Posted on 01/20/2009 4:00:43 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Some schoolchildren stood and recited the oath along with the new president. Others shouted "Amen" at the end of the invocation.
But perhaps no school in the country celebrated the historic inauguration of the nation's 44th president with more enthusiasm than the hundreds of students at the newly renamed Barack Obama Elementary School in Hempstead, Long Island.
"I was just speechless. I don't even have the words to explain the feelings," said Principal Jean Bligen, who won tickets to the inauguration in a lottery, but decided the only place she wanted to be Tuesday was with her students. "It was remarkable. Absolutely remarkable."
Officials in the predominantly minority school district voted soon after Election Day to rename the school in honor of the Illinois Democrat.
On Tuesday, all 460 students wore navy blue sweat shirts emblazoned with the words "Barack Obama Elementary School _ Yes We Can" on their chests.
The school is about a mile from Hofstra University, where the final presidential debate between Obama and Sen. John McCain took place. Students who followed the debates later suggested that their school be named for the new president, officials said.
"I think that they renamed the school because they believe that Barack Obama was a great leader to many people such as myself," said fifth-grader Esta Thomas, 10, before the ceremony. "Because each of us in our school also want to grow up to be president one day."
The enthusiasm appeared contagious from coast to coast.
"You go back to Martin Luther King, and this is the dream come true," said Juana Martinez, 17, a senior who watched the inauguration with 2,700 other students at Manuel Dominguez High School in Compton, Calif., a predominantly black and Hispanic city south of Los Angeles.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktar.com ...
That was gas. Cut back on the Egg McMuffins.
And he hasn’t done squat yet.
My two oldest watched this at their elementary today. The oldest of the two has to write an essay about what he liked during the ceremony. We are either going to skip it and he can take a zero (no pun intended) or I suggested he say, my favorite part was seeing George W. Bush and then write about George W.
I now have to worry whether my new Granddaughter will be wearing the brown shirts and jackboots, or be one of those stitching them.
Doesn’t it run counter to American tradition to name public buildings after someone who’s still president? That’s how it’s done in dictatorships.
Any guesses as to how long it will take for some government school defender to post that this is not happening at **their** child’s government indoctrination camp?
Hey! At **their** child’s government indoctrination camp they sing a Christmas carol or two every year!
did they also recite the words of Rev Lowery?
They did it before he was sworn in. Hey they might name an airport after him in Chicago. I think we should rename the Peace Corps the Obama Corps whatcha think?
“And he hasn’t done squat yet.”
Not true.
He made the market tank today.
I teach and we were required to show the obamanation today. I used that time to clean out our crawdad tanks.
I’m helping with the U.S. Census. We had a cake and the others watched it on streaming video.
Ugh.
Schools around here showed it too.
Someone was telling me that their kid was forced to watch it on one of the alphabet networks... with commentary.
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