I was there. A Cincinnatian's view of the Inauguration

As a journalist, I see myself as a collector of stories and events. So I knew I would regret, for a time indeterminable, if I were to miss, as cliché and overstated as it sounds, the once-in-a-lifetime inauguration of the first African-American President.

I made the sojourn to the fiercely cold Capitol with a group of intrepid young journalists from New York University. We each are active in political journalism and 2008 gave us no shortage of opportunity to cover one of the most exciting and unprecedented presidential campaigns in history. We represented a swath of the American political landscape with each of us hailing from swing and southern states: Ohio, Michigan, Georgia and Florida. Included in our party was a young horse rancher from Hanover, Germany whose enthusiasm for the new President was so infectious we dare not leave her behind.

We started our trip at 3am the morning of the Inauguration, driving to the Vienna Station to catch the train into Washington. 11th Street had turned into a makeshift flea market with rows of shivering vendors hawking every imaginable mug, poster and button that could fit an image of President Obama. Silk-screened canvas grocery bags featuring the First Family, photos of Martin Luther King, Jr. with photoshopped Obamas and even Obama-themed condoms that advertised “smaller sizes available” lined the National Mall as far as the eye could see.

The crowds were happy… and laughing with complete strangers throwing smiles and handshakes to anyone who wanted them. It was a pandemonium of people; a free-for-all of absolute elation that swept over a cold city and made the air a littler sweeter.

We finally found a gate to the National Mall at 12th and E Street. Because of the early hour, the National Guard wouldn't allow anyone to enter until 7 a.m. when the lines began to show some movement. By 9 a.m., roughly 10,000 more people joined the queue, but we had barely moved two feet.

Confined quarters for an extended period of time is enough to make any patriot cranky. On any other day, the temperatures would have driven most indoors. The cold from the ground crept up through our shoes, numbing our bodies. The negative degree wind chill was unbearable. The cold and fatigue were making me scream on the inside, and yet looking around, all there was to see were smiles. We all closed ranks to keep warm. Perfect strangers embraced each other in what felt like a political love-in.

Soon we were facing the Washington Monument and one of the many Jumbotrons broadcasting the event onto the Mall. Our position was ideal with the Capitol Building in front of us and the Lincoln Memorial to our backs.

As former presidents and statesmen took their places on the steps of the Capitol, the gravity of the event took hold of the crowd. I was within two thousand feet of the political giants of my time: Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, Sens. Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein, and Harry Reid.  

Next to me, I befriended a gay couple who traveled from London to attend the festivities. Mike Oakes was English; Chad Shivner was an American from Chicago. Oakes was keeping warm with a British Flag tied around a Gay Pride flag and wrapped around his shoulders. They told me they had moved to England as a result of the United State's ban on same-sex marriage and the absence of legal support for same-sex unions. Under the Obama Administration, both feel they might possibly be able to return to the U.S.

“He's acknowledged we exist, which is quite a big deal,” Oakes says. “He hasn't come out totally for gay marriage, but I think there are signs that we can expect to see a change which we definitely wouldn't have under any other administration.”

His partner was equally enthusiastic. “It's nice to finally have a moment where we can be proud of America again,” Shivner said.

Coming from Cincinnati, I felt an obligation to be in Washington for the event. Cincinnati is a city that has struggled with its relationship to race. It is a city that remains psychologically and physically segregated. In the lead up to the election I was ready for anyone other than our 43rd president. But in the first few weeks of 2008, I fell hard for Obama. He symbolized the epitome of my values and ideals.
When Inauguration Day came, I realized, like so many others around me, that it had nothing, and everything, to do with race simultaneously.

The nation has moved beyond the color line in choosing its 44th.  Perhaps that movement, coupled with the hope and change the Obama election gives the rest of the country, can serve a greater purpose here in Cincinnati. This Inauguration meant so much to so many, maybe that sense of possibility will carry itself into our own halls of City Council and County government.


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Photography by Emily Maxwell, contributing photographer for Soapboxmedia.com, Scott Beseler,
and from writer Ryan McClendon
Obama at Ault Park, Cincinnati  by Emily Maxwell
Crowd gathered at the National Mall, Washington D.C. by Ryan McClendon
Flags and crowd gathered, by Ryan McClendon
Change we need, by Emily Maxwell
The Blue Ball inauguration party at The Northside Tavern, by Scott Beseler