What can I say about my experience in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration of President Barack Obama? It was impossible to get a cab and every street corner looked like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. But enthusiasm and politeness could be meas
What can I say about my experience in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration of President Barack Obama? It was impossible to get a cab, and every street corner looked like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. But enthusiasm and politeness could be measured in kilowatts. And the coming together of people of all races, ethnicities, and social and economic statuses was one of the most heart happy experiences of my lifetime.
I knew from the time my husband, Charles, and I boarded the plane at O’Hare airport that the world had changed. O’Hare was transformed into a portal of hope. At every gate, the mood resembled a family reunion. The good feelings shared among the throngs who dared to brave the long lines, crowds and bitter winter winds to witness this moment in history lifted us off the ground long before we left the runways.
Soon after we landed, Charles and I hopped aboard the party train. I attended a lot of parties, but the highlights were the ones hosted by the Illinois Senate, which featured hometown diva Chaka Khan; the British Embassy; the National Urban League and Mayor Richard Daley’s inaugural celebration. The room was filled with Chicagoans, and the energy was off the charts. Only afterwards would we realize that, on D.C. streets, Chicagoans would be regarded as rock stars.
And to think, I almost didn’t go. The logistical nightmare touched off by the thousands of people who descended on the Democratic National Convention in Denver the night Obama accepted his party’s nomination had left me a bit jaded. I have my mother to thank for snapping me out of it. I’m the leader of a civil rights organization and in Obama’s hometown, after all. “You’ve so got to go,” she told me. She was so right.
The timing of the inauguration in conjunction with the national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday felt prophetic. Throughout the day Monday, Dr. King’s words rang out across D.C. like marching orders for the citizens of a more tolerant, unified world. The change that the late Sam Cooke sang about in “A Change is Gone Come,” Obama’s unofficial victory song, seemed to have arrived at last.
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