... But the real purpose of this rambling diary is to share another beautiful day...this past Saturday when I got up at the crack of dawn to go into Baltimore to buy my train ticket to Washington for the Inaugural Celebration on January 20th.
Hi Everyone,
This is my first post since being diagnosed and successfully completing treatment for breast cancer. My last post was called My Republican Mammogram, and I didn’t want to post any personal stuff because the excitement of the election and the issues were too important. (PS - stop reading this diary and schedule your mammogram if you are overdue). My cancer was removed, had not spread to any nodes, and I have completed my radiation. The day I found out I was cancer free was also Election Day. What a beautiful day all the way around. Anyway, I’m fine and enough said about that. But the real purpose of this rambling diary is to share another beautiful day...this past Saturday when I got up at the crack of dawn to go into Baltimore to buy my train ticket to Washington for the Inaugural Celebration on January 20th.
First, I have to say that I have been thinking a lot about what we have lost during the last eight years of this administration. And even though I’ve been filled with hope since the election, the whole shoe throwing incident really brought me down again. At first I snickered, and then I just felt sad. Then, I saw my American flag rolled up in the coat closet over the weekend. This is the American flag that my husband and friends bought in the early afternoon on September 11, 2001. Prior to that terrible day, I confess we did not have a flag displayed at our home. As I unrolled the flag, I saw just how faded it had become. We had stopped putting it out on the front porch every day like we used to. We hadn’t consciously stopped, it just kind of happened. I thought about how our little flag was symbolic of how my own hopes and dreams as an American had faded during these two terms with Bush etal.
But on Saturday, in the freezing cold in the middle of Baltimore, I got out of my car and joined a line of people, some who had waited since midnight for a chance to get a seat on the trains that would take us into Washington to watch a new day dawn in our country. It was wonderful, dare I say joyous, to be in line with a complete melting pot of shiny happy people. As a native Baltimorean, there have been times when, even though I love this town, I have been afraid in my own city. As a white woman, I have been wary of young black men and have eyed the locks on my car doors as they walked by. All of these thoughts crossed through my mind as I stepped into the end of the line for my ticket and I was truly sorry that I had felt separate from my fellow humans based on stereotypes and some story I heard on the evening news. We’re all in this together, I thought.
So, I stepped into the line with people – just "people." All of whom who were continuing the celebration we started on November 4th. There wasn’t a person standing in that line who wasn’t smiling; others were offering to let someone else borrow their gloves, offering an older person their folding chair, talking about Lincoln, Kennedy, America. Just like my flag – that line of people was so symbolic to me. It showed me that all of us can and will stand side by side and begin to heal the wrongs of the past - the past eight years, and the past couple of hundred years.
When the first person came out of the ticket area proudly displaying their train ticket, we all cheered. Several people wept. As I was buying my ticket in one line, the couple to my left was taking pictures of each other as they bought their tickets. It was magic.
There are people in my family who think I am absolutely insane for going to DC on January 20th. I tell them I can’t wait to be a part of the crowd (expected to reach 4 million).
That day, we will all be one giant organism, just being together, moving together and showing the world that we have come to take back not only our house Pennsylvania Avenue and all those imposing gray buildings that surround it, but also our country and our standing in the world.
January 20th - it’s going to be a great day – one that promises to be really long too. When I finally get home, which sounds like it might be around midnight before I finally make it – my faded flag will be lit up and flying on my front porch to greet me. It will remind me that that although we might be a little worse for the wear, we made it and there are great things in store for us. Barack - Our President - the one we have been waiting for - will lead us back into the sunshine. Peace.