Jessica Siegel, Associate Professor of Journalism, is a respected journalist with an expertise in New York City's Public Schools performance. She is in Washington for the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama and will be filing a series of reports on the College website.
"I won the lottery! I won the lottery!" I screamed to no one in particular about a week ago. No, I didn't win the Mega-million kind of lottery. I won the lottery my congresswoman ran to win one of those precious tickets to go to Barack Obama's Inauguration on January 20.
Like thousands of New Yorkers, I put my name in three lotteries to win a ticket both through my senators, Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, and my Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. No, I never heard from Chuck or Hillary. But on Jan. 7, by email, I heard the following from Nydia Velázquez's office:
Dear Friend,
I am pleased to inform you that your name has been chosen through a lottery to receive one (1) ticket to the Inauguration on January 20, 2009. Please confirm receipt of this letter by emailing ________ before January 12, and indicate whether or not you will be accepting the ticket. If we do not receive confirmation from you by 5 p.m. on the 12th your ticket will be relinquished
Sincerely,
Nydia Velázquez
Monday, January 19
Not accept the ticket? That wasn't even a possibility. Barack Obama's campaign for president has mesmerized so many, and causing students who may not have been involved in political campaigns at all getting caught up and those of us, who are older, getting invigorated and excited.
How could I not after a semester and longer of prodding my journalism students to cover one of the most important presidential campaigns of all time? Through the fall semester, my students became political reporters. They examined Obama's and John McCain's positions on what my students felt were the most important issues of the campaign: the war, the economy, health care, and abortion rights.
In my education class, we didn't really touch much on the campaign until after election night. Being knocked out by Obama's acceptance speech and thinking about what educators call "the teachable moment," I asked my students how they might use the speech in their classes.
"To all of those who have wondered if America's beam still burns as bright: tonight we have proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals - democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope."
And so I'm on the bus to Washington - just one of perhaps five million hoping to be close enough to witness the swearing in of the 44th President of the U.S. I'll be your eyes and ears.
Stay tuned.
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