Monday, January 19, 2009

plezWorld Obama Inauguration Watch - 1 Day

My family blew into DC early on yesterday. Dropped off our bags and headed directly to the Lincoln Memorial for the "We Are One" concert. We didn't get back to my frat brother's house until 7:30 PM! But it was a blast to be in the midst of so many people who want to see President-elect Obama do well.

This morning, we're taking a more leisurely approach. Will probably head back down to the Capital Area to take in some of the sights. My daughter is only seven-years old, but I get the feeling that she knows that we are here for a historic event, one that she'll be able to share with her children and grandchildren. It feels good to be on the right side of History!

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It is kind of cold here and there are snow flurries. They predict some light snow tomorrow for the inauguration. I'll try to post a picture or two later today.

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A poll was published today on CNN.com that says that most Blacks in the US feel that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream has been realized. With the election of Barack Obama (and his inauguration as President tomorrow), it would be kind of difficult to say that Dr. King could've asked for more.

Excerpts of the CNN.com article:
The CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey was released Monday, a federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader and a day before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as the first black U.S. president.

The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech -- roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March.

But whites remain less optimistic, the survey found.

"Whites don't feel the same way -- a majority of them say that the country has not yet fulfilled King's vision," CNN polling director Keating Holland said. However, the number of whites saying the dream has been fulfilled has also gone up since March, from 35 percent to 46 percent.

In the 1963 speech, delivered to a civil rights rally on the Mall in Washington, King said: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

"Has that dream been fulfilled? With the election of Barack Obama, two thirds of African-Americans believe it has," CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said.

"Most blacks and whites went to bed on election night saying, 'I never thought I'd live to see the day.' That's what the nation is celebrating on this King holiday: We have lived to see the day," Schneider said.


I believe that institutional racism has been vastly diminished over the past 45 years and the remainder of our gains from now on will be more individual (like Barack Obama's victory) rather than collective (like affirmative action).

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