On campus and in D.C., students, faculty and alumni pause to watch the inauguration
By Mark Tarnacki
The inauguration of Barack Obama as president on January 20 left its mark on the Saint Michael’s community, both for those attending in person on the National Mall and for those back home who gathered for a high-spirited community viewing via a giant projection screen in the packed McCarthy Arts Center Recital Hall.
Nearly every seat in the hall was full and many people stood in the back by the time Obama placed his hand on the Lincoln Bible and took the oath shortly after noon. Many in the Saint Michael’s crowd stood, whistled and cheered in unison with the jubilant millions filling the sharp 24-by 16-foot image of CNN’s live broadcast up front. Joining the many students, professors and staff were members of the general public who said they wanted to experience this moment of history with their fellow citizens.
“Originally I had thought I was going to go back home after a morning appointment, and then I thought, ‘no, I definitely need to be here,’” said Herb Sinkinson ’74, a probation and parole official from South Burlington who watched from near the back entrance.
Some of the college’s African-American faculty and staff were clearly stirred as they connected the day’s events to deeply felt personal family experiences. Journalism Professor Traci Griffith said she flew down to the inauguration at the last minute and slept on an high school friend’s couch outside D.C. just to be sure she was on the Mall for this moment in history. It was a way to honor the memory of a great-aunt whose stories of joining the 1963 march on Washington and hearing Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech deeply affected Griffith from her youth forward. “That’s the kind of memory I wanted to be able to share with my two-year-old son, and I got that,” Griffith said. “From the moment Obama stepped out on the platform, I was bawling.”
Billie Miles ’76, director of information technology, was similarly affected as she watched the broadcast back on campus. “All day I’ve been crying,” she said as the McCarthy crowd dispersed after Obama’s speech. “I’m thinking how I was 11 when the Voting Rights Act passed … how my mom would tell me how she would have to step off the sidewalk for white people … and yet this is in my lifetime, not in the history book. I’m just so proud to be an American!”
Political science major Hilary Richard ’11 had written to the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy ’61 right after the election explaining why being at the Inauguration would mean so much to her and roommate Kate Bailey ’11, who both are social activists. They were ecstatic when Leahy’s office sent them two tickets, and they experienced an adventure that will be hard to forget.
“I always will remember the sound of people probably a mile away clapping and cheering minutes after our section had stopped. Their echoes were a reminder of how many people were brought together on that day,” Richard said.
