Central Oregonians attend Obama’s inauguration
Bend resident Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams delivered the invocation prayer during the president’s inauguration Monday.
But she wasn’t the only person from Bend to make the trip to D.C.
NewsChannel 21 talked with a local Democrat who was in the crowd.
Bend resident Jason Burge was a field officer for Organizing for America, an organization that helped re-elect President Obama.
“It’s just that really collective feeling of accomplishment and pride that we get to have another four years of President Obama,” Burge said. “I certainly felt like there was a lot of people there. We were very crammed in — we got to know all of our neighbors very well.”
Burge said he was surrounded by people from Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and North Carolina.
“We are all just collectively together in the moment,” Burge said. “I think that’s why people are drawn to the inauguration.”
Burge said he was in a group of about a half-dozen people from Bend attending the ceremony.
And he told us it’s a nice bookend, after months of campaigning for the president.
“I remember the very first phone call we made in Bend, with a handful of volunteers in the apartment of one of our strong neighborhood team leaders,” Burge said. “To have seen that and the 160 volunteers that we had locally and the hundreds of volunteers across the state, it’s really kind of a nice exclamation point for all of that hard work.”
On a day when Americans gather to celebrate the inauguration of a president, it seems at least for this day the historic occasion unites everyone.
“One of the great parts of our nation is the fact that we are able to have peaceful transfers of power every four years,” Burge said. “Whether it’s a re-election or bringing in of a new president, you certainly feel a part of being American, as opposed to Republicans/Democrats, on at least this day.”
And Burge said he’ not done yet with campaigning for the president.
He’s part of another organization, but this time helping to get Obama’s second-term goals accomplished.
