From Independent Tribune
I stood next to Joyce Miller, a teacher from Texas, and her family in a giant crowd that was waiting to get through the Indiana Avenue checkpoint to the Mall. It was behind the National Archives Building and security was checking everyone, one-by-one.
It was obvious we would not get to the Mall before Obama took the oath of office. Luckily, Miller and her friend were listening to the ceremony through earbuds connected to a radio.
When Vice President Joe Biden took the oath of office, she called out, “Joe Biden is in!”
Then Obama took the oath and she declared, “They are presenting the 44th president, Barack Obama!”
Joyce Miller, an African-American woman, started reciting Obama’s speech as she heard it from the radio.
We all gathered around her and I recorded the entire speech as she recited it.
Miller was in strong voice and reflected Obama’s tone and inflection in her voice. When he got loud, she got loud. When the crowd applauded, she would say, “Applause, applause.”
Miller would pause to hear what Obama was saying and the crowd hung on her every word — exciting and hungry for the next part of the speech.
Overhead, the sound coming from the huge speakers on the Mall reverberated on the buildings around us.
When the speech was over, Miller yelled, “Thank you. God bless you and God bless America!” The crowd cheered. There are smiles. There were tears. There was applause.
The checkpoint opened up again and folks milled toward the gate again.
Even though we weren’t on the Mall and never saw Obama, this was the story behind the story — Americans that came far and wide to be this close to the inauguration, only to be stopped by security.
They heard the words of the nation’s first African-American president through an African-American woman.
Truly a moving experience.
Ben McNeely is a reporter with the Concord/Kannapolis Independent Tribune. The Independent Tribune is a Media General publication.
