Z Politics

Inaguration Day

I watched Barack Obama become the 44th President today with my students.

While his speech wasn’t kind of disappointing there is not taking away from the significance of this day. Despite the Rick Warren thing (I turned my back to the TV while he was speaking by the way) I got chills when he took the oath of office.

It was a really cool day. But I have to admit that the best part of the day for me was when George W. Bush got into the helicopter and left. I literally felt like a weight I had been carrying around for eight years had been lifted.

It was a great day for America…but not for my school. The students and my school were a mess. They used today as an excuse to act like idiots. They just don’t’ get it. When people in D.C. were shown crying a couple of them even asked “Why are they crying”—It just baffles me that they would ask that. Even the most racist Republican can understand why African-Americans all over this country were crying today.

 We have come so far as a nation. Yet even as change was happening all I had to do was turn around and look at my students and know we have so much work still to do.

 So tonight the nation celebrates and tomorrow the work begins.