Tue 20 Jan, 2009
Barack Obama was just sworn in as the 44th, and first black, president of the United States.
I watched his inauguration in the Philadelphia airport, en route from a speaking engagement on slavery and race to an audience of five hundred on Martin Luther King Day in State College, Pennsylvania.
I was privileged to be able to join a roomful of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees as they watched the inauguration on a television set. There were absolutely no tears in the room — until the audience in Washington was asked to stand for the swearing-in, and the entire room in the Philadelphia airport rose to its feet. I’m sure that the applause, cheers, tears, and camaraderie which we exchanged after he took the oath of office were mirrored in locations across the land.
