400 students and teachers witness inauguration

By TOM KANE

BETHEL, NY — On a screen two stories high, over 400 students from local schools witnessed the inaugural ceremony for President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden, which was beamed up from Washington, DC.

“I’m really psyched, this is so cool,” said Livett Lewis, an African-American Middletown Senior High School student who attended the event at the Museum at Bethel Woods. “It’s a very important event not just for African-Americans. A new course in life is going to occur. It’s a historic moment.”

The event was the kick-off of the 2009 Education Program by the Museum at Bethel Woods, a part of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

“The students heard a lecture on the historical significance of the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States from special guest Amy Colon, assistant professor of American History at Sullivan County Community College, and watched the famous inauguration of President John F. Kennedy,” said Margaret Hughes, museum education manager.

“This is the culmination of the social and political change made possible by the struggles of the 1960s, which are the main focus of the museum,” Hughes said.

The festivities began at 10:00 a.m. with a performance by the Liberty High School Band and Liberty Middle School choral group. Students munched on their lunches in the auditorium as the festivities cascaded over them on the big screen.

“I think he’s going to have a hell of a job, with two wars and an economy falling around his and our ears,” said Steven Weber, an African-American senior at Liberty High School. “I hope he has what it takes. I think he does. I couldn’t vote but I would have voted for him if I could.”

Several black students reacted to the statement that is being repeated in the media to the effect that we are entering a post-racial period in which racism will lessen or disappear.

“”We’ve come a long way, but racism isn’t over,” Weber said. “Racism isn’t going to end just because Obama is the president.”

“You can’t change the world unless you change yourself, that’s my reaction to all this,” said Alex Smith, another African-American student from Monticello Senior High.

Not everybody cheered.

“It might not be the right time for Obama,” said Matt McPhillips of Liberty Middle School. “I’m not for him nor against him. I think that John McCain would have been a better choice.”

“Soon, at least four schools will also participate in the museum’s in-class lesson program on presidential inaugurations,” Hughes said. “We will visit the Damascus Area School in Pennsylvania, Tri-Valley School, Light and Life Christian School and Sullivan West to address at least 12 different classes, reaching over 500 students, including 200 additional students who could not attend the inauguration day program.”