We're back from our trip and I am still dazed by the experience. Were we really there? I look at the photos and can't believe we were. It has already become a blur of driving, looking at maps, standing in the cold, and having dozens of small conversations with strangers who didn't feel like strangers, in a country that felt like home for the first time in a very long time.
I think that is what will stay with me the most - the people I met and who I stood next to: all so different but all connected by the same desire for change. All there in one place, on one day, for one person, in the form of Obama -- but also for a shared set of ideals that is much larger than one man. Yes, I felt that. A dream of society which I carried with me once, long ago, a dream my mother gave me (as Obama's mother gave him), and some teachers and leaders tried to help me remember, but which lost force over the years, as I gave in to the easier path of cynicism and apathy.
There have been plenty enough superlatives going around the internet in the last few days, and plenty enough written about the event, so I'll just say one more thing: I'm glad we were there.
As Alessandra Stanley writes in the NYT:
"Television celebrated a new president making history, but the screen also belonged to those millions in Washington who made history just by showing up."
I hope that in future times of darkness and cynicism (which are bound to occur), people will look back and remember this event as evidence that, with the right kind of leadership and inspiration, Americans can come together peacefully, truly as one people, one nation. (And what more proof do we need than to know that in a crowd of maybe over 2 million, there was not a single arrest or violent event?)
(You can see a little video we made of our trip on www.roadmuse.com)
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