“My fellow citizens… On this day we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”
–President Barack Obama
By PATRICK SHELDON
For the Review
There were many citizens on the Washington Mall stretching well beyond the limits of what I could see – like waves rolling one after another in a sea of red, white and blue.
This countless mass of thousands of Americans stood united for this moment of unparalleled historic significance.
”Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America.”
It was remarkable to meet people who left their worries back in New Jersey or Kentucky or California. In two days I met Americans from 31 states of every colors, religion and social strata.
Everyone I spoke with on the streets happily shared a story. All smiled with pride for what they had done to elect President Obama.
Like me, so many felt the need to be present to fully comprehend that what had once been unthinkable was real.
Thanks to Congressman Jay Inslee, I had a ticket for the “Purple Gate,” which allowed me entrance to the Capitol grounds.
Arriving four hours before the official oath of office, we did not move for nearly two hours except to clear lanes for emergency vehicles rescuing those who had fainted or worse.
Long, unmoving lines were the order of the morning. Crushed so tightly together, the biting cold could not touch my body. Almost no one complained.
I knew it was time to try a different route when the Rev. Jesse Jackson, standing behind me, elbowed his way out of the throng muttering: “I am not staying in this line any longer.”
As another ambulance squeezed through the crowd I made my move by standing behind the creeping vehicle as it inched out of the crowd. I ducked around the next block and saw a much smaller crowd looking promisingly like a better avenue to the gate.
Again everyone stood together smiling, laughing and sharing our stories. We took baby steps in the hopeful direction of the entrance. As 11:30 passed I still stood outside of the gate.
In really the only unruly surge of that morning, people pushed those of us who were within a few feet of our destination. In the next breath I was in a narrow opening which allowed in only two people at a time. I passed the prying eyes of 60 law enforcement officers as I darted into the farthest screening area and finally made my way onto the Capitol lawn. It was now 11:45 as Sen. Joe Biden took his oath to become the vice president.
We cheered raucously as the “one so hoped for” accepted his office with his hand upon the Bible Mr. Lincoln used in even more desperate times.
From our vantage point, all we could see of the new president was his waving left arm.
One of the district’s rare coniferous trees obscured the closest Jumbotron leaving us with only a partial view of the president’s face.
It did not matter to us. We were there. We Americans shared this glorious moment.
“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task…
So let us mark this day in remembrance of who we are and how far we have traveled.
On April 17, 2007 I set down my completed copy of the “The Audacity of Hope,” knowing I would do all I could to make Jan. 20, 2009 a day of hope.
I learned over the next 20 months that my trek, and the trek of millions of other travelers to Washington D.C., was not an end but a beginning of something much more important.
Islander Patrick Sheldon, who works as an attorney in Seattle, was an organizer on Bainbridge for President Barack Obama’s campaign.
