Obama!

i know i'm editing this weeks later than the event, but i posted this photo (of a button magneted to our fridge) as a placeholder for the post i wanted to write about the inauguration.  thrilling world history, right?!  i have been interested in the workings of government since middle school when i first attended KYA, Kentucky Youth Assembly, which creates a mock-government situation where students act as senators, reps, lobbyists, g0vernor, etc., to pass bills and elect officials (i loved it).  i have voted in every major election since i was legal.  but, as most other progressives and ~ really ~ just people who use their minds around the world, i have become jaded and sarcastic about the nation's leaders and their "leadership".   

when the votes were coming in in november and it was determined that Obama had won, i was ~ holding my brand-new infant and watching via internet ~ one of the many who cried.  with hope and happiness and: shock, almost, that our system actually might still work, people might actually stand up and let their voices be heard, and our country might possibly stand for an inkling of the freedom and ideals the forefathers and mothers envisioned.  

we watched the inauguration in the center of UC Berkeley's campus ~ historic in its own right ~ and i felt electrified all over again.  this time i thrilled in knowing that my baby daughter would grow up having this precedent not just a worthwhile goal, but historic reality ~ that someone other than an old white guy can hold an elected office of great importance.  and that the country might still have a few of those freedom- and choice-minded ideals intact.  

i realized i had been holding my breath and finally released it fully when the Obamas' helicopter chopped into the distance.  whew.  i don't think all problems are solved, but right now i have some hope.  for the first time in a long while.

kinda teary-eyed.

the event, projected in the center of campus.

this girl ~ will grow up never questioning whether someone other than an old corrupt closed-minded white guy can be an American president.