Inauguration Slide show

Linked here is a Shutterfly webpage of photos by Zach Litif.

Zach Litif
Inauguration Theme

"Community," say many contributors to the craziness in the capitol, "it's not political, were just coming together." While many people line the streets and at 4 am on Tuesday morning the public viewers fill in the free section, awaiting history, sharpshooters line across the White House and 10,000 Coast Guards and 8,000 policemen fill the city.

On the other hand, Obama is succeeding in bringing together the "community" and enriching the culture. With celebrity speakers, famous music acts, and live news coverage all over, the public joining in the activities representing the entire country and most of the world.
Today, I spent most of my day exploring the National Art Museum, and conversing with other students attending the Smithsonian Tour. The atmosphere in DC is absolutely breath taking though. The impressive sense of community reminds myself of the immediate months after the attack of 9/11. Although the 9/11 attacks were very solomn, the idea of community was reborn.

"Hope" is the common slogan and the cause of the renewed sense of community.

An elderly white Republican woman from Minnesota as well as an elderly black Democratic man joined me at a street side vender and shared a short conversation with each other. Before the moment none of us had ever met, and although we were all from different backgrounds and political beliefs, we put aside our differences and enjoyed becoming acquainted with one another. The truth of the matter is, "community" and "culture" are engulfing DC, spreading like wildfire through the rest of the nation Tuesday
January 20th at 12 pm.

"History in the making," "Hope," and "Culture" bring together this renewed sense of community. No we are not at Woodstock, and no we are not VIP's, but we're here and like apostles, we are to deliver and induce this new sense of community at "Home."

Inauguration Day at last!

Our group of 11, plus two chaperones, headed into DC at 5 a.m. to stake out a spot on the mall as close to the historic event as possible. We had a scary moment of being swept off our feet with the crowd in the dark, but we were able to stay together as we snaked our way to a primo spot close to the second Jumbotron, but also as close to the Capitol as we could get without a ticket.
"We had a great spot beside the Jumbotron," said Shannon Jacobson. "We could see the figures at the Capitol with our cameras."
"Running toward the Capitol was something I'll never forget," said Steven Murphy."
We waited five hours for the inauguration to begin. Jess Minton killed some time by making a flag out of pebbles in the dirt around us. She was interviewed by a couple of local TV stations about her art work.
The crowd was pumped and so were we, as Barack Obama took the oath and gave his speech.
"It was moving and fun to be in the crowd, waving our flags..." I really liked Obama's speech." said Jessica Meservey.
"The one liner about war; his stance on American military conflicts impressed me," said Eliot Douin.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in DC, some of us watching the parade from the auditorium of the Museum of Natural History, while others shopped or explored the mall area.

Tonight, we celebrated at ESPN Zone, in the NW section of the city, passing many inaugural ball goers on our way.
The whole day was an incredible experience, an uplifting day that we'll remember for the rest of our lives.

Observations compiled and recorded by Ms. Lannin as we rode the bus out of DC on Inauguration Day

Our own inaugural ball at "Camelot"

By Stephanie Lombardo
We went to an all Smithsonian Student Inauguration Ball on Tuesday, January 21, 2009, the night before the Inauguration. We were all really excited to meet more new people, so we arrived at the dance, all dressed up, and found seats at the round tables around the hall. The room was a big reception hall, decorated with red, white, and blue balloons. The group before us was leaving soon, so we ate dinner while they finished dancing. After dinner we met up with the Florida group we were with and hit the dance floor.

There were tons of people on the dance floor, so it was hard to move and it got really hot really fast. We danced with our Florida group friends, and other random people we had just met. It was really fun to dance with people your own age and not know a single thing about them but still have a good time with them. We met some people from California who were really nice, and one guy whom Jess and Jasmine, our friend from Florida, named ‘Flannel Gary.’ We stayed at the dance for about two hours and danced most of the time. When it started to get really hot, we would step out and get a soda or water, but then get right back on the dance floor.

As the intercom announced at 8:30 that our groups had to leave, we really didn’t want to. But as we got onto the school bus we sang songs most of the way home. That night we went to bed early since our wakeup call for the Inauguration was going to be at 3:15 a.m.!

Governor Baldacci: Your Average Man

The snow was drifting outside while we were getting ready to board the plane at six in the morning. We were discussing our trip when Eliot and Katie asked, “Is that our governor?” All of us looked behind us, Eliot, Katie, Angel, and I, and realized that it certainly was Govenor Baldacci. Halfway through the flight, Angel went up to the Govenor and politely asked him some questions that he was glad to answer. The Governor’s plans includes “the first lady and [his] son attending the reception at the Lincoln Memorial Maine reception to renew America’s promise.” The Governor is excited for reestablishing the beacon of guiding light as a nation.” When we made it off the plane the Governor was kind enough to pose for pictures with our group. After the photo shoot Governor Baldacci expressed that “this is so exciting. This is going to mold your generation.” As we departed Governor Baldacci ended by saying, “Bonny Eagle rules, and not just at football.”

Day 1: The Journey Begins

We began our journey in the wee hours of Sunday morning when we arrived at the Portland Jetport at 5:00 AM. Before leaving in the snowy darkness, some of our staff members were interviewed by the Channel 8 News Team. We also ran into our state’s governor, Mr. John Baldacci, who was kind enough to meet each of us, take our questions, and pose for pictures. After a short delay to de-ice the plane, the 13 of us departed from the Jetport at 7 AM and arrived at Baltimore/Washington International Airport around 9 AM. Then after another short wait for our traveling companions, a group of 21 students from Orlando, Florida. After they arrived, we went out for a quick bite to eat before heading to Arlington Cemetery.
At the cemetery, we went on a tour of the cemetery and saw several famous sights such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the sail mast from the U.S.S. Maine, the ship that caused the start of the Spanish American War. One part of the tour that touched home for our group was finding writer Stephen Murphy’s great-grandfather’s gravesite. He was a general in WWII and it was treat to go and find his resting place. Following Arlington, we went to the Iwo Jima monument commemorating the six soldiers who hoisted the American Flag at the battle of Iwo Jima during WWII.
We ate dinner around 5 at the Pentagon Mall before our nighttime excursion through D.C. monuments. During the nighttime tour we visited such monuments as the WWII memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the Washington Monument. We also visited the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflection Pool, sort of. As you may have heard earlier in the day there was a massive inauguration concert on the steps of the Lincoln with such stars as Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Beyonce, Tiger Woods, Denzel Washington, and many other stars. Unfourtunately we were unable to see the concert, but we did get to see the remnants of post concert trash and barriers that barred us from the memorial itself. Still, getting to see the monuments themselves was quite an experience and so far the trip has been a huge success.
Coming up tomorrow, we plan on visiting the Smithsonian museums and then we’ll attend a dinner and Inaugural Ball at a function space called Camelot.

-Eliot Douin

Peter Anthony: BE Grad to Navy Leader

Peter Anthony, an 04 BEHS grad, is a third class petty officer in the U.S. Navy. Peter will be leading the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day.
Peter lives in Virginia, near our hotel. Sunday night, he sat down with reporter Shannon Jacobson for an interview that will be published in the next issue of the Eagle Times. One of the things he told her was that he would be spending all day Monday rehearsing for the parade. Then, he and other parade participants will be "in lockdown" until the inauguration is over. We'll be checking back with him after the inauguration to see how it went from his perspective.