(Archive February 3, 2009) Dean Bates Attends Historic Inauguration in D.C.

By Ashley Arseneau | Observer Reporter

On the day the 44th President of the United States of America took the oath of office, Dr. Vincent Bates, Mount Wachusett Commu­nity College Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, Math, Education and Developmental Studies, knew he had to be there from the minute President Barack Obama became the democratic nominee, knowing Obama would win the presidential race.

“It was just momentous,” said Dr. Bates, when asked about his expe­rience of attending the inaugura­tion on January 20th. Bates got special permission from MWCC President Daniel Asquino to take the historical inauguration day off even though it was the first day of the spring semester. Also, Bates didn’t even have tickets to the inauguration itself but stood at the National Mall in Washington D.C where he watched the oath of office on the fourth jumbotron screen back near the Smithsonian castle, with millions of other peo­ple gathered to see history take place.

At 9 a.m., two hours before the inauguration was set to take place, the Lincoln Memorial Concert, from two days before, was re­played for the crowd. According to Bates, when country singer Garth Brooks sang “Shout” about 1 mil­lion people sang along. When any pictures of Obama were showed on the screen the whole crowd just went wild. “It was a good mo­ment,” Bates said.

When the oath of office started, Bates said that everyone was just so focused and when Chief Justice John Roberts said the words “Mr. President” to Obama, there was a “tremendous “ovation from the entire crowd. Everyone was hug­ging everyone, if they knew them or not, and cheering.”

“I was so joyous of the moment, I was proud I was a black man,” Bates said. “But I was also proud to be an American. We weren’t different people, we weren’t yel­low, black, or white. We were all one people. We all helped put him in office, we were all just Ameri­cans.” The next day when Bates woke up and turned on the news, he heard that there were no police incidents in Washington D.C. the entire day before. Because of this, Bates felt that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream had finally been realized and he says he just hopes it can be sustained.