Pure Manaʻo

Today as I turned on the television at 5 am to watch the inauguration, I couldn't help but compare it to the other inaugurations I've seen (Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush). I woke my children up and we watched until we had to leave for school and on our way to school, we listened to Obama's speech on the AM radio. But what is so different about this inauguration is the way that everyday citizens like me, not professional journalists, but people like me who woke up and turned on the tv, or the radio, or the computer, can be directly involved in this historic day through Facebook or Twitter, or online comments, blogs, vlogs, etc. What a wonderful day to be a teacher in America. With so many opportunities to bring the world into our classroom, to join in the voices of the nation and the world, it's a great day to be in education. It's a wonderful time to be in this profession, and more than any other time in history, the world really is at our fingertips. For those that a...

Sitting in front of the TV on Tuesday and listening to Obama's victory speech really brought home the idea that this is indeed a historical event. The media threw that idea around, but in my lifetime, I didn't feel that this election was historical in the way watching the Twin Towers fall on CNN or seeing the Challenger blow up was historical. The message is not unusual. We've heard it before, but said now, said in this way, with these words strung together like a Baptist sermon, with the pulse of the crowd as they stood in silence, save for the call and response, "yes we can." That's history, "our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared." Hundreds of miles away, whole continents of people that watched or listened to his speech shared breath with those people watching him, and the message really resounded. . . "while we breathe, we hope."