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By Scott Nicholson, in the Watauga Democrat, 01/21/09:
With millions of people
riveted to television screens, blogs, and radio broadcasts during the
inauguration of President Barack Obama, local reaction to the shared historic
event was personal and emotional.
The inauguration proved to be especially poignant for Dee Dundon of Boone.
After watching Obama’s inauguration, Dundon recalled that an arrest warrant was
issued against her in the early 1960s -- at the height of the civil-rights
movement -- after she and other mothers showed black people how to vote in Gainesville, Fla.
The legality of the warrant was never explained.
The next day, she and some other mothers arrived at the courthouse with all
their kids in tow. Amid the cacophony, the charges were dropped.
“This is such a big day -- such an emotional day when you think of the
historical value,” Dundon said of the inauguration. “I didn’t realize it would
affect me so much. I felt like I was part of it. We, the people, actually
elected this president.”
Diane Tilson, chairwoman of the Watauga County Democratic Party, watched the
event from home. “The turnout was amazing, and I think the solidarity of the
country is apparent by that, and I hope we do lots of great things in the new
year,” she said. “I think the whole country is on new footing, and everything’s
not going to get fixed overnight, but I think that we’re on the right road.”
Tilson said people working hard on a grassroots level had made a difference in
Obama’s election. “It shows how powerful we are as people,” Tilson said.
”We will have to be patient. The situation wasn’t created overnight. It took
eight years to get here, maybe longer than that. I think this administration is
ready to hit the ground, though, and there will be some changes very quickly.”
In the Office of Multicultural Student Development on Appalachian State
University, students and colleagues gathered to witness the historic event. One
student took an American flag from a desk and hung it on the door as people
talked about service opportunities and the atmosphere of hope.
”I thought, ‘The hope is so deep and intense, it causes us all to gather on the
Mall,’ ” said Kinyata Adams, assistant director of multicultural engagement. “I
felt very proud.”
Adams expected the inauguration to be
emotional, but she was surprised to find herself in tears. “I thought I was
going to be okay. I was excited going into it. I’d been watching it for three
days straight, but to see it with my own eyes and this wonderful family be
presented to the world and for the first time to say, ‘Hey, they kind of look
like me.’ I know we still have a ways to go when we talk about institutional
injustices, but this is definitely a huge jump in a direction that I’m really
proud of.”
”I was really at a loss for words,” said Houston Sloan, president of ASU’s
Black Student Association. “It was a day that our ancestors fought for that I
never thought I’d see. I realized we could do anything we set our minds to. A lot
of African-Americans say it’s special because [Obama is black, but there’s more
to it than that.”
Sloan said the Black Student Association welcomes people of all ethnic groups
into its membership and said the time is right for more cross-cultural
understanding. “I think it will open up more doors [for the BSA] with
Caucasians and other ethnic groups. You don’t have to be black to be in the
Black Student Association. The Black Student Association is considered a social
organization, but we educate as well.”
Watauga County Commissioner Tim Futrelle, who was one of North Carolina’s presidential electors in
the electoral college, had what was nearly a front-row seat to the inaugural
ceremonies.
Futrelle attended the event with his wife, Jeanie, and arrived early Tuesday
morning. As part of the Electoral College, he was seated near the Capitol Building.
”It was really amazing for so many people being there from all different walks
of life,” he said. “Different nationalities, races, ages, classes -- rich and
poor and old and young. They were all very happy to be there, and everyone was
just in a great mood. People were helping each other get around and were
helpful toward one another. It was inspiring to see so many people come
together in one place for one event and have such a spirit of unity. It was
beautiful.
”Every part of it, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck. From
where we were, you could see people back all the way to the Washington Monument.”
A man on the bus riding to the event told Futrelle he’d been on the Mall 43
years earlier when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, and
the man said he now felt the dream had been realized.
”Since Dr. King’s birthday on Monday, it was a glimpse of his dream, people of
all walks of life coming together as brothers and sisters,” Futrelle said. “To
be a witness to the history of our first African-American president … that I’ll
always have.”
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