My associates and I then headed to a local brew pub for lunch. Had you walked into the bar without any knowledge of what was happening that day, you would have surely thought that the patrons were watching a major sporting event, the Super Bowl, perhaps. The bar area was packed, every table full. The crowd was mostly African American. There were glasses of wine and a few flutes of champagne on some tables. These people had come to celebrate an event that I am sure many, if not most, believed would never happen in their lifetimes. They cheered each passage of the President's speech as if they were watching their Buckeyes make a last minute drive against Michigan. It was a stirring moment and one that I will not forget.
We finished our lunch and left the restaurant into a bitter cold afternoon for the short walk back to the office. The middle-aged African American woman who was just outside the restaurant door did not notice us. She was busy rummaging through the green trash can for her lunch. Coming up empty, she quietly moved on to the next green trash can; a pattern that most likely continued throughout the afternoon.
I suspect that nobody told her about the inauguration of Barrack Obama; she probably didn't catch CNN that morning. I'm sure that any celebrating she would do on that momentous day would be prompted by the discovery of a half-eaten sandwich or a Starbuck's cup with the last drops of a double-shot, skim Latte. She probably wasn't too concerned about bail-outs or the Dow, the state of her IRA or the latest unemployment estimates. She probably wasn't swelling with pride that an African American was now the leader of the free world. She likely didn't get the memo telling her that "yes we can" change. And I suspect that she doesn't have the "audacity to hope." She was just cold and hungry on that incredibly historic day.
It was a stirring moment and one that I will not forget.
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