- Brian Chilson
- HAPPY DAY: Arkansas attendees had plenty to smile about at yesterday’s inaugural in Washington.
From the Arkansas buses heading home after President Obama’s second inaugural, David Koon writes:
Outside Washington, DC — We’re on the bus again, headed west. I’m typing this on my wife’s tiny tablet, and even though the road stretches out long before us, I’m happy to have been here.
Bus issues, travel issues, an incident in which we were penned up in the national mall and had to walk 30 blocks to escape, and finally a migraine that laid me low last night and kept me from posting, but you already know the big picture of yesterday. I’ll be delivering the little picture in a few days: the Latino kid from UCA who stood on the mall as the president spoke and talked to me about his Guatemalan parents, who came here with nothing; the 65-year-old construction worker who told me this morning that there are no black men and white men anymore, just men, and those who lead. To be there, to see it, was a wonderful thing. As good, however, was being there in the great crush of America, with people who believed four years ago and still believe that this country can be something better than politics.
I’ll post more as I am able, but for now I think I’ll just watch the world roll by. Take me home, country road. I’ve spent yesterday as an American. I’m ready to see Arkansas again.