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Wait! We're Not Done with Bush Yet...

3:18 PM, January 19, 2009 | Comments (25)
Celebratory is a safe way to describe the mood in Washington. And not just for Barack Obama's big day on Tuesday. When Obama raises his right hand, it will mark for millions of his supporters the end of something else. At Dupont Circle in Northwest Washington,...

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Posted Monday, January 19, 2009 8:53 PM

Sasha and Malia: Bigger Than Miley Cyrus?

Andrew Romano

OK. I get it. I know I look a little young for my age. But this is just cruel. I'm referring, of course, to the relentless, blood-curdling screeching that's been filling Washington D.C.'s Verizon Center arena every, oh, five or six seconds.

I knew something was fishy when Newsweek's Washington bureau chief offered me the magazine's sole ticket to the "Kids Inaugural: We Are the Future" concert. You might think that members of the press can just waltz right into any inauguration event they want. Not so much. Basically, each outlet gets a very limited number of tickets--like, one--to each official shindig. There's a lot of internal jockeying involved in determining who gets to go to what. But--surprise!--the Kids Inaugural pass just happened to land on my desk, no drama involved. And despite the fact that I've never actually heard anything by Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato or Bow Wow--like any sane, childless person over the age of 16, even one who can't grow a beard yet--I knew that my eight-year-old cousin Robert would commit parricide if he ever found out that I'd skipped the show. So I decided to take the plunge.

Thus: here I am at the Verizon Center, along with 15,000 adolescents. Who are screeching. All the time.

But even though my tympanic membrane may be punctured, the "Kids Inaugural" is actually turning out to be, oddly enough, one of the more moving events I've attended since arriving yesterday in D.C. It's not because Miley Cyrus is, in fact, a pretty compelling performer, which she is. It's not because the Jonas Brothers' impossibly lustrous hair looks even more lustrous in person, which it does. It's not because George Lopez's advice to the crowd--"Can't survive on grilled cheese alone? Yes We Can! Can't eat 17 fruit roll-ups at a time? Yes We Can!"--is strangely convincing. It's not even because these kids, many of whom are the sons and daughters of members of the armed services, are finally getting at least one evening to make up, in some small way, for the months and years their moms and dads spent overseas, in harm's way.

For me, it's something else entirely. When Sasha and Malia Obama appeared shortly before show time and took their seats in the front row, the entire arena erupted. Near me, a group of young white girls screamed, "We love you Sasha! We love you Malia!" As the cameraman crouched a few inches from the new First Kids, projecting their faces on the massive Jumbotrons hanging overhead, I couldn't help but feel sort of sorry for them, knowing that they're about to endure the most awkward years of their lives in the glare of the national spotlight. But assuming they emerge sane, safe and unscathed, as they undoubtedly will, the good that the Obama girls will do, just by being themselves, is truly staggering. Consider it. As of tomorrow, the most popular children in the country--in every rec room, every classroom, every cafeteria; the two kids that every one of their peers admires, adores and wants to be friends with--will be African-American. (Even Miley Cyrus ran over to shake their hands.) As Michelle Obama said on stage, "the children are the future." Judging by tonight, they won't even understand why putting a black family in the White House was such a big deal to begin with.

And that's something worth screeching about.

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Member Comments

Posted By: EmilyTroutman (January 21, 2009 at 2:40 PM)

So cute....! Kids in DC are really really excited!

Over the past week, I asked hundreds of people in DC, including lots of kids, to choose a word to represent how they feel about the inauguration of Barack Obama. I then took their portrait with the word! The words included "Proud," "Hopeful," "Skeptical," and "Angry." No one chose angry! But there were definitely some "Skeptical" people out there!! And "Curious" too.

Kids chose "Love" and "Obama". I think because little kids love to say "Obama." It has a good sound. Older kids, like age 8 or 9 chose the word "Excited" a lot.

The result of my photos is this great video/photo essay. It's really inspirational. The love for the Obamas is so moving.

http://vimeo.com/2895468

or www.emilytroutman.blogspot.com

The video definitely will help me remember DC's optimism and energy before everyone analyzes it to death!! --emily

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Posted By: helenjohn (January 21, 2009 at 7:30 AM)

Miley has a great voice and she looks awesome. I read here (www.projectweightloss.com) about how she stays in shape at her age and, wow, no wonder everybody’s talking about it.  

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Posted By: TheMightyMidget (January 20, 2009 at 1:32 PM)

Recently there was an article that spoke about the languishing educational standards in our nation's schools, and by way of example the author chose to point out a certain factoid:  that a significant population of America's youth, when shown a picture of two water fountains, one with the word "white" an the other with the word "colored" over it, could not explain the significance.  The author took this as an example of the lack of proficiancy in American history among the young.  I completely disagreed, seeing something else entirely bout that particular example.

I can think of no better end to the struggle my country has endured in healing the racial divide than two events, one fixed in time and the other ongoing:  Today's inauguration of B Obama; and my young daughter having no conception whatsoever as to why anyone would ever be judged by the color of their skin.

"Judging by tonight, they won't even understand why putting a black family in the White House was such a big deal to begin with."      Amen.

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