Well, last nite, I watched Facebook and the news feeds on TV. One of the sights brought in was that folks gathering in the park opposite the White House chanting USA and singing the National Anthem.
Chris Crawford, a student down in DC (and Chair of the New Hampshire Conservative Futures PAC), sent this following guest post via Facebook to let others know what it was like to be down there last nite:
Live from DC – Jubilation
by Chris CrawfordWhen I got out of 10:00 mass at St. Stephen’s Parish in Washington, D.C., I had a text message from Melissa Fernandez.
It read, “The president it [sic] making an emergency speech right now….They say it’s going to be really dramatic.”
Vince Nordin, who came with me to Mass for the first time this year, said, “It’s probably nothing.”
Naturally, I panicked. I thought, “What could be this important? Was there an attack or a disease outbreak that no one in the press had known about? What if there’s a meteor on its way toward us?”
I thought aloud to Vince and he said, again, “No, seriously, it’s nothing. Relax.”
We rushed into Madison Hall and ran out of the elevator. Vince had to pee, but I was just really excited. I burst through the door and looked at the TV. I saw Wolf Blitzer’s face and the bottom line that said, “OSAMA BIN LADEN DEAD”.
My heart pounded. I looked at the rest of the room and let out a yell for joy. Tyler McAfee called me and we went crazy on the phone.
Friends from our floor crowded into the room and waited for Obama’s speech. Ed Hendry appeared outside the White House and said, “There is a crowd forming outside. There are about 30 or 40 people. They are chanting “U-S-A and singing The National Anthem.” Little did he know, the crowd would grow to thousands within just a couple of hours.
Next, Wolf Blitzer appeared and said that the president would not be speaking for another 20 minutes. I played “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” by Toby Keith and shortly thereafter I went to grab my sweater off of the door. It’s a bright red, white, and blue sweater with elephants on it that Uncle Michael had given me for my birthday last year. I also tossed the white cowboy hat that I had gotten at CPAC earlier this year. Then we made the decision to watch the speech later, and go celebrate now.
We met outside Madison and began walking quickly down 22nd Street toward the White House. There were dozens of people in the street cheering, and there were cars honking in the streets in the distance. As we got closer to the White House, we broke into a jog –and then an all-out run, toward Lafayette Square. There were hundreds of people already there, and the crowd was growing. On our way into the crowd, people spotted my sweater and my white Cowboy hat and were high-fiving me. Some people took pictures.
A “U-S-A” chant was breaking out as we joined hundreds…
…of our countrymen and women at the White House fence. We hugged everyone we knew, and some that we didn’t. There were people waving American flags, holding personalized signs, even a Bush-Cheney sign was surfacing! We started singing “The Star Spangled Banner”, and my group of friends began “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” songs that spread throughout the crowd.
TV cameras were making their way around, and we all swarmed them and tried to get our own personal moment on this great night for our nation.
When I saw the cameras surfacing, I was determined to get us “immortalized” and took Josh Star, my roommate, and said, “Put my Cowboy hat on your head and get on my shoulders.”
He did that and members of the crowd began cheering in his direction. Video cameras scanned in his direction, and still cameras flashed toward him. A large American flag was blocking the view in front of him, so I did my best two-step to put him next to it. “If I get him in that place,” I thought, “they can get a good shot.” [Update: They did. He is on the Miami Herald web site in an absolutely epic picture.]
I was shaking like crazy and sweating in my wool sweater, so I had to put him down, but we were far from finished with the celebration. We sang every patriotic song we could: The Star Spangled Banner, America The Beautiful, God Bless America, God Bless the U.S.A., and even “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” and “We Are The Champions.” We even started, “Na, Na, Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye!” At one point, college students from GWU and other D.C. schools began chanting, “Cancel finals! Cancel finals!”
The mood was absolute jubilation. It was pandemonium outside the White House. Strangers were high-fiving, hugging, and chanting together. There was a feeling of togetherness. Heck, a die-hard conservative like me started an “O-ba-ma” chant. As we celebrated, my phone began vibrating as people from home called and texted me to say that they saw us on television.
It was the greatest celebration of our country that my generation has seen. 10 years ago, when we were in elementary school, Osama bin Laden stole our innocence and changed our lives forever. In the days after September 11, we all learned the meaning of patriotism as we joined our neighbors in mourning. Tonight, now in college, in the heart of the nation’s Capitol, we came together in the spirit of patriotism once again; this time, to celebrate. God bless America.
