Millions Turn Out for Moment in History
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Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Sarah Gantz
Boston University Washington News Service
Jan. 20, 2009
WASHINGTON – Vincent Bates had been standing outside, in the cold, smack-dab in the middle of more than a million people crowded onto the National Mall, for more than five hours by the time Barack Obama was sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States And Mr. Bates said he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Every type of American you could imagine was there,” said Mr. Bates, a dean at Mount Wachusett Community College. “They were just so happy to be there. They could not wait for the moment…they couldn’t wait for a better tomorrow.”
It took only minutes to make history. As Barack Obama solemnly swore to protect the Constitution, the throngs of people who had waited months, years, lifetimes for that moment burst into a celebration—hugging, jumping up and down, snapping photos of everything in sight.
“I looked over and my wife was crying and I was sort of welling up,” said Eric DeMeulenaere, a professor at Clark University, who watched the ceremony from the Rayburn House Office Building. Listening to President Obama’s speech, he said he felt “this sense of accomplishment that we’ve done something amazing in this country and yet a sense of beginning.”
Mr. DeMeulenaere said it was important for him and his wife, who is black, to bring their two daughters, Mykah, 7, and Tyla, 5, who are biracial, to the inauguration because, “I want them to see they are also part of making history.”
Mykah and Tyla have been reading children’s books about their new president since the election campaign, and have been campaigning hard for a dog of their own since hearing about the pup Sasha and Malia Obama are getting, Mr. DeMeulenaere said.
Tim Concannon, 23, of Wrentham, was among the thousands of people who thought they had it made with a ticket for the Capitol grounds standing area. But instead of watching the musical performers that preceded the swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Concannon and his friend, Sam Raymond, 23, of Wrentham, stood packed in a line hundreds of yards from the gate, while the ethereal choir voices from the Capitol stage floated over the crowd.
The gates were not scheduled to open until 9 a.m., but Mr. Concannon was in line before 8 a.m. The line inched forward—like a colony of emperor penguins huddled together for warmth, as one voice in the crowd mused—and, three hours later, Mr. Concannon was still in line. But he had no intention of leaving.
Dozens of people did not make it into their ticketed areas, as the sections filled to capacity. Before the inaugural ceremony began, the National Mall closed, as well, too full to admit more people.
“I guess I could come down for the next time the first black president is elected, but I just don’t know when that’s going to be,” Mr. Concannon joked. He, like most people enduring the cold weather and crowds, were in good spirits.
“They were filled with such a calmness and a peace,” was how Mr. Bates described the crowd inside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station, where crowds were so thick they stood still.
The Metro stations along the National Mall closed periodically until the platforms emptied. While people waited to filter out of the Capitol South station early in the morning, they responded with a thrice-pulsed “Obama” chant to a Metro worker’s megaphone call to “keep on moving.”
“Tremendous!” and “Amazing!” were among the exclamations with which Mr. Bates described his experience. Hours after the ceremony, words flush with ecstasy flooded from him, but he recalled a humbling feeling of disbelief while listening to Mr. Obama speak.
“It’s really happening, that was my thought. It’s really happening—a black man is going to lead this country,” said Mr. Bates. “It was a moment of exaltation and joy that maybe, maybe for the first time this country can turn the corner from an ugly past.”
“Hopeful,” said Mr. Bates, reflecting on how he felt walking away from the ceremony yesterday. “Hopeful was all I felt.”
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