Students experience Obama inauguration first-hand in D.C.

NHIOP ambassadors welcome new president

By Greg Wallace

NHIOP student ambassadors (l-r): Ashley Gisiger '11, Katelyn Kerins '09, Greg Wallace '10, Becky Damon '11, Sam Inman '11 and Robyn Dangora '10 on the steps of the Capitol with chaperones Matt Goodwin and Bill Cummings.

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The act of an incoming president placing his hand on a Bible and swearing to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States is a profound experience that should make Americans pause in silence for at least a moment.

It is an impressive and important moment, and eight Saint Anselm College students were among the almost two million standing in awe on the National Mall last Tuesday as President Barack Obama took the oath of office.

Most impressive was the silence stretching down the Mall, the grass and dirt strip through the center of Washington, D.C., as all waited to hear Mr. Obama speak. The silence was punctuated only by moments of cheering, jeering (when Republican politicians appeared on the gigantic television screens covering the event), and sirens of

emergency vehicles maneuvering about the emergency vehicles maneuvering about the barricaded city. A sense of history, both in the inauguration of the country's first

African-American president, and in the tradition of inaugurations was evident.

The eight the Kevin Harrington Student Ambassadors from the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, including this reporter, traveled by van to the nation's capital and witnessed the Inauguration in person from the grounds of the capitol building. Travel from the Manchester campus early Sunday morning was hampered only by the 6 inches of snow that had fallen over night and continued throughout the day.

Documenting the trip on digital and video cameras, the group attended receptions, toured Capitol Hill, and met with members of the Washington, D.C. media.

On the morning of the inauguration, the group left the Reston, V.A. condo for the Metro mass transit system in the pre-morning darkness of 4 a.m. Upon arriving in the city and taking places in the blue line -- color coded by ticket area, the group eventually arrived on Capitol grounds. The wait was profound -- profoundly cold, profoundly long, and profoundly exciting. Although problems with security, long lines, and an eventual lack of space for some of the 240,000 ticket-bearing

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