by Brie Sands (my GringaMom)
originally published 2009 here http://ladivalatina.com/iwasthere.html
I was there! After having lived through the sixties and having missed many (ok, all) historical events, I was not going to miss this, even if I had to walk to Washington!
As soon as Obama won the Presidency and hearing Obama say, “The road ahead will be long…our climb will be steep… I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there… I promise you…” I quickly made a promise to myself not to miss this historical event!
I am going! Don’t think I can get tickets. Don’t know how I will get there, but I am going! This reminded me of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech in August 1963, (even though I was not there) when Dr. King began his speech and said: “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation…” I had to memorize it from the history books.
It was exhilarating! From preparing to go to DC, to inviting family and friends to join me on my trip, to hearing Obama speak. Our friend from England, who came home to the U.S. to see this historic event, joined us on our trip to DC and she kept saying, “It’s all in the journey…we will get there…yes, we can…yes, we will.”
We arrived in DC on Monday. Thanks to friends in Virginia, we spent a few hours sleeping and awoke at 4:30 am on Tuesday to journey to DC. (I truly was too excited to sleep). We were driving from Virginia to the closest point in DC.
Didn’t know where we were going, but somewhere in Springfield the traffic stopped. All highways were closed. Undeterred, we exited the parkway and found parking at a shopping mall about 2 miles from the Metro. Undeterred we walked the close to 2 miles to the Metro train.
From the very beginning, we were undeterred at every obstacle and doors began to open for us. On the Metro, we bought commemorative Obama one-day passes. What a souvenir! We were first to board the train not knowing where we were going to exit, but that couldn’t stop us.
Everyone on the train was so excited, friendly, and helpful. People were singing and crying. The Metro was slow and not making all the stops because the stations were so crowded, but everyone was patient and there was no shoving or pushing. When someone needed to get onto the train, there was always room for one more. When someone wanted to exit the train, a path would open up. The cooperation of the people was remarkable.
The train would stop and would not move but the people, (we!) were moved! We were moved to be part of the greatest thing in history.
We exited at a station about three miles from our destination and decided to walk. It was freezing cold, but to us a minor discomfort. We didn’t know where we were going, but to us a minor detail. We would ask other travelers but they were also from other cities. They were following us, and we were following the people ahead of us, and so on. Just following the crowd, following the people. Everyone was going to the same place. All roads lead to Obama!