A message from the inauguration

From Dylan Svihus, 17, Carmel High School:

January 21, 2009

Our departure time was an hour later than normal, which was nice considering how I hadn’t really gotten used to the East Coast Time zone. Most nights I was lucky if I fell asleep by eleven. On our way to DC we got caught in rush hour traffic for the first time on our trip. We were going to visit the Lincoln Memorial, go the Newseum, and depart from Dulles Airport.

The Lincoln memorial was crowded, however, this only added to the epic scope of the memorial. The oversized Lincoln gazed intently across the mall at the Washington Memorial in the nation’s longest running staring match. At the front of the memorial, hoards of people were taking the pictures of the national mall. That’s really original; you definitely couldn’t find a postcard with that view. I had to resist the urge to exploit the phallic nature of the Washington Monument in a sexually explicit picture that would offend most patriots, and have revolutionary war veterans rolling in their graves.

It was at this point that we said goodbye to our tour guide. Her oratory skills were on par with George Bush, and like Bush, her departure was much more celebrated than her arrival.

Our next stop was at the youngest museum in DC: The Newseum. Unfortunately we only had two hours to see the six story tribute to the media. Highlights included a section about the FBI and the press, which had exhibits about Patty Hearst, The Unabomber with his actual cabin in the exhibit, and the DC Sniper. The drawbacks included expensive food, and a 4D movie that burned over twenty minutes of our precious time. There was so much information; I could have easily spent an entire day viewing the compelling exhibits. It was by far the best museum we visited on the trip.

After our painfully short stint in the Newseum, We went back on the bus to head to Dulles airport. Unfortunately I still had not bought the Obama paraphernalia that I had promised my family. I looked in every gift shop in the museums and monuments, but I was too cheap to buy a T-shirt for thirty bucks that was only five on inauguration day. Fortunately, our driver, Bob, allowed us to stop at a group of street vendors to buy some decently priced merch. I bought three Obama T-shirts, one Obama poster, two Obama pins, and one McCain pin that was 75% off—just for giggles; the grand total was thirty five dollars.

Our flight took us from Dulles to Midway airport in Chicago where we had a two hour layover. The next leg took us to Las Vegas, and then we proceeded to San Jose airport. In retrospect, seeing the inauguration was a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness history in the making, but I would have liked to see more of DC: the Smithsonian museums, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court were all places that we did not get to visit. I will definitely make it a personal goal as a citizen of the United States to revisit DC for a longer period of time.

From the onset of this trip, I was a little skeptical about the execution of Obama’s skillfully worded master plan, but now I feel that if nothing else, he has inspired a new generation of future politicians who will strive to carry on his message. Many believe that Obama’s message is about hope, but beneath the overtly spoken words that have echoed throughout America for months now, there is a much more applicable message: that of a subjective reality. On July 27, 2004 Obama gave a speech where he demanded that we replace the politics of cynicism with the politics of hope. Despite the fact that it is easy to be cynical, Obama demanded that we reject the reality of cynicism and apathy and replace it with a reality of hope and empathy. Obama’s election has proved that if enough people can join arms, they can change what is real in Washington DC, in America, and in the world. Obviously, there will still be fights in the subways, and reality can spoil just as quickly as it has flowered, but if we maintain the confidence that reality can be changed, then nothing will stop us.