African-American band playing a mix of reggae and jazz.
Everyone in the room is bobbing their head, or swaying to the music. It is the eve of the inauguration of one of their own as president of the US. This was the day Dr. Martin Luther King Junior dreamed about before he was cut down by an assassin’s bullet in 1968.
Today (yesterday) is Dr. King’s birthday, a public holiday in the US. King dreamed of a day when Americans would no longer be judged by the colour of their skin, but by their contribution to the fabric of the nation. It took some time before that dream was realised, but Obama made it come alive, real and fulfilled.
There are at least 8,000 police, 10,000 National Guards and 1,000 FBI agents on hand to steer the celebration to a safe conclusion. Most people at the National Mall were mainly there to size up the competition, to figure out where they would stand or sit tomorrow during the inauguration. At least two million are expected to attend it.
Long lines snaked for blocks as the lucky few — 240,000 — lined up to pick up their tickets which allow them to be within 1km of the podium where Obama will be sworn in.
I found out that I drew the short end of the stick (if you could say that of someone with a ticket) having been assigned silver, Mall Standing Area — that means I will be at least 500 metres from the podium — out of range of my Canon camera, but still considered a lucky draw because millions will be even further back. The invitation itself is nothing to sneeze at—it is obviously a historic keepsake, very elaborately done in gold embossed letters and US Coat-of-Arms. The elaborate invitation letter reads: The honour of your presence is requested at the ceremonies attending the Inauguration of the President and Vice President
Of the United States, The Capitol of the United States of America, City of Washington, January 20, 2009, by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies
Diane Feinstein, Chairman,
Harry Reid, Robert F. Bennett
Nancy Pelosi, Steny H. Hoyer, John A. Boehner
Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, outside Washington, DC, 4:40 p.m.
Here at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we stand waiting for the changing of the guard. The memorial dedicated to three unknown soldiers from past wars — First, Second and Korea wars — is located right in the middle of this immaculately kept US National Cemetery, where some of American greats lie buried. President John F. Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline Onassis-Kennedy, and two children are interred here. So is his brother Robert Kennedy. Perhaps, when that day comes, the next US president, Barack Obama, will be interred here should he so wish.
For now, though, watching the changing of the guard, an elaborately executed manouver by just three soldiers walking in lock-step uniform with such grace they could be floating on air, serve as metaphor for what happened yesterday.
The climb to power by Obama is widely anticipated, precisely because the world right now needs someone to believe in, someone who can lift them up from their collective misery, if only for a few hours, to make them dream of a better day for the human race.
Obama himself has downplayed expectations of what he can do.
Professor William Bainbridge of the University of Dayton, Ohio, and his wife Linda are among the believers. Lifelong Republicans, they heard Obama’s message, voted for him, and are now in Washington to see him become president. “Enough with negative thinking, it’s time to start looking beyond our little holes into the larger world out there, get to others”, said Linda.
It is a sentiment echoed by Thomas Austin from Atlanta, Georgia who sees Obama as the much-awaited validation that African-Americans have waited for to know that they can achieve whatever they set themselves to.
“Obama’s election taught me that nothing is impossible, and don’t let anyone tell you any different,” he said.
Indeed, many blacks attending the ceremony do not see Obama in terms of the mechanics of power, the defeat of recession or even the success of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but more in terms of a harbinger of hope, an affirmation of what many always knew in their hearts could be done, but dared not mention out aloud lest they were considered mentally deranged.
Today, reality will set in the realisation that this is a human being who cannot do magic, make problems disappear with the mere waving of a wand, and that indeed most of the world’s ills are still evident.
Obama will not be able to deliver the change expected of him because such changes take time, energy and most of all, patience to wait for better days.
But what Obama brings to the presidency is an intellect to think clearly, a curiosity to try something that others say cannot be done, and hopefully, the optimism to carry on in spite of setbacks.
