Category: Aoife Connors
Community Service in Honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
Photos by Caroline Bridges
SERVICE
New Hampshire Union Leader
Aoife Connors
Boston University Washington News Service
Jan. 19, 2009
WASHINGTON – Alden Hall, a physician living in Lebanon, was working the night shift on election night. “I was dealing with a patient in the emergency room at the hospital on November 4, 2008.”
Hall heard the nurses and staff shouting “so I ran down the corridor to see the victory on TV; there was so much excitement.”
Earlier that day, before the polls had closed, Hall booked for his family plane tickets to D.C. for the inauguration. “I was sure Obama was going to win.”
“This is a historic presidency and so we want the children to remember it and be a part of the inauguration celebrations” Hall said.
Now in Washington for the long weekend, Hall said “we wanted to be part of the continued celebrations.” Hall, his wife Marcy Chong and their two children, 5-year-old Khuan-Yu and 3-year-old Josephine, spent Monday morning helping clean the Forest Hills Playground in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington.
The cleanup was one of hundreds of community service projects organized by the inauguration committee to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Carrie Cohen, President of the Friends of Forest Hill Playground, said “we’ve had an amazing turnout, much more than expected. Everyone had a job to do, from litter sweepers to raking leaves and sorting through broken toys.”
“Obama’s call to do community service in honor of Martin Luther King is a good one,” said Hall. “It is about changing our country’s perspective of giving back, by doing community service.”
“We need to get back that sense of self sacrifice in the tradition of doing what John F Kennedy advocated. Instead of nation building around the globe, we need to be doing nation building here in our own country” Hall said.
While struggling to climb up the playground slide, Khuan-Yu said, “Obama is good. He won’t start wars and he is going to get a dog for his little girls at the White House.”
“It is amazing that so many people will come out with their families on such a cold Washington holiday to do community service” Cohen said.
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New Hampshire Residents Flock to the Capital
Photos by Caroline Bridges
MondayWrap
New Hampshire Union Leader
Jillian Jorgensen and Aoife Connors
Boston University Washington News Service
Jan. 19, 2009
WASHINGTON--When she was young, Nicole Fellian was overjoyed when she was allowed to stay up late to watch the results of the 1992 election between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. Now, 16 years later, the Hopkinton resident who stayed up late to watch the political process unfold will get to watch it firsthand at the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.
“It’s definitely something historic that I’ll be able to tell my grandchildren about it,” Fellian, 28, a law student at Franklin Pierce University, said while she waited in line Monday outside the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington to pick up tickets from the office of Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.
Thousands of New Hampshire residents converged on the capital this week to witness the historic swearing-in of the nation’s 44th president.
“The day after the election, I e-mailed Sen. Gregg,” Fellian said. “It wasn’t a second thought. If we could get tickets, we were coming.”
Meanwhile, 200 New Hampshire residents, expatriates and the full congressional delegation gathered at the New Hampshire State Society’s inaugural reception Monday night at the Willard InterContinental Hotel.
“This is a fulfillment of the American dream,” Sen. Gregg said. “It is a restatement of the American creed that for people with mobility and talent, the opportunities are limitless in this nation.”
Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., said, “It’s absolutely tremendous that New Hampshire is alive and well in D.C. I think that folks feel sober about the challenges we face, and hopeful and optimistic that the Congress and the new administration are ready to tackle those challenges.”
Earlier on Monday, outside the office of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Ken Goodrow, 46, and his son Stephen, 17, from Plainfield, waited to pass through security and pick up their tickets.
“It’s ridiculously exciting and utterly amazing to be here, and that’s as close as I can come to describing it,” Stephen Goodrow said.
As people arrived to pick up tickets from Shaheen’s office, the senator spoke with reporters about the inauguration and the issues to be addressed by the Senate.
“It’s exciting. It’s nice to see so many people here from New Hampshire,” Shaheen said.
People entering her office, she said, were expressing excitement at being in Washington “with a new president and how exciting it is to be here in the office, where we have a new senator, a Democratic senator for the first time in almost 35 years elected from New Hampshire.”
But Shaheen said there was also work to be done on issues including the staggering economy, health care and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Allison Browne, an African-American mother of three from Plymouth, arrived in Washington on Saturday to be part of the inauguration celebrations.
“What is so interesting at this time is that, as a parent, you tell your children they can be anything they want to be, but now you can actually see past the boundaries,” Browne said. “Since the inauguration of Obama, three different people have said to me out of the blue; wow your sons could be president some day.”
“I really admire Obama; his words are very powerful,” said her son, Alexander, 11. “He has a lot of confidence when he speaks and he believes in what he’s saying.”
Teresa and Jim Gocha, also from Plymouth, brought their three children to Washington to celebrate Obama’s victory.
When Margaret Gocha, 9, from Plymouth, heard that she would be going to the inauguration, she expected to be staying at the White House with Sasha and Malia Obama. When her parents explained that they won’t be allowed, she threw her hands in the air and said, “Well, what’s the point in even going then?”
Margaret met Michelle Obama before the primaries last year. Her mother recalled that “Ms Obama knelt down and said ‘Hello, beautiful girl.’”
Margaret campaigned for Obama with her friend Bella in New Hampshire. “We made signs saying ‘One Vote Counts’ and ‘Go Barack Obama,’ and my mom made Obama cupcakes.’”
Outside Hodes’ office, Jean Cowan, 57, and her husband, Bob Cowan, 61, from Concord waited eagerly for the tickets and reflected on the meaning of the big event.
“I was a child of the sixties. To me, there is a complete cycle here,” Jean Cowan said. “And a big breakthrough of racial barriers.”
Among many New Hampshire residents waiting in line, there was a desire to not just watch the inauguration, but to be a part of the historic moment.
“I want to hear the speech and I want to see the people. I want to be part of that gathering,” Bob Cowan said.
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Shaheen Full of Hope at EMILY’s List
Photos by Caroline Bridges
EMILYSLIST
New Hampshire Union Leader
Aoife Connors
Boston University Washington News Service
Jan. 18, 2009
WASHINGTON – While walking from her office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building to the Capitol to cast a vote recently, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., got lost in the basement. Speaking at an EMILY’s List luncheon Sunday, the new senator received a resounding cheer when she declared “the building was clearly laid out by a group of men.”
Shaheen, one of several women honored at the luncheon, thanked EMILY’s List supporters and said “without you, I would not be here today.” EMILY’s List is a political action group that supports pro-choice Democratic women candidates and campaigns to mobilize women voters.
Women bring their life experiences to the government table and this is so important, Shaheen said. “Let’s celebrate and have a great time but then let’s get to work.”
Last week Shaheen introduced her first piece of legislation, to improve health care for New Hampshire veterans, she told the packed Ballroom at the Washington Hilton. She added that along with her Senate colleagues, she would make pay equity a reality because women deserve better and the country can do better.
Defeated in 2002 for the Senate by Republican John Sununu, Shaheen said the phone never stopped ringing after the result. Ellen R. Malcolm, founder of the EMILY’s List, would not take no for an answer and persuaded her to run again, Shaheen said.
Joan Jacobs from Portsmouth, N.H., said she “spent $250 for my ticket and I was so glad to spend it.” Jacobs said she has worked for Shaheen for the past year “and working 100 percent on politics. Shaheen will bring progressive change both domestically and internationally to our country.”
Lynn Prosten, a member of the majority council of EMILY’s List, said, “Shaheen is an articulate and thoughtful senator who is going to represent all U.S. women’s issues.”
Besides Shaheen, other celebrated speakers at the luncheon were Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, Gov. Janet Napolitano, nominated to be secretary of Homeland Security, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, nominated to be secretary of State.
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