Day Two

I woke up, my first reaction, "We're on time!" After breakfast, we were shipped back over to the Cole Field House at University of Maryland to watch Colin Powell and Desmond Tutu. Colin Powell's speech was momentous. A mixed speech about why he chose Barack Obama as his candidate, breaking the race barrier, his previous experiences (particularly his military service history), and how we can be a successful leader as well. I give it a thumbs-up. It was engaging and educational.And what really touched me was the fact that his speech wasn't read off a paper, in fact, he had no written document whatsoever, he just spoke to us from his heart. Archbishop Tutu was hysterical, he was a small man, only a little bigger than the podium, but just as funny none the less. He convinced us that we are all a VSP, or very special person. After the speeches, we were late again. We headed off to the Lincoln Memorial for the celebration, or so I thought. What really happened was that we were dumped in the national mall to watch the celebration on a huge television propped up in the center of the square. But, by this time, we were only able to see about three songs before the celebration ended. Next, we went to the Hilton Washington (about 1,500 of us), into a beautiful ballroom where we had a great dinner and watched Reduced Shakespeare, a three stooges type play making fun and exploring American history, and Capital Steps, a political satire group. I don't think I've laughed so hard in my life. If you ever have the chance, you should them, especially the Reduced Shakespeare. We finally made it back to the hotel at 11:30pm for some shut-eye.