Hi There Family,
Well, it’s no secret the last two years of my life have been working to support Barack's vision this election cycle. Actually, it started with the simple act of including an excerpt from his DNC keynote speech in our 2004 home-made holiday card. Since then, I've run myself ragged, and broke. Projects, visibility events, and networking, to the point of serious burnout. But, hey! Yes we did. It was all worth it. Laura & I met him in person during the primaries, and again during the general election, which really helped keep us revitalized. So anyway, you could have guessed there’d be a NEED to make the pilgrimage to the Inauguration.
My friend Ruthie and I drove to Baltimore, and took the first MARC train at 5:29 am to Union Station, a couple blocks from the Capitol. While we could see the Capitol in front of us, getting there was a huge case of "Can’t get there from here". Security herded all cattle through a circuitous and convoluted path, though tunnels, and down streets devoid of visible landmarks, to the back end of Independence Mall, which took about 90 minutes.
We didn’t have tickets, and we wound up about 20 people deep from the beginning railing of the ticketless part of the Mall, in the media area between MSNBC’s broadcast booth, and a bleecher full of camera crews and photographers. Many in our area passed the time going wild for MSNBC’s panning boom camera, cheering for Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, and Chris Matthews, and being interviewed by various news anchors in the field. CBS interviewed us.
The cold was significant, but not sobering or intollerable. The wait for Barack, on the other hand, was a bit trying. Yes, it was all beautiful, but the pomp and circumstance of announced grand entrances, the likes of the Seaside Ladies Auxillary, and the janitor’s wife’s second cousin of Mahlia Obama’s school, kinda had people groaning. Speaking of such, yes, one could expect boos at the mention of George Bush, but HOLY COW! It was an ocean of boos, which segued into a mighty contagious roar of the Steam hit "Na Na Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye".
Barack’s address, was characteristically moving and touching. Once again putting ideas back on the table, vision back on the shelves, and making reason the special of the day. Once again the message was one of community, dignity, empowerment, "better angels", and transparency. But this speech went further into the territory of healing division, taking the charge out of the illusions of difference, and emphasizing the common threads that run through all people. Unity was in the air. The ever so faint ineffible tensions due to race seemed palpably eased.
When the event ended, Ruthie & I split to indulge personal walkabouts. I gradually worked my way past multiple barricades and inconsistent security, to the foot of Barack’s podium on the Capitol steps. I wanted to see and absorb the detail that I couldn’t from far out in the Mall. It was definately effecting. So were the apparent safety measures. Barack’s podium was surrounded by bulletproof glass, with a steel camera platform between the podium and the direct line of sight from the Mall. It was when I moved to take a picture leaning against the podium, when some very serious camouflaged guards and Secret Service personnel intervened, instructing me with volume that the area was "locked down".
Earlier, those who attended the Inauguration in the Mall, were informed they would not be allowed street access to attend the Inaugural Parade, that the route was full to capacity. However, from my vantage point on the Capitol steps, I was able to casually circumvent the security, and wound up 2nd person deep near the beginning of the parade route. Security around Barack’s limo was intense. His car was flanked on all sides by "dummy" limos, and open vehicles piled with Secret Service personnel, tensely scanning and peering piercingly into the crowd. Through the tinted windows, I could see Michelle Obama and the girls waving. Barack was not to be seen.
All in all, I must say, that while security was stern and inflexible, they were also professional and occasionally friendly. I did not observe a single "incident" all day. When you consider there were roughly two million people present, that really says something, something positive, about a very positive event.
As night fell, we had no invitations to any of the Inaugural Balls, and really, we didn’t need any. Ruthie and I met up in the Smithsonian for a light dinner, and headed home around 8:15 pm. Talking on the train, we decided that the whole contentious movie of the election process is over, and we’re now ready to actually get down to accomplishing good things. Barack seems, more than ever, an organic conduit of a progressive movement who’s time has finally come. Let’s get to it. Better days are at hand. Wishing you All Good Things.
All Fired Up & Ready To Go,
Greg
Breakthrough
By
Robert Ferrell
A little over four hundred years ago in a hot cotton field an already drained tired old woman dropped a seed of blood from her dried hard hands into the soiled dirt of mother Earth. No tears, no fears. The blood like the old woman refused to cry and die in the blistering sun. Instead it soaked and steadily rolled deep into its mother never to stop never to wait for death was not a fate.
Somewhere on the same plain under another owners name was another slave, feeling the burn from the crack of the whip being ripped from his back. And if that isn’t enough pain the word nigger replacing his African name by a man of another complexion. No shock here that a tear or two full of hopes and dreams rolled off his hot salty face and drill themselves into the calm sands. As he prays that his children somewhere in this unknown land don’t feel the same affliction.
Not calm for long is this unfertile dirt as the tears and the red seed that moved constantly finally meet in the underneath. Never a fight between mother and father, as they began to composite with one another deep down in their mother. After some time in the dirt’s clutches a root of Will broke through. It seems that through all the infinite numbers of tears. Tears of hope, and fight from above began to find ways to seep through the significantly thick pavement being poured on top layer after layer.
Through all the turmoil above the rapes, beatings, lynching, mutilations, bombings, and assassinations, was a loud thought that echoed deep into the grains causing the root to feed rapidly. In time the root replied to this thought but not by sound. Not by the speeches not by the violence. The root was never judgmental of the two. For they never out weighed each other in their time of struggle. The root heard the calling from the two. The root heard the songs being sung while marching, and felt the pressure from the hoses, and the teeth of the protected German Shepherds break through the skin of the young men and women. The root felt the tremble of the body that fell in the Audubon auditorium for bringing meaning to the phrase “by any means necessary”.
As the root began to feed on these acts and ideals it grew a stem that started to push itself through the cracks of the controversial pavement. The bottom from which the root came softened from the resurrection of the tears of hopes and dreams and the Will carried by the seed.
Yet after overcoming all those obstacles the seed still toils to get through the gravel. The sharp edges of laughter pointed at a young black man who has the audacity to think he can become a senator let alone the idiocy to dream of being a presidential nominee.
The summer of two thousand and eight is just about over and the stem inched its way above the blistering pavement. Now the sun that harassed the seed so long ago finds itself supporting the seeds beliefs. The senators’ peers no longer laugh, but cast a ballot under his name on their behalf.
A little over four hundred years ago a fearless seed was planted and hopes and dreams nourished it. The dreams became a belief and the hopes were raised to a promise. On a cold night in November two thousand and eight something unspoken had taken place. The stem grew a leaf when it was expected to freeze. That young senator now a little older stands center stage on a cold night in Chicago. That little stem flexed its roots and broadened its stance.
All these roots, all the martyrs, and all this pain endured by so many others, hint a grin to one another of the sacrifice put forth along the way. Now today is a breakthrough that is our honor to speak his name by stating first “the forty-fourth president of the United States of America”. A country shouted the word “change!” and now the world speaks his new name. President Barack Hussein Obama, the man who has challenged a planet of many to think about the single leaf growing on a very young tree in need of company.
"Because loving your country shouldn't just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July; loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. And if you do stand up, I promise you that your life will be richer, and our country will be stronger.
We need your service, right now, in this moment - our moment - in history. I'm not going to tell you what your role should be; that's for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history's course."Many Americans have already answered this call. If you actively serve in your community, now is the time to redouble your efforts. Find a friend or family member, and encourage them to do the volunteer with you.
With the Inauguration of Barack Obama, I wanted to play a role in documenting the historic election and Presidenacy of Barack Obama. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to design quality President Obama Inauguration products that will be treasured for generations to come.Obama Inauguration at : www.zazzle.com/obma_inauguration
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Well looking strictly at the number of donors we started with in febuary and where we are now and averaging the small average donation, it seems to me that Barack is on a tear this month.
By my rough estimate he could pull in anywhere between 45 million and 70 million this month (its such a wide range because i obviously have limited data to analyze
Still if Barack comes out with those kind of numbers, it will basically put the icing on the cupcake for this primary. I would expect them to release the official results probably the monday march 3rd.
True greatness shine bright tonight as the rain fell in Georgia. Nothing raised my spirits more than the question of the dream ticket of two Democrats who will certainly make history in this 2008 Presidential campaign. I was proud to be a Democrat.
