Being one time zone west of the Pacific Coast, Obama’s swearing in took place here just as school started today. We had TV’s on all over the building. I had sound and picture coming through the projection system in the classroom – big screen, room lights half off while it was still dark outside, and as the kids came in they hung up their coats and sat down to watch.
We caught the tail end of Obama’s speech, the benediction, the poem, the national anthem, and Bush’s helicopter departure. There was a lot of interest in that helicopter. They were all real attentive. I asked how many had been watching at home before they left for school, and most raised their hands. They all wanted to keep watching, and I let it run for about 30 minutes.
The news announcers estimated the crowd to be over a million. One of the kids commented, That’s twice as many people as we have in our whole state! Humbling.
Washington has always seemed remote and alien from Alaska. But I’ve never felt closer than I did today. The ground did shift. We felt it.
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