2009 in review - January: we attend Barack Obama's Inaugural, Margie breaks bones, a kind lady puts us up in her elegant guest house

As you can see, January, 2009, got off to a reasonably pleasant start. I was still recovering from my shoulder injury and replacement surgery nearly seven months earlier, but was doing better than the doctor had expected. Margie was Kalib's official babysitter while his parents went off to work.

She was loving every minute of it.

And we had a big and exciting trip planned.

That trip was to Washington, DC, to take part in the Inauguaration of President Barack Obama. I don't get a haircut and beard trim for just anyone, but, for the President of the United States, I figured I would do it.

So I went to see Celia and she did a good job.

This picture shocks me (not the one on the wall - that one just frustrates me - but the one of me). I now look more than just one-year older than I did here. That's the kind of year it has been - and it began in January.

Margie, Lisa and I flew to New York, because it was altogether to expensive to fly to Washington, DC. We rented a car for the shockingly low price of $23 a day and drove down. On January 20, I arose at 3:00 AM and rousted Margie and Lisa, to be certain that we would not miss the first train to roll through the Metro subway, scheduled to leave the Friendship Heights station in the Chevy Chase area at 4:20 AM.  We were the guests of Greg and Julie, an extremely nice couple who live across the street from Alice Rogoff, the philanthropist who founded the Alaska House New York,  and closely associated it with the Alaska Native Arts Foundation. She is now publisher of the online news magazine, The Alaska Dispatch.

Right on schedule, we boarded the Metro and found the crowd to be surprisingly light - until we reached the very next station. When the doors opened, people poured in - and they would continue to do so at each stop until no more would fit. It was hot in the train car and I began to sweat. 

The gentleman above joined us at an early stop. He brandished an American flag with an image of Barack Obama emblazoned on it. "I'm so happy!" he sang, joyously, "I'm from Africa, living in America, Africa, living in America, Barack Obama, I'm so happy..."

He sang too of his father, in Sierra Leone, who he wished could be here, in America, to celebrate this wonderful day. "I'm so happy, in America, from Africa. Barack Obama! Africa, America. I'm so happy."

I could detect nothing but happiness, joy and goodwill anywhere. Smiles abounded throughout the car, people of all race and background laughed and mingled with those nearby. There was no tension, not between races, not between individuals; good will abounded.

The day was off to a good start.

We who traveled down in the Metro flowed like rivers of humanity through the concrete channels that lace the earth beneath Washington, D.C. toward the grand confluence where we would soon converge into a sea of two million that would cover the entire National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol.

One river of humanity flows outward through the metro gates.

And then the flow goes up and out of the Metro at L'Enfant Plaza. 

I had managed to get two press passes - one for me and one for Lisa, to be my assistant and help me carry things. I thought this was going to be special and really give us access, but, as it turned out, the passes would allow us to go in and out of any area in the mall at will, and to a little bleacher area set up for photographers and such, but not up to the Capitol steps, where the swearing in would take place.

The bleacher area was not a place I wanted to take photos from and there was no way to move freely about, in and out, out and in, in this packed crowd. So we worked our way into as good a position as we seemed likely to get, staked our ground and there we stayed - for hours upon hours upon hours, in the cold.

And it was cold. Nothing like true Alaska cold, which, dressed as we were, would have killed us in that time, but none-the-less it was a long wait and it could have been unpleasant, but it wasn't. There was too much excitement and everyone around us was happy.

Finally, the President elect and wife Michele walked out. If you have really, really, good eyes, then you can see him right up there on the Capitol steps - but it is a lot easier just to look at the big monitor.

Obama steps up to be sworn in and to deliver his speech.

Yes, it was a joyous crowd.

Lisa listens intently as the man she campaigned so hard for speaks. She worked phone banks, she knocked on many doors. She carried signs. And when he won, she spontaneously went and bought herself a ticket. 

So Margie and I decided to come with her.

Faces in the crowd, as they listen to their new President, Barack Obama, deliver his Inaugural Address.

Lisa cheers for her new President.

Afterward, we found Margie. She was cold, but happy to have been there, to have witnessed history. We spent the next several hours in the mall area, but Lisa had found the on-location offices of MSNBC and did not want to leave.

So finally, about 8:00 PM, Margie and I boarded the train back to Friendship Heights and left Lisa on her own. This scared me a little bit, but she is an adult, after all. By now, we had bags full of souvenirs.

Between my cameras and our bags of souvenirs, including Lisa's, our hands were full as we stepped off the Metro train at Friendship Heights and rode the escalator to the surface.

We then stepped into the outside air, waited for the light to turn green and then stepped into the crosswalk. Margie walked right beside me as we crossed but then, just as I was about to step up onto the curb, she vanished. Then I heard a whimper. I turned, and found her lying in the gutter.

I went to help her up, but she could not get up - her pain was too great. Yet, she insisted that she was not badly hurt and would soon be okay.

Some passers by waved down a police car, and the officers quickly summoned an ambulance and a team of paramedics.

But Margie refused to get into the ambulance, or to let the paramedics do anything more than help her to her feet. Once standing, she could not move. The pain in her left knee and right wrist was too great. Still, she would not get into the ambulance.

I had parked the rental car about two blocks away. I went and got it, came back, picked her up and drove her to the hospital myself. There, we learned that she had fractured both her right knee and her left wrist.

We put in a long and miserable night - especially for Margie.

In the light of the day, I went back to check out the crack that had tripped her. This is it.

Please note that the wheels of the little red car are both inside the crosswalk. So is the crack. I remain angry about this. There are many poor neighborhoods in the Washington, DC, area, but this isn't one of them. They should have repaired this crack long before it reached this state.

In the daytime, I doubt that she would have tripped. But in the night, tired, after a long, long, day, cold, carrying bags of souvenirs, that crack got her.

And her life has never been the same since. She has not worked a day or earned even one single a dollar. She was part time, so there was no Workers Comp or unemployment for her (just as there was none for me as a self-employed freelance photographer after I got hurt). Worst of all, she has not been able to care for little Kalib as she had imagined she would.

For a brief moment, I thought about taking legal action, but then we just moved on with life instead.

Alice Rogoff had hosted Barrow's Suurimmaanitchuat Iñupiat Eskimo dancers in her guest house. Now, she moved us in and told us to stay for as long as we needed.

I do not know what we would have done if she had not done so. Days would pass before Margie could even think of moving out of this room - let alone traveling. 

Alice Rogoff - I can never thank you enough.

And what a guest house it was!

When finally we decided to leave, we knew Margie could not handle the long trip back to Alaska without a break. So we drove back to New York and then flew to Salt Lake City, where my sister, Mary Ann, at right, picked us up and took us to her house.

It had been a miserable flight. Margie could not get into the airplane restrooms, nor could she fit her leg under the seat in front of her. Before we left New York, I had to take her into a ladies room. It was embarrassing, but I had no choice. The ladies room was crowded, too, and the ladies looked at me strangely, but once they figured out was going on, they were cool with it.

And here she is, at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, after we got home. Today, as she limped and hobbled slowly about, I asked her if she was still glad she went to the Inaugural. 

"Yes," she said. 

Little Kalib had to enroll in day care. But he enjoys it there.

You can find my original coverage of the Inaugural here.  I ended that coverage with a statement that included these paragraphs:

True, as the situation grows worse, I suspect that even many who now cheer him will grow impatient and will issue their own harsh criticisms of the man they helped elect. Perhaps I will, myself.

Obviously, none of us can yet know how well our new President will handle the many crisis that he inherited and he will undoubtedly make some bad mistakes. For this, he will be loudly condemned.

Yet, it is my personal belief that, right now, the United States of America is in need of a leader the likes of which we have not seen at least since World War II. A great leader. As Colin Powell said, a transformational leader. One who can not only inspire us but convince us to make the kinds of sacrifice that we modern day Americans do not like to make.

Considering the challenges, without such a leader, it seems unlikely that United States will continue as the great power that it has been since World War II. Looking at all of our national leaders, in all parties, I do not see the potential of such a leader except in one individual: our new President, Barack Obama. I do believe he has that potential. Whether the potential will be fulfilled, I do not know. 

I still hold to this statement and continue to believe the above words to be true.

Please note: A separate entry, titled Today in Wasilla, was posted 20 minutes prior to this one.

Comments

[WhiteStone]

I was not a reader last January and so today's mention of Margie's fall was the first I knew of the "how" and "why" of her injuries. It made me wince for her...to be so far away from home and to have such an injury happen...Oh, My!

As for aging this past year? Oh, my, I look in the mirror and I think I have aged 5 years and not just one. It was a tough year for many of us.

[dish gossip]

Get paid for verfiyable and/or first person celebrity/Alaska/Palin/Johnston gossip!

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[Sylvia]

Thank you again for a post that makes me think. Your last paragraph from the inaugural coverage was precent, and made me remember the elation of the time, as well as take stock in my own expectations of this man. There is so much to be done, and so little time, in a system that seems so rigged against true change, it is easy to get frustrated and impatient. Thank you for being there, and this reminder.

And since I have seen you recently, I can tell you to relax, you have worn a tough year well. I think Kalib is your youth tonic.

[debby]

There you go, Bill. See that comment above. You could get paid to be a Palin papparazzi! Probably big bucks too.

Have to say, I winced too. I guess I had not realized that Margie fell twice. Or maybe I did, but then I forgot. Or something.

When you guys fall, you fall hard. Really. Take Kalib's cue. Fall facefirst into the mattress while wearing footed pajamas. A lot less wear and tear on the body.

Hope 2010 turns out a little better than these last couple years have been going for you both.