Amid the rampant Obama-mania in the U.S., hearing opinions from across seas, from a cul-de-sac deep in the heart of rural England, can be endlessly refreshing.

“Did you watch the inauguration?”

“Inaugur-what?”

“The swearing-in of America’s new president, Barack Obama.”

“No. For a start, this is England. Who cares who America’s new President is? Anyone is going to be better than Bush.”

As far as some of my British friends are concerned, the mere fact that this new guy “isn’t Bush” is cause for celebration. Expectations are low in the pessimistic isle, because low expectations are more likely to be met. And according to the British public (at least, as far as I can infer) it’s not a good idea to set the bar too high for America, despite their seemingly sane choice for a new president.

Even those who aren’t particularly interested in American politics have adopted the opinion that President Bush’s eight years were a disaster, that he trashed America’s reputation (or, at least, fulfilled all the negative stereotypes that have been bred across seas) and was generally just a “retarded cowboy” (to quote British comedian Russell Brand, who has become a disturbingly influential force in the homeland.)

Anti-American sentiment in the U.K. has significantly grown during Bush’s presidency, roaring into mainstream culture at about the same time the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was released (July 2004) before quieting to an apathetic lull in the past few years. News became opinion, opinion became gossip, gossip became stereotype, and suddenly everyone thought that “bad president” and “George Bush” went together like tea and biscuits. No argument. Everyone was willing to take part in the Bush-bashing party. Yet ask the average man-on-the-street (outside of London) to name three things that President Bush did during his presidency, good or bad, and you might find that popular opinion deflates like a balloon. The British, as Polly Toynbee from The Guardian explains, are “lazily cynical.” Rather than rejoice, they prefer to believe that “political passion is unfashionable, risky, naive, and destined for disappointment.”

Despite Toynbee’s declaration that Jan. 20 was accompanied by a world-wide “tidal wave of optimism”, reactions to the inauguration (for those I know who watched it in the UK) were pretty tame compared to election night. It was a very polite historical event, and Britain already has its fair share of those (Victory in England day, the Queen’s Speech, the Royal Variety Show… it can seem like one a week sometimes.) As is the case with such events, TV sets were tuned to BBC news and left on, buzzing in the background all day, keeping audiences plugged into what they kept being told was “an important day in history.”

Unlike election night, when that “tidal wave of optimism” was thick and clear around the world, inauguration day in Britain seems to have better suited the image of an ominously still lake. There was a “wait and see” attitude toward the celebrations. “I’ve got a bad feeling about today,” commented one Guardian reader. “Prepare for the worst,” wrote another. “Cynicism isn’t lazy,” explained a third. “It may be wrong but it isn’t lazy. Cynicism is bred of long despairing and we have been long despairing.”

The fears bubbled and frothed. Where is the story going to lead, working backwards from this happy ending? Are the troops really going to come back from Iraq now? Is the American government going to aid its poor, hungry, jobless, huddled masses yearning to breathe free? What’s going to be the new definition for that controversial word, “Israel”? There are too many questions for this new President to answer, and the cynics are waiting with abated breath for the storm to come. “As a purely historical observation,” wrote another Guardian commenter, “America doesn’t do “good” presidents or charismatic black leaders… at least, not for long.”

But having low-expectations (or even extremely morbid expectations) may simply be a sign of Britain’s own esteem issues. This is a country without cheerleaders, root beer, or Las Vegas. This is a country that ceded its power after centuries of global dominance only to watch America become master in a fraction of the time. It’s no wonder that the U.K. ranks 26^th in a global study of self-esteem, a full 20 places behind the U.S. As British journalist Mark Austin bluntly puts it, “Barack Obama makes me jealous.”

Cynical. Optimistic. Jealous. Thankful. Scared. Happy. Historical events always spark a mish-mash of emotion. But there are only two words that will define the next 100 days… “We’ll see.”

Traveling out of DC on the morning after the Inauguration was actually more difficult than getting in. As we waited thirty minutes to get a free cab, I noticed this sign in the trash. Apparently even the anarchists are excited about President Obama! I had a long cab ride in traffic to BWI while poor Jared had to endure a charter bus ride from hell to get a good airfare out of Philly.

On my flight to Houston I sat next to an African American woman who let me borrow her newspaper so I could read the full text of Obama’s speech. I’d missed a lot of it during the ceremony because the sound system didn’t quite reach where we were standing. After reading it, I broke into tears, my first emotional moment of the whole trip.

I was firstly just so grateful that we had chosen a leader who is intelligent and speaks in complete, coherent sentences. Second, I share more values with the President than not—a first for me when it comes to political figures. Third, the country is facing arguably the greatest challenges we have ever confronted, but I sense more optimism and can-do-it-ness in rising to the challenge, than cynicism or apathy than ever before. And lastly, I was proud of America for doing the right thing—for electing the better man, and for overcoming racial bias to do so.

As I handed the paper back to my seat mate with tears rolling down my face I  said, “I am so grateful.” She said to me, “I’m so glad to be sitting next to you, honey. God bless you.” There was so much more communicated in that moment than what we said to each other—and I’m not sure I can find the words to describe it exactly. But we found ourselves on the same side, beyond the divides that would have previously kept us from connecting. We transcended something so ubiquitous and tacit that we don’t even have a word for it. Its one of those things that only becomes noticeable when you suddenly sense its absence.

As she continued to read the paper, she showed me a story about Angola Prison where the inmates had been allowed to watch the inaugural ceremony on TV. The picture showed a man who has been in prison since 1957, doing a life sentence for two murders. She reminded me that according to the US Department of Justice, 32% of black men will enter prison during their lifetime, as opposed to seventeen percent of Hispanic males and six percent of white males. Yeah, there’s that, I thought. How are we going to change that one? But what I said out loud was, “You know, I think that is going to change too.”

What happened next during my four-hour layover in Houston reinforced that nascent hope, when I struck up a conversation with a young African American man behind the cash register at a Mexican restaurant. At first I picked up on his energy of subtle hostility, but when I made a comment about Obama’s busy first day he broke out a huge smile and started talking to me like I was one of his homies instead of some white lady buying a taco. “My man ain’t wastin’ no time,” he said. “He got up and said, ‘We gonna get down to business, we got some work to do. We gonna make some changes today.’”

It was so awesome, he and I were suddenly “us” instead of “them.” Then he said something that blew me away. He said “Today I’m an American. I ain’t African American no more. Today, I’m an American.” “Right on, my brother,” I said and gave him a high five.

I think this might be the first evidence that a tectonic shift in race relations is taking place. And what is happening is redefining what it means to be American. I think we are going to see some amazing things on a human-to-human level, as long as we stay open and reach beyond our old ethnocentric divides to connect with others. Do the experiment for yourself and see what happens when you tell an African American stranger on the street how happy you are that Barack Obama is our new President.

Truth: I don’t care what went down in D.C. because we had some damn good times here in L.A. Let me explain.

All sorts of folks made it to the Mayan on Tuesday night: angels, devils, young, old, the bold and bedazzled, the mamas and the papas, the prepsters, the groupies, the stilt-walkers, the smooth talkers, and even a suited-up schmuck here and there. Anything and everything moved and mingled throughout the venue. We were a happy hodgepodge of mixed nuts.

“This is what liberation feels like, yeah?” screamed some dude into a microphone. And so, the night began.

The lights went down as the face of our new President took center stage on three big screens throughout the room. Most of us heard Obama talk the talk earlier in the day, but we couldn’t get enough of it. The room fell silent as we listened to his speech all over again. His words made sense of our madness—and we were hooked.

D.J. Motion Potion then pumped out the jams and infused bits of the speech into the mix. The crowd kept pace and let the new president take the lead. Words of hope and change punctuated every beat and we danced it up. We twirled and dipped. The clench of these past eight years—we let it rip. We let it all loose. Free at last. That’s what we were.

“What a great turn for our country!” exclaimed Gabriel Avenna, a high school teacher who had kickass $20 t-shirts on sale.  The tees read: “From abomination to  Obama-nation.” Avenna said he didn’t create the shirts with a profit in mind. He just wanted to raise awareness. “We’re finally going to regain the respect we lost over the last eight years,” he gushed.

Kathy Leonardo, a singer/songwriter decked out in a patriotic fairy getup, shared the same sentiment. “I’m so excited that suddenly Americans have opened their eyes,” she said with a grin. “And I love the fact that this is happening at night, so I can go out and party!”

Kathy Leonardo

The crowd kept dancing as the “visual symphony” took command of the floor. The music got faster and the beat bumped louder as a whirlwind of visuals flashed on and off the screens. All the images were made in the U.S. of A. They made me want to pat myself on the back—just for being an American. For voting for Obama. And for adding a new achievement to this country’s rich history.

And then—shh!—The Mutaytor.

The Mutaytor

If you haven’t seen this cirque-du-so-whoa! rock group, you need to. From the antics of the hoola-hoop contortionist to the sheet-climbing ballerina to the upside-down, fire-whirling, baton twirlers, this alterna-grunge troupe does it all. They jam, they dance, they strip a little here, then bump and grind over there. It’s talent in the raw, cool raunch all the way.

So what does The Mutaytor have to do with Obama?

“It’s art for the sake of art,” said Commander Dazzle, a Mutaytor groupie. “We’re coming out tonight because we’re inspired. Barack Obama is all about hope and what America stands for—freedom. Being cool to each other. That’s what we’re all about. That’s what this entire scene is about.”

Commander Dazzle

As I meandered out of the Mayan, I realized that Commander Dazzle had her finger on the pulse of the evening. The people I partied with were from all walks of life. I even shared a laugh with a 65-year-old robot maker who had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided to attend the ball that night. But in the end, he was “very pleased” about partaking in the fun.

Bill Schonlau

We’ve spent so much time, money, and life on being at war with the world, each other, and our leaders, it’s about time we stop dropping bombs, reclaim our integrity, and foster an environment where the countries around the globe are just “cool to each other.” The allies, the enemies, the young countries, the old ones, the bold and bedazzled, the unstable stilt-walkers—again, why can’t we all just be “cool”? And Barack this party.

Naysayers, go ahead. Call me naive. But hey—take a look at us in L.A.

The world clearly has some catching up to do.

Although I wasn’t able to capture it in the video below, the subway personnel instructed us (in a very loud voice) to “keep it moving” to help the crowds exit through the train doors, to put our tickets through the reader, to ride the escalator up and out onto the streets. These instructions became a fun chant for the upbeat Inauguration train riders.

Obama Love in front of Legendary Ben's Chilli Bowl

On inauguration night we decided to check out how the everyday people of D.C. party (read: we didn’t have tickets to any fancy balls).

We started out at Bohemian Caverns on U street, where our D.C. host, Shea Van Horn, was spinning that night. In the grotto-themed basement, we fell in love with The Love Language, an indie rock band out of North Carolina. Shea’s eclectic mix of indie rock, electro and good juicy ass shakers had the crowd sweaty and ecstatic upstairs. Everyone would periodically erupt into Obama chants between numbers. His set was followed by a DJ tag team crew out of DC called FatBack. These guys kept it going strong as they each took turns working tracks on vinyl and MP3 from a computer, anything goes in DC it seems.

Shea and Lisa at dinner before heading out

After a few drinks we headed over to a little bar called The Duplex Diner, to meet up with some more friends. I felt I needed to reconnect with all the rowdy married men I’d met a few nights before and see how they were feeling on this most auspicious night.

Edaurdo and Matt at the Diner, Married and Hot

By this time, the conversation around the day’s events had devolved to discussion of Michelle’s dress. Some found the strap too wide, others wanted to see bolder color, but everyone agreed that she was beautiful. Shea and his lover have been together for over 10 years and my other favorite couple Matt and Eduardo have been together for nine. Matt and Eduardo had actually gotten married in Spain, Eduardo’s home country, recently. After many drinks, dancing and enjoying the incredible energy of the evening we found ourselves back and Shea’s until five a.m. discussing what it means to be married and what it means to us.

Being gay is interesting because even with in all the various kinds of racial stratification in America, gays within those groups find themselves marginalized again by their own families, their culture, and finally, the culture at large. Gay culture has always been the home of the “others”, whatever “other” you might happen to be you are welcome here as long as you have a sense of humor. A sense of humor seems to be what’s gotten “us” to this point. Gays of all kinds are still fighting for rights all around the planet—just Google Proposition 8.

So we, who are often the minority within a minority, find ourselves equally as hopeful that somehow this maturing of a world-centric perspective, will see us stretch ourselves even further to include all of us. That we will see this country actually living up to the great standards set all those years ago with the creation of our Constitution, probably the most World-centric vision ever to manifest on Earth at the time. The problem was, most of the people voting and participating in this democracy were not acting from that level of development. Deep egocentric and ethnocentric currents became embedded in our institutions and local governments, divisive currents of “us” against “them” made into law. It’s our duty to undo these transgressions, heal these wounds, and realize the vision of inclusiveness this country was founded upon.

Growing up in generation X and WE, we find these transgressions unbelievable. We inherit the daunting task of rooting out and changing laws that no longer represent us as a people. This is the essence of an active, healthy Republic. Many of us have felt powerless to change something that seems to complex, so entrenched. We decide instead to heed the words of visionaries like Ghandi and change ourselves, to work on what we can with people around and us and make a difference in whatever small ways we can. This is another path to the same end. I believe the day is here when we can finally see what that kind of on-the-ground inner and outer work produces. We have grown, we have changed, there really is hope. What we can’t do is leave it up to anyone else any more. We have to be the ones that hold Obama and every leader at every level to task. They either represent us or we take them down. They are not what created this beautiful moment, we are.

I’d like to see a day when we can let people who love each other be together just like anyone else. When being an American means what it was initially intended to mean—someone who is all of the strength of their individuality, their ethnic heritage AND a citizen of this great country. I think now we are now on the cusp of recognizing ourselves as members of ONE human race and as integral members of the  family of all living things that is this planet. The circle of belonging transcends and includes. We can be ourselves AND a part of something much greater.

We can learn to move in this complex space with ease and grace and develop new tools that help us grow. We can help each other and save this planet from a vision of separateness that doesn’t truly represent WHO WE ARE. We are meant for bigger things, we are meant to BE better to each other. This process never ends, this evolution is what we are here to do consciously now. We have created a beautiful moment in history right now. We can keep this momentum if we choose to. We can realize that this process never ends and embrace that if we choose to. We can design our world view to include all that IS, not resist everything we are afraid of, if we choose to. We can develop new ways of being with each other that lift us up and push us forward. We can let love in all its forms change us and make us into everything we came here to be.

We have created something amazing here and if we hold this in our awareness and let it really resonate we can take this with us. There is an enormous amount of work to do, but after talking with hundreds of people these past few days I’m more than confident that we can do this.

The Coveted Ceremony Ticket

Disclaimer: This is the story the news won’t tell you: How the Inauguration Committee just screwed everyone over.

I was = excited when I received news that I would be receiving tickets to the inauguration of President Obama. The line to pick up the ticket at my congressional office was about 40 minutes long, not bad considering some people waited more than three hours.

On inauguration day, Estee —my awesome friend who hosted me for the week—and I headed out from Chinatown DC, which is less than a mile away from the Capital building around 5am.

The walk turned into a nightmare when we realized all the streets were closed and we were not allowed access. We went all the way around the barricades to where the Purple ticket holders were being allowed in, only to be told we were at the wrong place. We then had to haul it all the way back to the back for a good 5 five blocks in the 12 degree weather to go under the 3^rd street tunnel which almost took us to Virginia. It was a very long walk underneath the city’s infrastructure, and quite cold.

When we finally arrived to the entryway, we made our way to more closed streets and found our way into the Silver ticket area that was extremely crowded and cold.

We waited for a good four hours before we started getting delirious.

By 11am, we realized we had not moved by much and people were not budging. Some were saying that the entry was on the lefthand side and I overheard people saying they didn’t have tickets.

How they got to the actual gateway without tickets was the problem. Most of the people blocking the way were people that were not ticket holders and had scrambled their way into the area. They were completely blocking the entry ways and were not at all concerned.

Estee and I decided that we were not going to put up with that and let out inner ghetto-queens come out. I had not flowed all the way from East LA and endured this crazy cold weather only to stand in a crowd of people and not see anything at all.

We started making our way to the left side of Maryland and 3rd St., pushing our way out.

“I need to pee!” I yelled out.

Some other people who got hip to the game started following us. By this point the speeches were beginning and we only had a short time. Twenty minutes later, we came out victorious to the other side of wall of hundreds of people only to be told by the officers that we were not going to be let inside.

WHAT?!

“We are ticket holders and you are going to let us in!” Estee yelled at the officer.

Sure enough, he resigned his position and let us in as we rushed our way into the lawn area.

We arrived just in time to see Barack Obama take his fumbled oath. (Seriously, how could Chief Justice Roberts flub up the oath the way he did?)

Nonetheless, “seeing” the oath is relative. We couldn’t really see anything, there were trees blocking the way, and there were no jumbo trons for our area and everyone was standing.

The speaker system was lousy and everything sounded like an echo. The oath took about 30 seconds and Obama’s speech as about 20 minutes long.

We were in line for 5 hours to see a 30 second oath and a 20 minute speech.

While the inauguration itself was a historic moment in our Nations history, much of the televised coverage depicted was not accurate. Ticket holders were treated the worst, and some never made it inside their designated areas. Meanwhile, those that showed up to be a part of the event took hold of the Mall area and its jumbo trons had best time. Facebook groups have already begun to form. And yes, I also started one.

2009 Inaugural Ceremony Tickets Nearly Killed Me!

Purplegate – “Let Us In!”

Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom

At the end of the day, with the thousands of people that arrived, the Metro was completely shut down, since the streets were closed off, buses could not run, and taxi’s were not available. There was nothing to do but walk in the 20 degree weather and hope for the best.

Once the festivities were over, everyone was instructed to move one direction and there was no way we were going back into the tunnel of doom, which in retrospect was bad choice, we were then held hostage under “security measures” and not allowed to leave the lawn until the inaugural parade was over. Add another three hours in the cold weather with nowhere to sit and nothing to eat.

We saw the motorcade with Obama and family and the Bidens. By this point, it was hard to be excited. Really wished I had stayed home and watched in on CNN online.

Overall, we were finally allowed to leave around 3:30pm and we arrived home, walking off course, around 5pm, a whole 12 hours later.

I was so exhausted I did not go to any, which is ironic because I was staying 2 blocks away from the convention center.

The best part of the day was heating up a frozen lasagna, popping a champagne and watching the balls on CNN online.

Overall, the whole thing was OVERRATED.

Although I feel extremely lucky to be in the nation’s capital during the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, I was one of the unfortunate few that never made it past the security screening for the swearing-in event.

Crowds at Metro Station

My morning began with heading down to the Mall area around 7 a.m. After facing massive crowds on the subway (Metro) and the closure of the designated Metro stop for my “blue” ticket, I reached the line for the blue ticket holders (before 8 a.m. and the opening of the gates). The blue area was full of people and completely disorganized. There weren’t any police, security, guides or Inauguration staff in the vicinity to ensure order.

After standing in the line for over an hour, the mass of ticket holders began encircling the line. People were shouting, “stop cutting” in hopes of preventing the disarray. However, no amount of chanting or “tsking” could prevent the confusion and chaos that erupted.

Crowd of Blue Ticket Holders

While standing in line (around 10-10:30 a.m.), an off-duty police officer who happened to be at the event told us that a generator had gone down. As a result, several blue gate security screening stations weren’t working, which affected the amount of people able to pass through the gate. However, the officer said we would all be admitted. (This unauthorized communication was the only information we received during this entire process.)

The people in the crowd began to amuse themselves by singing “The Star Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautifu,l” and other patriotic songs. (Oh, they also sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”) And after desperation set in as the clock inched closer to 11:30 a.m., the crowd began chanting: “Let us in. Let us in.”

My friends and I stood in this line for about four hours before finally realizing that we weren’t going to get through the security gate and screening. There were still thousands of people in front (and around) us. After hearing “Hail to the Chief” around 11:30 a.m., we realized we definitely weren’t getting in and headed back.

Outside the blue gate

We were pretty disappointed with the lack of organization in the blue area. After attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo., I was amazed at how the DNC could be so safe and orderly in comparison to the chaos of the Inauguration swearing-in ceremony.

Empty security screening stations

There have been several reports regarding ticket holders that were turned away. Although the blue section appears to have the most problems, the purple and silver sections also had ticket holders who didn’t gain access to the event. Reporters from the Washington Post and London’s The Telegraph wrote about these unfortunate incidents.

Although I didn’t end up witnessing the swearing-in ceremony in its “true” fashion, I am still happy that I traveled from Los Angeles to D.C. to be a part of the whole Inaugural event. The crowds remained mostly positive and upbeat despite the widespread disappointment. I met people from all around the world who were so inspired by Obama to make the trip. We all knew that we were just feet away from Barack Obama and this historic moment.

Despite the utter lack of organization in the streets and three hours spent running a maze of dead-end blockades and security checkpoints, we finally reached the “Silver ticket” reserved standing area (us and 250,000 other very special people). We made it in just before the ceremony began, though we set out at 7:30 am for a three-mile jaunt. At least one of the gates was closed, and we were told that the Silver area was full of gate-crashers without tickets. Ticket holders were turned away, and if not for our tenacity, we would have been among them. But when we got in to the Silver area we found that there was actually plenty of space. It was an exhausting adventure, but worth the effort to be present for the making of history.

I spoke with dozens of my fellow Americans throughout the day, as we were packed like sardines in the streets (love y’all, but would you please get out of my way?!). I was curious about where people were from—it turns out, everywhere! It’s so awesome that millions of people traveled from every corner of the country to be here today. Unlike other rallies and demonstrations I’ve attended in DC, it was a truly racially balanced crowd, and so beautiful to see. I’ve never seen so many Americans excited about a political figure before—only JFK comes close. And I’ll bet that this country has never seen so many engaged citizens, passionately committed to change. There’s a lot of work to do, and by the looks of it we’ve got a citizen’s corps at the ready.

As I reflected on what this day means to so many people, I was again struck by the notion that something is balancing out in American society. On the flight to DC from San Francisco, I sat across the aisle from celebrated author ZZ Packer, who was also attending the inauguration. I shared a story with her about a friend in South Africa who had described the mood there on the day after Obama’s election saying, “It feels like a huge balancing has taken place, for all of Africa—from slaves to Freedom, and now from Freedom to Power—the most influential office in the world. People here are dancing in the streets like they did when Nelson Mandela became president.”

People of all races, all around the world are celebrating with us today. What is so surprising about racism is that it oppresses indiscriminately. It cuts both sides off from their basic humanity. As my Obamarama Tour mate Jared and I walked past the Washington Monument, we talked about this balancing and we thought that no amount of reparations or money could do for the African American community what today’s inauguration of Barack Obama has done. Sure there’s a long way to go, but we can all stand up taller when the glass ceiling shatters.

And if this wasn’t a monumental enough reason to celebrate, we are also now rid of our worst-ever President and the most pathetic excuse for a world leader, George W. Bush. As he was announced at the swearing-in ceremony, the crowd booed and began to sing, “nah-nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah-nah, hey hey hey, good-bye.” Kind of a cheap parting kick in the ass amidst the pomp and circumstance, but still well deserved. “Good riddance,” we shouted at his helicopter as it took off from the Capitol.

Eight years ago when George W. Bush was handed the election by the Supreme Court, I was in New York City, working at the Village Voice, that bastion of liberalism and lefty queers. The night of the election, I was in Astoria, Queens, eating an Italian dinner and checking my phone for news updates, then a newfangled technology that was certainly costing me a lot of money.

As the dinner progressed, and me and my roommate made our way back to our house in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the updates were more and more dire; Al Gore, who had previously seemed like he would take the Presidency, was in a lock with Bush. We waited for hours and hours and stayed up all night, and in the morning still didn’t know who was the leader of the free world.

The week before the inauguration, the Onion ran a satirical story,  “Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over.’” At the time, it was sort of funny, ha-ha. We laughed, but were uneasy.

While I knew a lot of people who didn’t like Bush and preferred the other guy, there were plenty of lefties who voted for Ralph Nader, having bought Nader’s pitch that Bush and Gore were essentially the same and voted for Nader. I knew they weren’t at all the same; I knew that on women’s issues and gay rights Gore and Bush were further apart than the Israelis and the Palestinians. I knew that Bush was a born-again Christian hellbent on pushing his binary vision of the world, good  and evil, and was sure that he would push legislation that he thought would work to banish his definition of “evil.”

That Onion article, it turned out, predicted, with frightening accuracy, all of the things that I feared.

Could the writers of the Onion really been thinking this would become a reality?

“During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.”

Here we are, six years after Shock and Awe in Iraq failed to shock or awe, we are still in Iraq, with our troops stretched thin, and needed to battle forces in Afghanistan. People forget, also, that Bush, when when he wasn’t taunting Iran, essentially threatened and bullied North Korea, and if Iraq had been the cakewalk they had been predicting, we would have no doubt gone into another war, for absolutely no good reason.

Perhaps my favorite passage:

“We as a people must stand united, banding together to tear this nation in two,” Bush said. “Much work lies ahead of us: The gap between the rich and the poor may be wide, be there’s much more widening left to do. We must squander our nation’s hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent. And, on the foreign front, we must find an enemy and defeat it.”

And how scary accurate is this fake-prediction-turned-true?

“On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.”

The unemployment rate is 7.2 percent, the highest since after the second World War; people are foreclosing on their homes; and I have so many friends who are out of work it’s hard now to swallow that pill that Nader was selling. Does anyone believe today that Gore and Bush were basically one and the same?

By the time Bush was elected in 2004, I had printed out and taped a piece of paper that was a mock-up of  a Time magazine cover. It was a picture of W. with a “who me?” look on his face over a black background, and the words, “We’re Fucked,” emblazoned across the top. I looked at that picture every single day. This time, I am looking forward to giving myself a more optimistic outlook. I just needed a little hope and man named Barack Obama.

It’s been an incredible experience. I’ve produced concerts and events for years and I’ve never seen anything like this. The sheer number of people was amazing. Lisa Chacon, my tour partner, and I headed out to the inauguration a little later than planned and ended up walking the entire way there from Dupont Circle. We’re both into walking, so a few miles didn’t seem like such a big deal. Watching all the people streaming to the Mall with smiles, cheers, and this incredible joy, made this long march easy. This lasted till about the time we got to the Third Street Tunnel. They had closed it off on the other end and as we got about two hundred feet in you couldn’t see clearly what was happening and there was no signage.

The tunnel just started filling with people and you could feel the anxiety levels rise as hundreds of people decided like us that being stuck in a tunnel with thousands of people wasn’t on the agenda for the day. It would have been nice to have had some people communicating to the crowd because this led to complete confusion. There are only certain streets that cross over to our destination, and after spending an hour finally getting through one check point, we were told that we had to literally go back to where we came from, because the tunnel was THE ONLY WAY to the Silver Ticket area!!!

So our very own Long March to Freedom began. After literally standing for hours neck to neck with people moving ten feet every few minutes we managed to slip into the coveted Silver Ticket area and see almost nothing.

It didn’t matter, though. What was incredible is how, through all of it,  everyone maintained such grace and humor. It was all about the people.

That got me thinking about how great it is that this man, Obama, can give so many people such hope and inspire them to really know that they actually matter. People cried. They shouted and booed Bush. People held each other up, and every face I looked in, I sensed a real connection. These kind if moments are so special, so incredible to share.

It really is amazing, You feel it, this has done more to create real connection between all kinds of people than anything I’ve ever seen. Now we’ve got real work to do, and the people seem ready for it!

happy actor Val Kilmer exits stage Obama

Yesterday I wrote about the seemingly impenetrable blood-brain barrier between me the cynical political reporter and me the woman who wanted to be enchanted with Obama.

Today, I am a believer… to an extent.

I believe in the power of the collective that supports this man. I was there on the Mall, among the relatively small number of seats facing the Capitol. I kept turning around to see the immense stretch of hundreds of thousands of people coming to witness the official end of the Civil Rights Era and the beginning of… what?

To say Obama Time would be facile. We are perched on the unknown.

I saw my mother smile and cry. I ran into friends. I watched the helicopter Marine One carry off a former president, Mr. Bush, who now seems more defeated than defiant. (As BET’s Jeff Johnson said of Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush, “One man wants to lead; the other wants to leave.”)

I am struck by Mr. Obama’s glamour. That word’s archaic meaning was more along the line of “a magic charm that makes people do your bidding” than “a good stylist who gets you in the tabloids.”

The President has glamour in the old sense. His magic spell is that he makes people want to be their better selves. A key example: there was not one police arrest during a moment when well over a million people crowded into the city to see the inauguration. People are standing outside in the cold for hours; stuck in overcrowded train stations for hours; driving for hours to get to DC… and they act like kittycats in a warm lap. That’s some serious magic.

On the glamour tip, Obama shares much with Oprah. Of course, Barack Hussein Obama now controls the largest standing army in the world. While Oprah runs a mean multi-billion-dollar corporation, to my knowledge her nuclear stockpiles are none.

Mr. Obama is also the hard side of metrosexual… chicks (and many men, hetrosexual and not…) dig how he loves and protects his daughters and pats his wife’s butt; but they also love that he can play a mean game of one-on-one basketball and doesn’t mind having an enforcer like Rahmchop felling his foes.

All this is the nitter-natter of small political punditry. It’s hard for me to really describe what it was like and is like to be here. People really are transfixed and transformed, if only for a moment.

Let’s see how long it lasts, and hope it’s a long while.

Four University of Chicago students speak on Obama, race relations in America and what the future may hold.

These photos are from a three hour walking tour of the National Mall area less than 24 hours before the inauguraiton of Barrack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. It began with a brief metro ride that led to a crowd gathered outside a cordoned off area, hoping to catch a glimpse of the president-elect as he got in his car.

A quick survey of the area surrounding the Washington Monument and the mall area revealed a buzz of energy and excitement, even though the amount of people walking around was a mere fraction of those that would be in attendance on Tuesday. The term “palpable energy” to describe was was floating in the air is a hackeneyed journalistic expression trotted out for events such as these. It seems the MSM has gone out of its way to overuse that phrase throughout Obama’s ascent to the presidency.

But it was the same buzz that one could feel walking around Denver during the Democratic National Convention. It was the electricity of mostly like minded people (the protesters in the slidehow above being one of the rare exceptions) gathering around a hugely sympblic event of epic generational proportions.

In many people’s minds, the slate wipes clean on Tuesday.