Did You Watch?
My dad was a very bigotted man from Georgia. He grew up on a farm where they grew peanuts and tobacco. He was in the Air Force. He didn't finish school but got his GED while in the Air Force. He worked construction all my life. Today I thought about my dad. I watched Barak Obama take the oath of office...the office of President of the United States of America. I really don't know what my dad would think about today's events. My dad passed away this summer. Yes, my dad was a racist but he was also a diehard Democrat, a union man, and I don't think he would've liked John McCain.
But my dad played a part in this story in history. My dad drilled the holes that place the inaugural stand in front of the Capitol Building. They are permanent holes that are covered when not in use. That inaugural stand attaches to the Capitol that was built mostly by slaves. Each person that worked on that building and that stand has a story. They are all connected by this one event. Those holes held the stand that supported Barak Obama as he took the oath of office. Dad, you helped hold him up. All of our lives are holding him up in some way. I believe that is what the poet at inauguration was saying. We are all a part.
Did you watch and where were while you were watching?
posted by julie @ 11:06 AM
5 Comments:
It is our darkness and our light that make us whole: yin and yang.
Each of our stories is built on top of the stories that have gone before. We are all part of a long common journey. I watched at home with friends who wanted to share the moment with others. What a day it has been.
you already know... i watched 20 minutes up to and including the oath in moody coliseum and then had to run to the campus center to watch the speech... it made me mad that they didn't show the speech in moody!
I am very happy to have found your blog, too. Thanks for your comment on mine. I immediately linked to yours and was delighted to find the your very moving post about the inauguration or the "auguration" as Aidan calls it. I was sitting at home with "flu boy" watching the whole thing all day. It was a lot of fun to explain things to my son as they were happening. I hope that we will all play a part in holding our new president up.
I did watch - at my house with a friend on the phone so we could say we watched it together should anyone ask where we were or who we were with. Thank you for asking. I loved it. I thought the whole day was amazing. I love what you wrote about the part your dad played in the day. It's intriguing how our stories run smack dab into each other even after we're gone. God is all over that.
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