As I sit here, today, on the celebration of the birth of Martin Luther King, switching between the news and the celebration that occured at the LIncoln Memorial yesterday. Trying to step back as a third person observer, I feel like we are witnessing history, the passing of the torch to a new generation, my generation and the generation that I have been able to influence over the past 24 years working in Educational Technology. It is an exciting time.
In my lifetime, there have 12 presidential inaugurations. Several, I was too young to realize what was going on (Johnson and Nixon). The first inauguration that I aware of was that of Gerald Ford, after being captivated as a 12 year old about the Watergate hearings and the fact that someone from the state I was living in at the time was about to become the president. But since then, from Carter to Reagan to G.H.W Bush to Clinton to G.W. Bush. there I have been eight inaugurations and the total amount of attention that I spent paying attention to all eight combined would fill one commercial break on the coverage we are seeing.
I do not recall at school any time during the three inaugurations that I have been there any time being given to watch the proceedings or speech. This year, for the first time that I can remember, all students, from kindergarten through twelfth grade will be taking two hours out of their normal routine to spend time soaking up the history. This is unprecedented. We are making arrangements to pull cable TV runs into common areas, recording the event so that the song that our students wrote, There is Peace, can be recorded and shown, that teachers and students can communicate with family and friends who are in Washington for the events live. It will be a tremendous challenge for those of us in IT to keep up with the demand, but it is a challenge worth undertaking.
On this national day of service, when I take time to reflect on the service that I do, I am anticipating the new call to action that our president-elect will ask of us tomorrow. I anticipate the words like never before. I hope that all people in this country listen, reflect, and respond to the new call for action. Like Pearl Harbor and the assassination of JKF, I am hopeful that this will be a day that all of us will be able to share with future generations, telling them where we were.
It is an exciting time. I hope that tomorrow lives up to the hype.