The world will stop Tuesday when President-elect Barack Obama
takes his oath of office and then escorts President George W. Bush
to a farewell ceremony.
The world will stop Tuesday when President-elect Barack Obama takes his oath of office and then escorts President George W. Bush to a farewell ceremony.
There won’t be much in the way of parties or official celebrations in South County, but people here say they are still tingling with excitement.
“I’m just as excited as I was the day it happened, but what we have in South County is a bit of apathy,” said Morgan Hill-based Democratic Party Official Swanee Edwards. She will attend a party at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Hall in San Jose, 2102 Almaden Road. The event costs nothing and begins at 6 p.m., and Edwards said officials expect up to 250 people.
“Hopefully we can get some people up from South County,” Edwards said.
That probably won’t include Octavia Butler, a Gilroy resident who said she planned to watch Obama’s inauguration on TV and listen to talk radio from her home. She wants to use the event as a chance to reflect.
“It’s still unbelievable that he did get elected, and as an African-American, I really did not think it would happen yet,” Butler said.
“Generations of parents have told their kids if you do this or that right then you can do this, that you can be president,” she said. “Well, we tell our children this, but the scars have been so deep over the years that we really didn’t think this would happen.”
But it did, and for Obama the journey begins Saturday morning, when he and his family will ride an Amtrak train from Philadelphia to Washington. They will stop in Wilmington, Del., to pick up Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his family, and then it’s three days of fun until the main event Tuesday morning.
Bruce Springsteen, U2, Beyonce, Usher, Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder, John Mellencamp, Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Josh Groban, John Legend and James Taylor will entertain crowds at the National Mall. Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III and Queen Latifah will give speeches, and Obama will also stop by the festivities.
Even Oprah Winfrey will host a live episode of her show from the Kennedy Center Opera House Monday, and across town at Howard University, Spike Lee will speak along with Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Jesse Jackson and others. The next morning, right before Obama is inaugurate, about 10 a.m., the voices of the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus will ring throughout the nation’s capital.
When he takes the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, Gilroy City Councilman Peter Arellano and his daughters, Belen and Bernadette Arellano, will watch from the National Mall as part of a crowd that intelligence officials have said could reach 2 million people. Bernadette Arellano works as a Legislative Assistant on Health Issues to Congressman Michael Honda (D-San Jose), and Councilman Arellano said he eagerly awaits the event.
“I’m just so excited to take in the whole atmosphere. The reason I want to be there with my daughters is because when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, they were 8 and 9 years old, so here we were, standing in front of TV watching the Berlin Wall fall, and we were hitting each other and looking at each other and saying, ‘That was a site to behold.’ That was, for me, a big turning point in history and a positive one, and for me to be at Obama’s inauguration seeing the same thing, that’s just another brick off the wall of racism and hope for the rest of the country moving forward,” he said.
“The country’s moving forward,” Arellano continued, “and we have to basically think that it can be done and it’s still possible. Yes we can. Si se puede. You always look at it that way: Si se puede. I came from Gilroy. I came from the old side of town and I went to college.’ Small steps.”
Carol Harris, president of the Gilroy Arts Alliance, won’t be attending the event, but she said her daughter, Nancy Harris, will fly out Friday after spending months as an election volunteer and a lawyer checking polling places to make sure no irregularities popped up.
“I’ll be watching the inauguration on TV, seeing if I can see her face,” Harris said.
“It still makes me very emotional,” she added between tears. “It’s just unbelievable to me.”
For those without connections or a spare $1,500 for an inauguration ticket – which is how much a single pass cost on CraigsList Thursday – finding little things to do around here will suffice.
“I may just use a comp day and spend the whole day in front of the TV with my son,” Councilwoman Cat Tucker said.
Art Barron, who works at El Portal Leadership Academy and as program coordinator at Proyecto Movimiento – a program run in connection with the Mexican-American Community Services Organization and the YMCA – said he is pushing the El Portal principal to let the students watch the inauguration like his daughter will at Ascencion Solorsano Middle School, he said.
“This is such a special inauguration – the first African-American president and the state of the country and our economy and everything – this is my chance for hope.”
Barron said he plans to head up to San Jose’s famous Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., to watch the big event. For those wanting to stay closer to home, though, Stubby’s Sports Bar & Grill, 707 First Street, will start serving its signature Red White and Blue shot – a mixture of grenadine, vodka, Blue Curacao and Goldschläger – at 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to Bartender John Stieber.
“I’m very excited,” Stieber said as he poured his tasty concoction Thursday afternoon.
In Morgan Hill, Rosy’s At The Beach, 17320 Monterey Rd, will host an Obama celebration with food and drink specials beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to Rosy Bergin.
As for security within the Beltway, intelligence officials have said there are no specific threats to the inauguration, but they will close bridges into Washington and parts of downtown Tuesday. And with the help of Washington’s 5,265 surveillance cameras spread around the city, the Secret Service and 58 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies will make this the most secure inauguration ever – but it’s what happens afterward that really counts.
“(Obama’s) election still brings tears to my eyes, but his work is really going to be cut out for him,” Butler said.
