In the middle of the MSU Centennial Student Union ballroom, surrounded by college students and faculty, sat Jim and Detta Jack.
The retired Mankato couple haven’t owned a television for 30 years. But this — the inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president — was one event they weren’t about to miss.
“Right now he’s the most popular man on the planet,” Detta Jack said.
They weren’t there to worship the man. Just to finally see something they and many others thought they’d never see.
So in lounges and gymnasiums, in classrooms and living rooms, people across the country Tuesday gathered around — or under — television screens to witness what was perhaps the most significant event the nation has seen in decades.
“I thought it was a powerful speech,” Jim Jack said.
“Appropriate. And long overdue.”
You’d have been hard pressed to find many people in the room who disagreed.
Up in front, where there were several rows of seats, sat the frenzied quartet of sophomores Joane McAfee, Meoshia Johnson, Mariah Jacox and Bulour Zarzan. They’d been waiting since November to see what happened on Election Day come to fruition.
“The whole time I had chills,” Johnson said.
“I’m speechless,” Jacox added.
McAfee said she liked the tone of the speech. There were no ill words toward Republicans. No rhetoric about how Americans saw that Democrats must be chosen to steer the country in some particular direction.
It was a “we” speech, instead of an “us” and “ them” speech.
“He didn’t try to promote the fact that he was a black,” she said. “It was just, ‘This is how we’re going to fix it, and we’re all going to do it together.’”
In the back of the ballroom sat the College Democrats, a group that for eight years has had to endure the fact the other major student political organization on campus, the College Republicans, was the one who had its guy in the White House.
“We’re really, really excited about this,” said junior Abby Hager, president of the College Democrats.
She said she’s always liked Obama, even in the early days of his campaign when an Obama win seemed like a world away.
Obama, she said, has the kind of magnetism that can bring people together, a kind of charisma that is recognized worldwide.
“I like the way he handles himself. I like his ideas,” Hager said. “It feels good.”
Membership is on the rise for the College Democrats. And Hager thinks it has some staying power, maybe even enough to carry forward to the state governor’s race in 2010.
But even by then, Jim and Detta Jack probably still won’t have a television. They keep up with world events by reading newspapers and listening to public radio.
Jim Jack said Obama seems to be more well-suited to running a world power.
“I think he’s got a world vision Bush just didn’t have,” he said. “He’s a uniter.”
The Jack family is a lot like Obama’s. They have sons-in-law from Kenya and Nigeria.
They have an adopted daughter from Guatemala. Jim Jack’s dad was from Canada.
Initially, they were Hillary Clinton supporters. They quickly came around.
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