The Presidential Inauguration

I heard this somewhere yesterday, and it has captivated me...

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk.  Martin walked so Obama could run.  Obama ran so our children can fly."

I was fortunate in that I was able to watch the Inauguration coverage all day yesterday... it was so powerful to sit in my quaint, colorful, little classroom with my students and share history in the making with the twenty of them.  It may have been a bit over their heads, as they started to wiggle and chatter periodically as they are, oh, seven, but to be able to expose them to why this country is so wonderful and watch the process of democracy unfolding live with the future of our country was such a treat for me as an educator.

During "tubtime" last night, Olivia splashed, and Daniel and I came to this... what Obama contributes to America is yet to be seen; his hand prints on American history are far from being set.  But his inauguration has provided Olivia and her generation with a gift: our little girl and her peers will never be able to recall a time in their lifetimes during which only one race had inhabited the White House.  I think that that's pretty cool, for lack of a better word... it's not something neither of us, our parents, or our grandparents are able to say.

 

Some of us voted for him; some of us did not.  You may agree with his views; you may not.  You're a "liberal."  You're a "conservative."  Maybe you're a liberal conservative or a conservative liberal!  (LOL!)  Regardless of the political fence "side" you have pledged your allegiance to, his accomplishment illuminates the years ahead awaiting our youth and shatters the ethnic boundaries that were constructed so long ago by people who - I believe - just didn't really know any better.  Perhaps Olivia's world will be more accepting, more tolerant, more benevolent, more opportunistic, more compassionate, more loving, more equal... a parent can only hope for better for their child, right?

Speaking of equal... now if only we could get a woman in there... the RIGHT woman...

Funny, Daniel said just last night how much he loved Washington D.C., and his wife, well, she is one tough cookie (or so she thinks, right?!)... 

I can see it now...

Look out Capitol Hill, here I come!  Lobbyists, big business tycoons, I'm on your heels in mine (and, uh, they are LEOPARD print!)... ready to pave OUR way to the White House!  HA!  Now that's just plain scary (but still not as terrifying as those black stretchy pants the other night)!  Rather than being focused on things I don't quite grasp, I'd be trying to get Congressmen and women to use color-coded tabs on their documents or something else along those neurotic lines... or I'd be having this conversation... "Uh, Mr. Senator, you mentioned health care???  Let me tell you a little story, a story about SCABIES..."