The event itself went to everyone's head.
People counted their drinks carefully and some designated more sober drivers. More than a few law enforcement officers could be counted among us.
But the state of mind itself had many a soul under its mood-elevating influence, even sans artificial spirits.
So many of the motley host present had labored long and hard in a volunteer work force, making calls, going door to door, and hosting Obama political operatives in their homes who had volunteered from other states. Or they had contributed in paltry sums of five to a hundred dollars. When greenbacks wouldn't do, folks found other ways of donating. Some, like myself, wrote articles or otherwise demonstrated their loyalty and determination in order to generate publicity, and to influence opinion so as to bring about this magic juncture in opportunity and accomplishment.
And at last the moment was nigh.
Upon the giant screen, as many pulled out their digital cameras, and the press powered up floodlights and turned on camcorders to capture the event, Barack Obama appeared to excite, enchant, and contagiously inspire this assemblage and even bring some to tears. These droplets ran down faces ear to ear with joyous smiles.
Hardly a body sat. This standing ovation rang true, oblivious to any final curtain call other than the camera's fading focus, and Obama's, his wife's, and the McCain couple's exit to cause the surging emotion to then at last die down.
It went on not a few minutes but nearly three quarters of an hour.
We were, after all, welcoming a new blessed event, as touching as the arrival of any dear infant!
This swaddled baby displaced the haggard, tottering, gray-bearded old man of the past eight years, creeping off with his cane in his ragged robe.
So a bouncing baby boy laid claim to the birthright of a new era, with the historically momentous transfer of power from generation to generation. And, in this remarkable, racially trailblazing trek upon the American path, a veritable rainbow had come in the night, to light up the dark indigo sky with color.
As in the case of John Fitzgerald Kennedy's inauguration, we "let the word go forth, to friend and foe alike, that a new generation of Americans" had arrived. But, unlike the previous, it was interwoven among all ages young at heart - composed of those from late teens, young parents with children in tow, and the elderly, all justifiable and defiantly raucous with swirling cheer.
We truly had joined together as a cohesive band of brothers and sisters, all born again!
And even now, over four hours later as I write, I find I cannot rest for the excitement still surging through my nervous system, and the vibrant hope and vigor generated by "the change we need" at last within our grasp.
I cannot stay the words from this keyboard.
It may have been at the corner of Union Avenue and A Street, but, in every sense, it was more akin to Times Square at the twelfth stroke of the clock as the big apple begins descending.
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