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Local Dems celebrate Obama’s swearing in
HAMILTON — A group of Butler County Democrats met at Riverbank Cafe to watch the Inauguration of President Barack Obama today, Jan. 20. Some made arrangements to be off from work and school to watch the historic moment.
Kendall Dienno, 15, a Talawanda student, stayed home from school and attended the viewing party with her mom, Chele Dienno.
Kendall said she’s inspired by Obama’s story, that he’s a young, black man from Chicago who was raised by a single mom. “ I’m really proud, and I usually don’t feel that way about our country,” she said.
Chele Dienno, said it was important to her that her daughter witness Obama’s Inauguration.
“She had to see this. It’s history,” Dienno said, adding that she hopes the new administration will provide a “healing of wounds” left from President Bush’s administration.
Sonya Montana came back to Hamilton a few years ago and Worked for the Obama campaign in her hometown neighborhood on the East side. The 69-year-old said talking to residents there where she grew up about a man she believes in was thrilling.
“It’s a return of hope greater than fear,” Montana said. “My hope today is to have a full eight years of this administration.”
Nelly Bly Cogan, of Oxford, teared up at different times watching the ceremony, particularly during the performance of “It’s a Gift to be Simple,” by Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. Cogan said she remembers hearing that performed by folk lorist Richard Chase, whom she met in North Carolina after graduating college.
Cogan said the Inauguration of the first black president was important to her because she remembers seeing segregation first-hand as an exchange student at an all-black university in Tennessee.
The year was 1959, and Cogan said she wasn’t able to go eat at the same places with the other students, whom she considered friends.
“It brought back a lot of memories from that experience,” Cogan said.
Originally from Scotland, Liz Miller has lived here for 17 years and commutes from Eaton to work at Miami University Hamilton. Miller said she hasn’t felt compelled to apply for citizenship until now.
“I wasn’t opposed to it before, but now it just feels more right. I want to be a part of the big change,” Miller said.
Miller said she thinks more people will be inspired to get involved in the community.
“I think more people will get involved in service. Enough things are so wrong, so broken, I think this will inspire people to fix their little corner of the world,” she said.
Peggy Herr, a Hamilton Democrat who occassionally writes letters-to-the-editor to the JournalNews, just had one thing to say: “Our long national nightmare is over.”
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