Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Obama Day!

Just a quick post in the 5 minutes I have spare before I head off to a meeting.

Yesterday after work I went off to a local bar, where they had a big screen broadcasting CNN coverage of the inauguration, or “Obama Day.”


I’m sure many other bloggers will write much more eloquently about how moving and inspiring Obama’s inauguration speech was, so I will just say that it feels good to believe in a politician. I think it may be the first time for me. And to have a president that actually seems to represent my views on diplomacy, foreign aid, health care, religion, taxes…astounding!

It was great to see how excited Malawians are about the new president. After the speech, a young Malawian man came up and spontaneously hugged me!

Here’s everyone cheering after Obama was sworn in. We loved him flubbing his lines – just like Jorge on our wedding day!


But perhaps the most moving part of the evening was when the national anthem was played. At first I sung along timidly, feeling a little goofy in this crowd of cynical, worldly foreign aid workers. But then I noticed I wasn’t the only one. By the end of the song, all the Americans were singing along proudly. If that’s not a moment of hope, I don’t know what is.

4 comments:

A Khudori Soleh said...

salam. God bless us

Anonymous said...

Love that you got a random drive-by hug. I hope people start to like us now... Makes me want to cry that we can start fresh again and get things cleaned up. Relief is here.

Anonymous said...

In defense of Obama, I must add that it was the fault of Chief Justice John Roberts for the flubbed lines.

Miriam said...

Yeah, you probably didn't get that news over there. John Roberts didn't deliver the lines as practiced. Don't forget Obama's stance on education! Waaaaay better than what we've been having. I'll tell you it was a beautiful thing to watch that with all my little 4th graders. They were silent for the entire inauguration.