Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Back home

I've been recovering from this exhausting and exhilarating trip. I never got around to writing what I thought about President Obama's address. I do believe that it's a speech that grows on you. I was moved when I first heard it -- but like many have written and said, you really have to read the full text to appreciate all that he was trying to say. Bottom line is that the president read the mood of the country well. His message? Buck up, folks. We've left 8 horrible years behind us, but we're still in for a rough ride, but we'll make it through together. But seriously -- find the text and read it. I guarantee you'll feel differently about it

My friend Scott wrote a great response in the Huffington Post, so read his thoughts here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-kurashige/president-obama-and-the-w_b_159654.html

Thank you to all of you who followed this blog, and thank you to my Mare Donna who gave me her couch and was my partner in crime for the entire trip.

When I got back from DC and gave her T-shirts and a First Family coloring book, and I told her I had been to DC to see President Obama, my four-year-old goddaughter Mahalaya was pretty impressed. "Does Obama know you?!" she asked, her eyes wide. "Not yet," I answered. "Maybe one day!" So see you in 2013 for the second inauguration, and maybe I'll get on the other side of the fence for that one.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

The Obama Industry

Every presidential election produces the usual tchotchkes: keychains, T-shirts, buttons, bumperstickers. I was astounded, however, by the variety and creativity of the souvenirs I saw in DC in my week there. Independent vendors working out of rental vans and off of rickety card tables and suitcases populated almost every corner around major Metro stations and around monuments and the Mall, selling anything and everything to the eager millions. What recession? Judging from the millions of dollars inauguration attendees shelled out, you wouldn't think we were mired in a dire financial global crisis. I bought so many buttons, tees, posters, keychains, mugs, and newspapers that I needed an extra suitcase to carry everything back with me.

Underwear, playing cards, bottled water: if it had President Obama's name or image on it, it flew off the shelves, off of tables, and out of suitcases and rented vans, and from leased brick-and-mortar stores which clustered around the U-Street area, the Chinatown/Gallery Place neighborhood, and in Union Station. Of course, I saw the "official" inauguration items for sale in quiet, respectable stores, such as the Shepard Fairey $100 limited edition poster, the $50 coins and $30 tees. But even more fun were the items that small companies and local DC artists produced and hawked from every corner.

Here's a sampling of some of the most creative and crazy inauguration stuff, some of which I bought, and some I passed on. I'll leave it up to you to guess what I took back with me!


Who could resist a chcolate bar printed with Obama quotes and a "America's First Chocolate President" printed on the front?

Obama body oils. This vendor was calling out: "Obama body oils! Smells like Dolce and Obama! Don't you wanna smell like CHANGE?"


Beanies of every imaginable color and design.

Malcolm X became a victim of Photoshop. Yikes.


Union Station t-shirt vendor.


Black market Shepard Fairey HOPE tees on 7th street.
It's time for a new administration!

The biggest Obama merchandise store at 7th and E.

I threw up a little bit in my mouth when I saw these. Simultaneously fascinated and repulsed.

$1 Obama T-shirts from this guy out of a white van in front of the Organization of American States building near the Wash Monument. Yes, I bought some and almost got punched in the neck by a woman in the crazy mob that formed around this vendor.

Lots of tees near the Capitol.

Yes, people actually bought thousands of bottles of Obama water to take back home with them.

Michelle got some love too.

Dog tags and watches.
Obama earrings!


Obama handclappers and a "souvenir" facsimile of the inaugural swearing-in ticket that sold for $15 (like mine, it was completely worthless).

Not sure if the Native Hawai'ians would like this one, as only indigenous people of Hawaii are really called Hawai'ians, (others who are born in Hawaii are called 'locals'), but you get the point of this one.
Obama the Heavyweight Champion of the World.


And yes, even toenail clippers. Not sure that I want to see my president as I cut my nails, but hey. Whatever makes folks happy.

Rasta-bama.
Posters everywhere.

Flags and buttons on every corner.


And finally, my pet peeve of the week. No, people, this wasn't a HISTORICAL event. It was an HISTORIC event.

Well, I think you know which party's merchandise ISN'T selling like hotcakes! I think some vendors were doing a buy-one-get-20 free on the leftover McCain campaign merch.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Working for the Weekend

As if the inauguration weekend wasn't tiring enough, the last two days have been crazy. I've been too tired to post. The lack of sleep, running around, and below freezing temps have been catching up with me.

On Wednesday, I attended Nancy Pelosi's welcome luncheon for her constituents. I tried to find a staffer who cared that we didn't get in, but apparently, by the time we got there, dozens of blue and purple ticket holders had complained, and her staff didn't have any answers. Inauguration chair Dianne Feinstein is trying to get to the bottom of what happened to the thousands of us ticketed folks who were locked out of the inauguration. NPR, CNN, Wash Post, etc reporting on it now. I'm still trying to get over it, but all over the district I keep running into fellow purple ticket holders and we're all still bitter. Anyway...

The Pelosi luncheon was elegant, with lots of California-style salads and a killer dessert bar. After a few days of standing in below freezing weather eating energy bars, this was great


Nancy Pelosi is an extremely thin, very well-dressed woman. I didn't really get to chat with her. She was mobbed most of the time.
But believe me, I am going to be pressing her hard this next few months to schedule the vote on the Filipino Veteran's Equity bill.


And then I played around with the podium.


After the luncheon, I joined a number of Filipinas/os with the National Alliance for Filipino Veteran's Equity to meet with Rep. Steve Austria, a newly elected Filipino Republican from Ohio, at the Capitol. His dad was a World War II vet, so he says he's behind the bill and will fight for it. I sincerely hope he keeps his word. Anyway, I've done a Capitol tour but have never been taken into the deep recesses of the Capitol. Because the House was voting, we had to go to the Capitol building itself (most Reps and Senators have their offices at Longworth, Cannon, or Rayburn next to the Capitol) and meet with him. We went through the underground tunnels and saw the House subway (which sadly, we couldn't take even though I begged the staffers to ride it, saying that my feet hurt).




This is us: Rosita, Lillian Galedo, Ben de Guzman, and Jon Melegrito, all of us representing national Filipino American organizations, with freshman Congressman Steve Austria in the Rayburn meeting room.

After the meeting and a quick dinner, I just collapsed in the room, completely exhausted.

I was up at 6 this morning (Thursday) to get to the National Archives at College Park, MD. I took Metro to the National Archives on the mall and then the researcher shuttle. I've been here numerous times but there were a few files I still wanted to peek at. All of the records of the American colonial government (1898-1945) in the Philippines, Record Group 350, and all the World War II records of Philippine Guerillas and Scouts are kept here. The payroll records of my dad's guerilla unit, crumbling and yellowed, and with my dad's 17-year old signatures, are here at College Park. I didn't find what I thought I'd find, found something I didn't expect (a history of my province, Capiz/Aklan), and then jumped back on the shuttle to get back to the Hill for some more lobbying.



In the afternoon, I went back to DC and met up again with organizers for the Veteran's Equity campaign. We went to Nancy Pelosi's office in the Capitol building, and told her staff that we wanted full equity -- all the benefits afforded all other WWII veterans who served under the American flag -- and we needed it to pass as soon as possible, before more veterans pass away. It's a whole new administration and a new sense of hope, right? Pelosi's staff said that we should push the Veteran's Affairs committee chair, Bob Filner, R-San Diego. He's been an ally for a long time. Our next meeting was with him.

And in our meeting, he told us to push Pelosi. Sigh. Obama was a co-sponsor of the bill, so that angle will have to be worked as well.

After the Filner meeting I popped in to see the newly renovated National Museum of American History, which as been closed for two years.
Michelle Obama was already on the wall at the First Ladies exhibit.


Afterwards, I shopped for some inauguration souvenirs, had a quiet tapas dinner with Donna and Keith at one of my favorite restaurants, Jaleo, in downtown DC, and came home early to crash.
I love the spinach at Jaleo.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Purple Ticket Nightmare

How do I begin? I am all at once exhilarated, emotional, inspired, disappointed, angry, and exhausted.

We woke up at 6am, got on the Metro, and exited the Judiciary Square stop at 7:30am. When we exited, we asked a cop to direct us to the purple ticket line. According to our map, it was nearby. He waved in a general direction and said, "Here." We jumped into the mass of humanity only to realize we had to walk three blocks. Once we got to 1st street between D and E, we found ourselves at the end of a three-block mass of humanity, with everyone confirming that yes, this was the purple ticket line. So we took a breath, ate snacks, and waited patiently with the happy, excited crowd. And waited. And waited. Then everyone started getting agitated when we realized it was already 9:30 and the line hadn't moved.

It was a crazy, disorganized, dangerous mess that grew worse by the minute as the crowds grew and patience thinned. There were no cops, no volunteers, no one telling us what to do or where to go, no Porta-Potties, and no security. About 10:30am people started to panic. By then we were cheek to jowl, with no movement in three hours, and rumors started to fly and people started to push. A cozy crowd became suffocating. People were shoving their way back from the front, and brought with them stories of what was happening. That a kid was hit by a car at the gate, so they closed it. A security breached caused the gate to close. That purple tickets were over-distributed. We were skeptical. People advised us to give up and go watch it somewhere else. Mass confusion reigned. Luckily, a riot didn't break out. People were being surprisingly patient and kind. Being five feet tall, I was pretty much beaten up by everyone's elbows.


Suddenly, the bottleneck eased at 11am and we ran towards the gate excitedly, only to find it closed, with chaos reigning again and no direction. Hundreds of people began pushing and shoving left and right. We learned from someone standing on a barricade that there was a gate finally opened for us, and we saw people being let into a security gate at a trickle. We tried to move towards that gate but 10,000 other people were trying to do the same. We screamed through the gate at the cops, thousands of us waving our purple tickets and begging to be let in. They turned their backs to us. We were shocked and angered. Everyone started chanting: PURPLE GATE. LET US IN. WE HAVE TICKETS.


About 11:50pm, I started calling my aunts at home, asking for status reports. Aretha was singing and they were running late. Sigh of relief. 10,000 people were moving an inch a minute, but we still kept hope alive. By noon, Yo-Yo Ma was playing. A little after noon, I was resigned that we wouldn't get in. I called my Auntie Virg and she put the cell phone to the TV, and I heard the oath of office. The ground shook with the booming 21-gun salute.

Purple ticket holders huddled around cell phones and radios, listening to President Obama's address. This was probably the most moving part -- everyone trying to be a part of the moment in any way we could. People comforted one another, wept, and bent towards tinny speakers, hoping to catch some small snippet. Luckily, I heard the whole thing, because Auntie Virg kept the phone to the speaker. Then I listened to his address through my cell phone, leaned up against the locked gate, with tears streaming down my face, moved by his lines about those who came from distant lands and sacrificed for us so we could have this moment, breathing in the enormity of the moment with the millions of people gathered all around the Capitol.

I found out later that there were thousands of people, a line four blocks long, trapped in a tunnel also waiting to get into the purple section, with no information, just like our line, but a block over. From the posts online, I learned that many people who had purple tickets were campaign volunteers who put in hundreds of hours for the campaign and were bitterly and sadly disappointed.

Read about it here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012003362.html?hpid=topnews

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inauguration-watch/2009/01/many_express_outrage_over_tick.html

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090120/NEWS01/901209974/-1/RSS02

and here:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iT-VvLJveBygENvamHcJ5Sm9PNBQD95R63NG0

There's even a Facebook group I just joined: Purple Tunnel of Doom. The media and the DC police are saying that it was a few hundred of us, up to 5,000. That's incorrect. There were at least 10,000 who couldn't get in. The sea of humanity was insanely huge in our line, and there was another one four blocks long as well. I don't know how many of us actually ended up getting in, but it was only a handful, I bet. Thousands of blue and silver ticketholders were also prevented from their seats. An AP photographer behind me with a purple ticket was laughing sardonically about how she was assigned to sit with the masses and catch the "real" reactions. She never made it in either.

After having lunch, crashing for a long nap, and watching the address on Donna's DVR, I realized that I can't be completely disappointed. We had an incredible time at the inaugural kickoff concert. This whole weekend has been an incredible experience. Going to the receptions, parties, and the Asian American ball reminded me how many individuals came together to make this happen, through their grassroots work, fundraising, and organizing. What was most important was that we were with millions of other people here this weekend, experiencing this transition, this renewal, this promise and new hope for real change. No one in the District wore a frown this weekend.

That's all I can really say right now. At the end of the day, the best thing in the world still happened, whether or not I was on the right side of that security gate. So I didn't get in, and I didn't get that pic with the jumbotron or the Capitol in the background.

But Barack Hussein Obama II is our 44th president.

So Happy Inauguration Day, everyone. We witnessed history. Better yet, we CHANGED history. Today, we stood on the shoulders of all who have ever sacrificed and struggled against unjustice so that we could live our dreams. As a Pinay, a woman of color, daughter and granddaughter of immigrants, as an historian...this was such a moving moment for me that I can scarcely put it into words.

We have a new president, and that's the most wonderful thing ever.


Still processing the address. I'm irritated and shocked that Chief Justice Roberts messed up the oath. Obama laughed because he realized that Roberts said it wrong -- you can see him thinking, "This fool doesn't even know the words!" Of course Obama knows the words. It's a short little oath, not the Gettysburg Address, for God's sake. You know he's been saying it in the shower since September.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Pearl Gala, Philippine Embassy, Maya Soetero-Ng, Powerful Pinays (and Jay-Z, Beyonce and Sean Combs)

Lots of pics in this post. It's 3amPST and we have to wake up at 6am to take the Metro to our purple section in front of the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony. But here are some pics from today's packed day.

The day started with errands this morning for stuff we need for the inaugural (hand warmers, snacks, etc), and then I went to the National Day of Service event for the Filipino Veterans. My good, old friend Ben de Guzman is one of the coordinators of the Filipino Veteran's Equity campaign. We need to pass this bill this year -- a bill that grants all the Filipino veterans of WWII full equity with all American veterans.
That's me with novelist Evelina Galang, who is working on a new novel about the Filipina comfort women of World War II, and Ben de Guzman.

Then we headed over to the inaugural reception at the Philippine Embassy. But first, we said hi to our friends who were protesting and chatted with them in solidarity first before going into the embassy.

I saw my former student Valerie, who is getting her PhD at NYU, here at the rally, which critiqued Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's rather cozy relationship with the Bush regime, her human rights record (abysmal).

A number of us Filipina/o Americans from the East, West, Southwest, and Midwest who helped to phonebank, precinct walk, and generally campaign for Obama.

Child prodigy Charisse Pempengco, the 15-year-old Filipina singer with the HUGE voice who has made appearances on Ellen and Oprah, and guested at Celine Dion's concerts, sang a Celine Dion cover and "America the Beautiful" at the Embassy.She's the cutest, nicest and sweetest girl. And she's almost taller than me. I'm wearing four inch heels in the pic above.

And then it was off to the 5-star Mandarin Oriental hotel for the huge Asian American inaugural ball, the Pearl Gala. The Asian American power players in DC haven't thrown a bash since the Clinton years, so everyone was excited. Lots of celebs there. I missed Kal Penn (that would be Kumar of Harold and Kumar fame, and Gogul from the Namesake film)!


All of the Asian American elected officials in Congress and the Senate were there, as well as former and about-to-be confirmed cabinet members. Lots of movers and shakers at this ball: directors of nonprofits, policy wonks, legislative assistants, Congressional and Senate staffers, community organizers and activists, educators, and celebrities.

The crowd whooped and hollered for 4-star General Eric Shinseki, who first gained public attention by publicly critiquing the military strategy of the Bush administration in Iraq. He has just been appointed Secretary of Veteran's Affairs. He's Japanese American.

Lots of colleagues at the ball. From left to right: Dr. Rhacel Parrenas, professor of American Civilization at Brown, me, Dr. Theo Gonzalves of American Studies at University of Hawaii-Manoa, and Dr. Patricia Espiritu Halagao of the school of ed at UH-Manoa. Theo and Patricia are good friends with Dr. Konrad Ng, Maya Soetero-Ng's husband, as he's a prof at UH in education. They got to go to the Hawaii and Hawaii-Illinois balls.

So this is really funny. I stood in line for TWO HOURS for a hot dog and hot cocoa at the Inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial. There was this guy behind me and we chatted over the course of our two-hour wait to kill time, mostly complaining about why we were in the slowest line in the universe. We joked about how if we were at the March on Washington in 1963, we would have been the idiots in the hot dog line when King made the speech. We split right after we got our food, though. Then at the Pearl Gala, I saw him and asked if he remembered me from the hot dog line. We had a huge laugh about it. So this is Samir. We're going to be friends on Facebook now.

Charmaine Manansala ran the Asian Pacific Islander Vote team for the Obama campaign. She kicks ass.
This is Charmaine introducing all the young Asian American activists who worked for Obama in all the swing states, organizing Asian American communities. Charmaine is now one of the highest ranked, if not the highest ranked, Filipina in the Obama administration. I heard her new job is director of domestic affairs in the new administration.
I first met Charmaine when she was working in the Clinton administration. She's amazing.
There were rumors that Obama was coming, but we weren't surprised when his sister, Dr. Maya Soetero-Ng, came with her husband Konrad. She thanked all of us for our support and asked that we help her brother shoulder all of his burdens and challenges.
She was mobbed for a long time after her speech.


And then in a surprise performance, Charisse Pempengco showed up and gave a surprise rendition of America the Beautiful for the First Sister and First Brother-In-Law.


So when we were leaving the hotel we saw this huge crowd gathered in the lobby. Then we realized that Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Sean Combs (Puffy) were staying in the hotel and they were in the lobby! Suddenly I got papparazi-crazy, snapping pics until I got too close to Beyonce and the bodyguard shoved my camera lens away. Suddenly I felt like a slimy TMZ reporter and not at all professor-like.


It's inauguration day. So excited. Hope you all have a great day. I'll be in front of the Capitol by 8am tomorrow.