I was supposed to watch the Inauguration from the blue-ticketed section, but like many other people, I found my entryway an impasse. At 11, my friend and I decided to head away from the Mall and find some place indoors to watch the proceedings. We ducked into the American Legion post at 3rd and D St. SE, figuring they would be able to point us to the nearest bar, but the woman near the door invited us to stay and watch with them. We poured ourselves some Dunkin Donuts coffee, grabbed a whiskey from the bar in the back, and settled in.
We'd landed at Post 8, the Kenneth H. Nash post. My friend remarked later that it was in many ways the perfect place to enjoy this moment--a communal, non-commercial space for people to gather. I did debate in high school and spent plenty of time in Legion posts giving speeches on various aspects of citizenship and the Constitution, so the room with its brick walls, tournament bulletin boards and scattered tables felt familiar, like home. We shared a table with a family in from Houston; the son kept his pink phone propped up on the table the entire ceremony snapping photos of the room, and occasionally repeating the president's name to himself.
There were lots of amazing moments -- I loved when the camera caught Obama turning around and winking to his daughter. Right after Obama was sworn in, a man at the bar behind me called out, "God bless the United States of America," and I could hear people give out sighs, as if they'd been holding their breath for ages. The bartender called out to see if anyone wanted champagne.
During Obama's speech, at the line,
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
A woman behind me whispered, "That's right."
The woman who invited us in was Kathryn Young-McGriff. She is the mother of biracial daughters. She choked up a little bit while we were talking, and said, "All this talk about Martin Luther King Jr.'s [I Have a Dream] speech--I really do believe this is the beginning of his dream come true."
--Phoebe Connelly