January 20, 2009

Screenshot from my TV:As a child when I would tell people I am from Washington, DC they would always ask, “Do you know the President?” or, “Is your dad a senator?” The answer to both is NO. I just happened to grow up in a capital city, in a neighborhood called Capitol Hill, on East Capitol Street, a stone’s throw from the actual Capitol building (if you continue down from my house five blocks you’d be find yourself at the steps of the building itself). You get the idea. Anyway, despite being amongst all the action (I can look out my window and know if Congress is in session based on the lights on the top of the Capitol building), I never involved myself in any of the politics. I didn’t feel special, and my city didn’t feel any more important than any other city. My family knows a few influential people, and we discuss issues at the dinner table like any other New York Times reading family, but that is about the extent of it. And even though there are important events in our city all the time, and top-secret conversations between head politicians every day…I’m usually just not that enthused.

But as I sit here watching CNN alone in my Sydney apartment looking at a screen shot that could have been taken from my doorstep, I am so jealous of the thousands of people that are already rallying around the Capitol like March of the Penguins (it is 20 degrees F)!!! The coolest, most exciting, historical, energetic political (or other) event to happen in my city (in my COUNTRY) in my lifetime, and I’m not there to be a part of it! Damnit.

The city has this buzz on big days like inaugurations, even the Fourth of July, football games. I still remember watching people walk proudly past my house all day during the Million Man March. Even the hideous anti-abortion rallies bring a certain energy (albeit a negative one). BUT THIS. This is by far the most exciting event my city has hosted, at least in my life time- and maybe since Martin Luther King’s speech in 1963. I can only imagine the vibe in the crowd of thousands of freezing people standing in the early morning glow of the Capitol building.

Guess I’ll just have to accept the fact that when my grandkids ask me, “Where were you when Barack Obama was elected President” and “Where were you when Barack Obama delivered his inauguration speech on January 20, 2009?” I’ll have to say, “I was in Sydney.” Yes, that is my reality. But you know what? THere is something kind of fun about coming home from work and turning on the TV to watch my city LIVE from about 3am (DC time) as it fills up with people. Watching the sun come up over Capital and the throngs of people surrounding it was actually quite awe-inspiring. Even though I'm not there in the thick of it, it will surely be memorable watching from my apartment in the southern hemisphere. Better go to sleep now so I don't fall into a CNN trance. It'll be 4am Sydney time, and I'll be glued to my TV...