While rolling through Twitter feeds over my lunch hour today, I came across a great collection of photos about the Berlin Wall and the 20th anniversary of its falling on November 9th.  They are well worth taking the time to look at them.  The ones that fade into each other (#s 12-15) with “now and then” views are particularly interesting.

I look at my students today and  they have no memory of the Cold War. To them, it is something in the history books or from movies that reference East-West spying and Checkpoint Charlie. However, I remember being their age, in college, when I heard that the Wall was coming down and finding myself mesmerized by the TV footage of something that had been a major piece of my understanding of post-WWII foreign relations. This was a HUGE development and a great boost for world peace.

As we find our country embattled in two wars on this Veterans’ Day, it is good to take a moment to remember that sometimes HOPE does come to fruition. Wouldn’t it be great if 20 years from now all of our current war involvement was just a history book memory for the kids who will be in college then?

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness…”  – Howard Zinn

I fully admit that I am a PBS and NPR addict. Having said that, you can understand why I am really excited that PBS has decided to stream many of its programs online via a Hulu-like website. The New York Times has a write-up about it today in its “Bits” blog: “PBS Brings Bugs, Presidents and Souffles to the Web.” I encourage you to go check out the site at http://www.pbs.org/video!

As many of my friends and family know, I was fortunate to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on January 20th this year. Thanks to my cousin, Jan, and her family, I had an invitation and a place to stay. Yes it was cold and there were two million other people to deal with, but it was definitely worth it.

On Saturday, January 17th, Jan and I visited the National Portrait Gallery to see an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln – One Life: The Mask of Lincoln. When we walked in, the newest acquisition was featured – the Shepard Fairey portrait of Barack Obama. It was very popular as you can imagine. The staff was very welcoming and allowed people to take pictures of it. So Jan and I had to do this (of course)! While there, we also viewed a really interesting exhibit – Women of Our Time: Twentieth-Century Photographs.

On Sunday afternoon, Jan and I attended the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial. We actually ended up quite close, although having a clear view of the show was impossible. Interestingly, when we couldn’t see the jumbotron to the left of the memorial (as you looked at it), there were so many people with their digital cameras up in the air, we could see what was happening on their mini-screens. Although it was a cold day, we were actually fairly warm because of all the body heat. At times, the crowd was so packed (pre-show and during the early part) that you could literally quit trying to keep yourself upright because there was nowhere for you to fall (the bodies were that tight). Everyone was happy and in a good mood though. At one point before the concert started people climbed a tree near us and then someone handed them a life size cardboard cut-out of Barack Obama. The crowd cheered and cheered. When Barack fell out of the tree, a very audible “Ohhhhh,” was heard. Too funny!

I should also mention that from the moment we got off the metro and were routed toward the Mall for the concert, there were street vendors everywhere. We saw a few on Saturday, but this was extreme. They literally lined the sidewalks. Of course there were the T-shirts, hats, scarves, gloves, posters, key chains, etc. However, I was rather amused to see earrings that were Obama’s face. And, at one point, some guy yelled, “Get your Obama condoms!” Now that was a new one. As you can imagine, Inauguration Day had just as many, if not more, vendors. Everything had Obama’s picture on it – even metro and train tickets!

On January 20th, we left the house at 5:45 AM to travel to a VRE (Virginia Rail Express) station at Backlick Road. We met some of my cousin’s friends and fellow campaign workers there. We boarded the train about 7:15 AM and headed into the city to the L’Enfant station. We arrived about 7:50 AM. This was definitely the way to travel as our train was not crowded at all. A couple times during the journey we could see a metro train on a parallel track and its cars were absolutely packed. We heard on the local NPR station that morning that 100,000 people had been counted on the metro system by 6 AM. [Later that day we heard that 900,000 had used it by 6 PM.] Anyway, when we arrived, our group took a few photos and then we were on our ways to our respective inaugural zones.

We had tickets for the silver zone (Jan, her husband Chris, me, and two campaign friends – Todd, and Barb). [Photo above is courtesy of Todd.]

Inaugural and train tickets

As we were ready to cross Independence Avenue, the crowd was stopped for a small motorcade. As we waited, we happened to see David Axelrod -  Obama’s senior advisor – drive by. After about an hour we made it through security, which was lined up all along the edges of the Mall. We decided to stake our standing claim where we could see the Capitol and a jumbotron (see the yellow dot “we were here” in the photo below). It was very cold and the wind increasingly picked up as the morning moved along. It also felt colder because people weren’t as packed in as at the Sunday concert.

Again, everyone was HAPPY! The Marine band was playing and the big screens were running, showing various dignitaries driving up to the Capitol, walking through the building, and sitting on the dais. Occasionally a big wave of cheering or chanting (“Yes We Can! or O-BA-MA!”) would occur, rolling all along the Mall. The first time the crowd really reacted was when Senator Ted Kennedy was shown on screen. The crowd went wild again for Al and Tipper Gore, the Clintons, the Carters, the Bidens, and, of course, the Obama girls and their grandmother, Michelle Obama, and the President-Elect. Interestingly, when the screen showed Senator Joe Lieberman, who actively campaigned for John McCain and spoke at the Republican National Convention, the crowd booed. He was obviously not a favorite.

At that point, I wondered what the crowd would do when George Bush and Dick Cheney made their appearances. One of my group mates made the comment during the morning that Dick Cheney, appearing in a wheelchair because he threw his back out the day before, would look like “Old Mr. Potter” from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. And HE DID! Actually, the jumbotron screens didn’t show much of Cheney. In fact people around me began to wonder if he would attend. It seemed he was wheeled in right before the ceremony began, perhaps by design. He and George W. didn’t really receive the massive boos I thought they might. I think this was because George W. was often showed with Obama on screen and nobody wanted to appear to be booing the new guy and, as I said, Cheney was hardly shown.

Lest my dear reader think it was a completely partisan crowd, it wasn’t. There were great cheers for Colin Powell and the senior Bushes, especially when Bill Clinton embraced George H.W. Bush. Maria Shriver and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also received a cheer.

When Joe Biden completed the oath, there was (of course) much cheering.All around me you heard lots of happy comments like, “At least Cheney’s gone now!” I have to admit that I, too, experienced a sense of relief at that.

When Barack Obama took the oath and the Chief Justice fumbled it, we weren’t exactly sure who made the mistake at the time. Because of the sound delay, you couldn’t be sure what happened (until you arrived home and saw the endless replays of it on TV). Once the oath was completed and the cannons were shooting and the “Ruffles and Flourishes”/”Hail to the Chief” was playing, the crowd was absolutely euphoric. The cheering was so loud and ebullient you could barely hear the cannons. [Video is courtesy of Todd - one of my silver group mates]

Other observations:

• Aretha Franklin was great. Only the Queen of Soul could wear that hat so well.
• There were sharp shooters all over. We were directly across from the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian), and we could easily see two on the roof. In fact, there were lots of security people in the crowd. Although you can’t see the big automatic rifle this federal agent was carrying, here is what greeted us at the L’Enfant station. [Photo below is courtesy of Todd.]
• When Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill were playing that wonderful piece by John Williams, there were hundreds of birds (gulls, I presume) soaring and riding the air currents over the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol. Their flight seemed very complementary to the music.
• The news outlets estimated that there were 1.8-2 million people on the Mall for the inauguration. The next morning we learned that not one arrest was made. Wow!

When the cermony was over it actually took us more time to leave than it did to arrive. That many people can move only so fast through the available street outlets. As we were slowly making our way off the Mall, we could still see “our” jumbotron and we were able to see the official goodbye from the Obamas and Bidens to the Bushes (as they boarded the Marine One helicopter to head for Andrews Air Force Base). We saw it take off (on screen) from behind the Capitol and soon it was flying over us. When that occurred a genuinely happy roar went up from the crowd. I think people were just so glad that this last eight years were officially done. Also, the crowd around me began to sing “Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, Hey, Hey, Hey – Good-bye.” I have to admit that was amusing. After I came home, I was reading the weekly Garrison Keillor column in our paper, and he also described this moment in much the same way.

It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I’m very glad I was able to be there.

One of the sites I occasionally frequent had a year in review of news photos for 2008. Scroll down and you will see three separate links that span the year. Very interesting.

Mortenson in a WU classroom

So I was AWOL from the blog in November; I admit it. However, I do have a somewhat reasonable excuse. As I wrote back in October, Greg Mortenson, co-author of the NY Times best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time, was coming to our campus to deliver a lecture on November 20th. The work that went into bringing him here and dealing with the overwhelming demand of the public who wanted to see him required many long hours. However, it was definitely worth it. Here is the front page article of the Washburn Review about the event. And here is a link to video of an interview with Mortenson (also found at the bottom of the article).

Book signing in White Concert Hall lobby

This is a great clip via CNN.com of Greg Mortenson. His story is presented in the book Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time. Greg Mortenson will be at the Washburn University campus, where I work, in November. If you haven’t heard of the good work he is doing, take 5 minutes and view this. In my opinion, he is doing more for diplomacy and world peace than all the military and counter-terrorism efforts combined.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/zakaria-mortenson-interview/4023576302

As I sit here at my desk listening to NPR talk about the end of the Democratic primary season today, I’m feeling more than a little disappointed regarding how women have been treated in the media. I’m not going to get into promoting one candidate over another here. I believe we should select a candidate based on that person’s positions and merits. Rather, I’m raising the issue of the blatant sexism that has been so publicly displayed. As the campaign has progressed over the last several months, there have been moments that stopped me in my tracks when Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama or women in general were discussed in a brazenly misogynistic manner. I thought our country was further along than it apparently is. I hope the fact some of this sexism has finally been exposed (thanks to organizations like PBS and The Women’s Media Center) will make a few more of us think twice instead of blindly accepting comments like the ones found in the accompanying video. Video is courtesy of The Women’s Media Center.

If you’re a fan of the written word, be sure to check out the Academy of American Poets’ website on National Poetry Month. Great things are happening there!

Some general thoughts about books as of late…

I just completed Ann Patchett’s Truth and Beauty: A Friendship, and really enjoyed it. Perhaps it’s because she is just a few years older than I am, so I can relate to the time period in which the memoir takes place (the story of her grad school years with friend and fellow writer, Lucy Grealy, and their friendship throughout the subsequent years until Grealy’s death in 2002). Their story crosses oceans, years, and genres. The excerpts from letters really give you a window into what these young women were going through. I recommend it and am now curious to read some of Grealy’s work.

I know I’ve praised PBS and Bill Moyers’ Journal in the past, but I must do it again. In the February 8th show, the viewers’ responses to what the next president should read were revealed. A tremendous wealth of suggested titles were provided. In the segment found here, you can watch a brief video and see a listing of the most commonly named titles. Very interesting!

Finally, Ted Kooser was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered today about his newest book, Valentines. It was so enjoyable to listen to him read from his work and chat about how this project began years ago. What a great idea he had. Perhaps I’ll pick up a copy of this book tonight after work as my Valentine.