I have to share my incredible experience with you. I'm going to warn you right now that this Blog will have nothing to do with my normal blogs. This blog will be long, so get a cup of coffee or tea or glass of wine and settle in because the story is extraordinary.. well...at least from my perspective.
Never in my life have I ever experienced what it would be like to actually 'see' a U.S. President up close or even remotely, but the opportunity presented itself to get tickets to see our new President, Barack Obama. It started Sunday evening when we went for a drive to the Harborside Event Center in Ft Myers, Florida to see 'where' we might park the 'next' day when the tickets would be given out. To our surprise, there were already 100 people camping out for the night. We looked at each other and said, 'let's do something completely crazy and wild (for Us) and go back home, pack up warm blankets and clothes, the puppy and come back and sleep on the sidewalk in line with everyone else. We did and we made our spot. At first it felt very odd to plunk our things down on the dirty sidewalk, crammed in with all these strangers; it gave the eerie sense of what homeless was about. But then once settled, it was the opposite. It was about people coming together for a cause, for a chance to experience a piece of history and soon we were making friends with folks who just wanted a piece of the same dream we did. The evening was serene. Everyone chatting with total strangers. Our puppy, Lily making friends with folks which engaged us in conversation with folks about how long they had been there waiting. For some, it was the start of perhaps the beginning of new lifelong friends. People sharing pizza that was being delivered all throughout the night with people they didn't even know. People giving change to those who had to run back to fill the meters where they left their cars. Different types of Music playing from boomboxes and even some live music from people with their guitars. Even a young man who wrote and recorded his own Barack Obama song about change. Laughter and discussions overheard from everything to their personal journey of why they came to wait for tickets; to exchanges of the weather; where they were from originally and where they lived now. No one moaned and groaned about their personal plights of unemployment or economic disaster. No harsh words, no negative energy in the sea of people. No griping about the cold or the long wait. Nothing. The atmosphere from all those people camping out was so positive; the streets filled with energy so electrifying it could have lit up an entire city during a power outage! We slept very little as the conversations carried on through the night. The music continued but got lower and lower as the hours passed, but still no one slept more than an hour or two at a time. Finally, the sun came up and the energy of everyone continued despite the lack of sleep, no food, no coffee - just brimming with excitement and anticipation to see if you would be the one to get your tickets since they were limited.
WE DID IT! We survived 12 hours on the cold sidewalk, bundled up tight (for Florida, yes it was cold and windy overnight in the 40's) but we got our tickets. We went home, crashed and waited for the next day when we would actually SEE the President!
Tuesday morning we showed up at 8am and the line with ticket holders was already SO long. We stood in line waiting more than 2 hours BEFORE the doors opened to let us in to SIT for another 2 hours before the President arrived. Everything was calm and well organized. Security check points were quick and then much to our amazement, we were ushered up to the section to the left of the podium and stage. There we were - 6 rows from where the President of the United States was going to stand! To say we were excited was an understatement! We settled in, looking around and now seeing a few of the faces we had 'spent the night with' and we engaged in more conversation about how we "all cleaned up pretty nice"! We exchanged names and phones numbers so when it was all over with we could exchange stories and photos as well.
The moment arrived. The announcement came... "ladies and gentlemen,... the President of the United States of America... Barack Obama!" OMG - the cheers were so loud they were deafening...the sound of Hope and Encouragement had taken on a life of their own! He was so gracious and charismatic. His smile lit up the room! He gave his speech on the Stimulus package and why he had come to Florida. During his speech he was handed a piece of paper and announced to us all that he was just notified that the Senate had just PASSED his Stimulus package. He then took open questions. He turned toward the section I was in and my arm was flailing, hoping he would pick me to ask him a question. He said, "I'll take the question from this lady right here." His was facing me directly and said, yes, you right there..." So I walked to the end of the row and the lady with microphone was right there and THEN the President said, "actually I was pointing to the lady right there, way behind you but you are making me feel bad since you jumped right up, I didn't even see you, but I PROMISE, that since you got up and were so excited, I WILL come back to you and let you ask your question because I'm sure your question is a good one." Feeling somewhat humiliated I slumped back to my seat. The people around me said, "he'll call on you again, you watch"... I wondered and thought to myself, will He really do what he said? And... HE DID! He took the lady's question behind me, then went to a guy and then said, "Now I'd like to go back to the lady who I promised I'd go back to"! HOLY COW WAS I HONORED... The President KEPT his promise.. this spoke Volumes to me!!! He is a man with great integrity and honor and commitment to his word. I went to the end of the row, and took the microphone. I did not quiver or shake on the OUTSIDE but on the inside my heart was racing faster than the winning car at the Indy 500! I said,"thank you Mr. President for taking my question and by the way, I am just tickled pink that you came here to visit us!" He laughed and thanked me. I said, "my question is this... your Stimulus package totals to about $850 BILLION dollars and I know that you have earmarked alot of that for individual states for special projects, but are there any provisions within that package set aside to give back money to the people; I mean individual checks to the american family, the taxpayers?" He said "YES". He went on to explain how he was going to go about it. I went back to my seat, remained standing and the President stood and looked directly at me while he answered my question. I was so impressed by his warmth, his graciousness, his integrity and his honest, precise answer. I had been so excited I realized I had totally forgotten to identify myself and where I was from! But nonetheless, I had my day in the sun... experienced my 15 minutes of fame... I was there having the experience of a lifetime.. For the first time in my 52 years of life, I was standing not only observing the 44th President of the United States only in office for less than 30 days, but I had spoken to him directly and he to me... For me, THIS was a life changing experience and one I will not soon, if ever, forget. I feel truly blessed and very grateful for the opportunity and thank God for this moment in history.
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