Yesterday (if you were under a rock for the past 6 months) was the inauguration of President Obama. A bunch of us, students, faculty members and staff from the school all congregated in Cole Cinema, the movie theater on campus. Over 150 of us packed in, filling all the seats, sitting in the isles and standing in the back to watch the coverage of the inauguration speech. It was really a great way to spent part of the first day of classes. Several professors and staff members spoke briefly introducing this speech and contextualized it in the sphere of race, politics and potential comparisons it to other inaugural speeches, specifically FDR and JFKs.
Although I flirted with the idea of trekking up to DC, I ultimately decided that the effort of figuring out the logistics of trip was too complicated to do (not to mention skipping the first day of classes and the less than ideal weather forecasts). I haven’t quite figured out whether or not I’ll ultimately regret the decision, but I’m willing to bet I’ll have another opportunity to see something like this in my lifetime (I HOPE!).
The whole coverage was of course amazing to watch, but it was particularly interesting to see our Board of Trustee Member, local House of Representative member and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer walk out on the platform. Especially since I’ve seen him speak a number of times, most recently the day before at the MLK Day breakfast (see previous post).
Although it wasn’t the same as standing around on the National Mall with hundreds of thousands of people, it was still good to experience it with a group of people at a place of higher education. And besides they even provided delicious American flag cake!
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