Collection of memories from The Historic 56th Inauguration of our 44th President

Well yesterday Lauren and myself along with 2 friends (Jen, a friend of Lauren's from MSB, and Noel, a friend of Lauren's from undergrad at GW) headed over to the Mall to witness history. We left around 7am (which we knew would be late) and headed to Metro. We fortunately live real close to the Crystal City Metro stop which is on both the Blue and Yellow lines, and minutes after we got to the station we were on the Yellow Line bound for L'Enfant station. The ride was pleasantly empty (not being sarcastic, really it was rather empty and that surprised us), but when we exited the train at L'Enfant... well out journey began...

It took us nearly an hour just to exit the station and then we got a few moments of space (since right at the station exit all tourist had to stop and figure out where they were going... being that my friend Edd and I like to head to the Mall on weekends to fly kites, I knew exactly the route we should take to the Mall (thanks Edd). So while everyone milled trying to figure out their directions, off we went... straight into more traffic. The entrance to the Mall near us was closed and the first open entrance was at 14th... so we knew we were starting late and now we were sure that we'd be decently far back, but we knew we wanted to be there and we weren't turning back....

So as we joined the crowd and went with the flow. That said... the crowd was amazing in both size and more importantly, patience. I've never been so amazed with the population of this country than I was in the crowd... no pushing, no mean people, just a common frustration and a willingness to be patient and to be helpful. At some point we all came across a baracade (which we all know meant we should go around...) the crowd calmly allowed those who couldn't make it over the baracade to go sideways around the baracade and those of us who could go over... and this is one memory myself and Noel will probably always remember about that day... Jen quickly was over the baracade, Lauren made it over with minor help by me, and while I was helping Lauren, a young man (10-14 years of age) noticed Noel struggling (we were all overly dressed in boots and coats which made it hard to move in general) to make it over the baracade and without a second thought, the young man simply reached out and gave Noel a hand.

So back to flowing with the crowd... well again like I said we already expected and were joking that we'd be sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, so when we hit a 'road-block' at 14th... we knew it may be worse. That said... as we were waiting for crowd control to guide us across (they were using what looked to be a truck to prevent certaing sides of pedestrian traffic from crossing plus helping emergency vehicles to get across), some one around us decided to simply enter the parking lot of the Ag building and off we went... straight to the Mall.... wow were we happy, right where Noel and I hoped we'd be... between the Capitol and the Washington Monument and then even closer that we'd hoped and with a great view of the jumbotron.

And back to the amazingness of the crowd... now that we were situated... we also found ourselves infront of the area reserved for the disabled and elderly. The National Park Service also arranged for volunteers to be stationed to help. One responsibility make sure that they had a view of the jumbotron... the amazingness of the crowd, anytime the volunteers had to ask someone to move that was blocking the view of the jumbotron, they simply thanked the volunteer and moved on... it was so nice to see that everyone was so nice and friendly and willing to do what they could to make sure everybody had a positive time.

now for some photos... (if the below embedded object doesn't work try the following link:
http://flickr.com/photos/nickc_321/sets/72157612755964163/)



and with special thanks to EWeb Voice Recorder which allowed me to record President Obama's First Inaugural Address. You can download my recording at: http://www.box.net/shared/76690lx2y8. (Wikipedia's transcript: link)

Well a new President is in office...

Tomorrow is Today

Politics... well first off, I'm no fan, but who really is. Second, I'm no Democrat, I may have voted Democrat in the last ... well every Presidential election I've been old enough to vote for, but by no means am I a Democrat nor am I a Republican... yes I was registered as a Democrat in Florida, but only because I got sick of the Republican propoganda you recieve if you are unafilliated (but mostly the fact that they sent me everything in Spanish because of my last name, not caring if I even spoke Spanish, which I do not)... As far as I'm concern, I am an American and will always vote for the American that I feel will serve the country best. I think Obama said it best at the Democratic National Convention: "We are not red states and blue states, we are the United States".

Image via WikipediaToday I am extremely proud to be an American and a citizen of the United States of America! We have taken another step in the direction of equality. I technically speaking am a Hispanic-American (Mexican to be exact) but as far as I'm concerned, I am an American. We as we all are, and as Americans from the United States of America have elected our first minority President with Barack Obama. Barack Obama, President Elect of the United States of America, the 44th President,  the 1st African-American President in the United States of America.

Now I have a question, not to take away from this great victory, but why does it matter that President Obama is an African-American? As Americans we entered the polls as Americans, and we voted for our fellow American. Obama is an American from the United States of America like the rest of us. Born in this country, as were the majority of us all, he will be the 44th President of the United States of America. But why must we label him or myself as minorities? Why is he an African and myself a Hispanic? We were both born here, we were both raised here, and if you ask us both, we will say we are Americans and we all voted for an American.

So we've taken our next step in the road to equality, but when will we take the final step?  When will it matters not where a person's ancestry is from but the fact that they are American. When race, color, sex, religion, ethnicity or any label matters not. November 4th, 2008 we as Americans elected the best American in the country to run the country. We are all Americans. I'm proud of my ancestry, but I'm also proud of my country, the only country I've ever called home and have been a part of. I was born an American in the United States of American, as were my parents and my parents parents. I am an American and I am proud to be an American.

This election is a testament to all who have struggled in the fight for equality and freedom. It is a testament for all those who have struggled for the right to be American. Lets not let it end here. Let us cheer and continue to move forward. Change is here, but there is still work to be done.

I'm proud to be an American. "Tomorrow is Today" and the future looks even brighter. The Future start now.

CNNBC video

LOL, my brother just sent this to me, well last night... I just have to share it... there site contains a link to send it to others, please create one and do so



From: http://ping.fm/K5mko

commentary on the election....

Image via WikipediaFirst off, I must say that I am not an expert in this area, or for that matter ever want to be, the following thoughts are just that my thoughts. These particular thoughts happen to mostly be related to my listening experience on NPR yesterday while spending many hours riding in beltway traffic.

So let me start, first off, Congratulations to Barack Obama. Regardless of the fact that I didn't vote for you, you deserve every congratulations you get, as does anyone who finished a long race and wins. Hillary you put up a good fight and regardless of the primary results, I think you would of made a great president.

Now comes to the true 'commentary' of this post. Now if you asked me why I voted for Hillary, it had nothing to do with race/color/sex or any minority factor. I voted for her based on her experience level, that and I felt I at least knew what she stood for. At the time of the Virginia primaries, I had heard nothing about Obama's policies and positions other than the fact that he didn't vote for the war... well of course not, he wasn't in office, and I don't care that he says he wouldn't have, because almost everybody in office did. Hindsight is 20/20.... So purely my vote was based on experience level. So where do I vote from here.....

Based on my listening experience yesterday on NPR, there are basically 3 options:

1. vote for Obama
2. vote for McCain
3. vote for nobody and stay home

well for me the 3rd options has no merit and shouldn't even be listed, the reason this country works is because of out democratic process, besides since I didn't vote for Bush and cast a ballot against him, I have the right complain all I want about him, for those who stayed home and complain.... well what did you do to help prevent his 're-election'... nothing you stayed home. So yes I will be voting, but for who? The commentators on NPR Diane Rehm's show mentioned that the biggest factors that will be guiding those of us Hillary supporters will be the party or the experience level.
Well for me, well I'm not a Republican, but I'm not a Democrat, and the only reason I registered Democrat in Florida is becuase I got tired of receiving Republican propoganda in 2 languages, and yes I called it propoganda. But for me I have no true party affiliation, I look at the views and look at policies of the two parties and I'm a mixed set. There are policies that I agree with on both sides and ones that I am so utterly against on both sides that they totally drive me away, but as since the way the US political system has only produced 2 real parties, well I'm basically forced to choose between the two. Back on the policy/issues topic has anyone ever noticed that when it comes down to it, there are only a few real differences between the two parties, things like abortion and gay marriage and such, and in all cases, there are people in both parties on both sides. So what I'm getting at, is that I have no 'party' allegence so I won't be using that as a factor, I may be anti-Bush-Republican, but I'm not a card carrying anti-Republican.
Now for experience, well if you go based on experience alone, then I've got to vote for McCain... but that said, would I want to? While I think there are things about McCain that I like, there are also things I don't like. And as for Obama's 'lack' of experience, well I think most of the experience you need to be in office, is learned in office, which is probably the primary factor I think I had for voting for Hillary as I did for Gore in 2000, they were basically in the office and have learned what they needed to learn. This of course leads me to a story I heard yesterday driving home about Washington-insiders. I don't know who the commentator was, but I agree, I don't care how far outside and away you are from the 'insiders', this is Washington, when you are the president, or any elected official, you've got to work with the insiders, it is called politics for a reason. So this kind of negates the need for tons of experience, mostly being willing to work with the right people, and yes some of those people are corrupt, so again I say the RIGHT people.
So.... between McCain and Obama.... honestly at this point I'm not rulling either out, I'll be waiting for the head to head debates and who they choose as running mates, and no, I'm not saying that I won't vote for Obama if he doesn't select Hillary, but it would be the quickest way for him to secure my vote, but I'm sure there are many well qualified candidates out there.

well that concludes the first rambling of my mind, and now to the second, yes I know this is becoming a very long post.

The second topic relates directly to the 'history' that has been made by Obama winning the election. I leave this to the second part of this post because I don't see it as such a big thing. The fact that he is 'black' or African-American or what ever PC term you want to though at it to me doesn't matter. The fact that he is a minority doesn't matter. Why do I say this... well I'm of a 'younger' generation. I didn't live during any of the civil rights movements. I didn't need to march on anything. I am fortunate to be born after the fact. And this said, I tihnk it is utterly sad and embarrishing that this is such a big momentus occasion in our history. If we are all part of the same society and of the human race, why do we even have terms like 'minority'? Anyways also while listening to NPR, they had 2 commentators on (I'm assuming both African-American but I missed their introductions due to paying attention to traffic and the fact that the show was pre-empted by a weather alert, we were under a tornado warning), one a historian and the other I think a policatal writer. The neat part was there discussion on the generation issue, not the race issue, which is the reason I even wanted to mention this issue. It is a generation factor that it is history. Those from the Civil Rights movement era are praising the accomplishment, those from younger generations mostly just think it is cool. Now I say this as a 'white' guy, but it was really interesting to here a set of soundbites collected from African-Americans, there you could definitely see the generation gap. The 'older' ones were definite looking at it from the accomplishment view point, why most of the 'younger' ones almost sounded like it was a revolution. Anyways... I just hope that now after one of the greatest political races in history, politics and other areas will finally start to level off and we will become a single 'human' race in this country.

So, I guess thank you if you actually read this entire post.... I know it was long and for the most part a pointless barfing of thoughts on paper (well digital) but isn't that one of the great parts about blogs, we can put out thoughts out there for comments and stabs.... we'll see if this gets any.