In Philadelphia on Saturday, President-elect Obama told a jubilant crowd, “I will not be traveling alone [to Washington]. I will be taking you with me.”
Rhetoric, sure. But for one teenager from Trinidad and Tobago, it was - literally - an invitation.
The boy leaped onto a southbound bus, determined to join the Washington festivities, and maybe even the hard work ahead.
He carried no luggage, and little money. He wasn’t sure where he would stay. He wanted to be in Washington for the inauguration. He wanted more.
“I love him,” said the boy, settled into the last open seat on the Chinatown bus, still flushed from the four-block run to the station. “I’m going to go to college, but I want to be involved.”
As the bus churned south on I-95, the boy worked his cellphone, quickly lining up a friend’s couch and the line on some parties.
“He called us to service, he told us that we have to fulfill America‘s promise,” said the boy, who was barely whiskered enough to need a shave. “This is good. This is what I want to do.”
— Betsy Pisik, The Washington Times
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