Shawn Dequereco walked into a party when she showed up to work Tuesday morning.
A very quiet party. About 55 people crowded into the Renton restaurant where she serves, but Dequereco says she could have heard a pin drop.
About the only sound in the Dog and Pony Alehouse came from the TV broadcasting Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America. TV broadcasting started at dawn and the official swearing-in ceremony started just after 9 a.m. our time.
Dequereco figures most of the rapt viewers were Obama supporters like herself.
Supporters who had been watching the seconds tick down to Inauguration Day on a special clock mounted on the restaurant’s wall two years ago.
“I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled,” Dequereco said of Obama’s ascendance to the country’s highest office.
Across town from the Park Avenue restaurant, the garage-turned-coffee shop on Second and Main was also bustling Tuesday morning.
“It was packed,” said Jet City Espresso owner Debbie Natelson. “All sorts of people were glued to the TV and transfixed to the history in the making.”
I took to the streets of downtown Renton Tuesday morning in search of all these people. Celebrating or grieving, I wanted to know what Renton residents think of the country’s first African-American president. So I asked one simple question:
“What do you think of President Obama?”
Some answered quickly, like Cynthia Cruz of Des Moines. I caught her as she walked into Ben’s Loan Inc., a pawn shop on Second Avenue South.
“I think it just shows how far we’ve come,” she said. “And change is good, so hopefully he’ll get us back on track.”
Some answered more slowly.
The young Renton man strumming a guitar on a couch in Jet City took a couple minutes to compose his response.
“I am looking forward to the certain noticeable change in contrast to our previous president,” Garrison Grant said.
Cruz and Grant were the most forthcoming of the pedestrians I stopped.
I approached at least a dozen others, but no one would answer the seemingly innocuous question on the record.
Some simply didn’t know what to say.
“I’m not political,” a woman said.
“I don’t care,” another woman admitted.
Finally, after being turned down by several waiting at the Renton Transit Center, I launched a frustrated exclamation to a crowd waiting for a bus.
“No one cares?!” I asked.
There was no response.
But some did care. Some simply didn’t want their name in print.
“I’m not looking forward to it,” said a middle-aged man biking past Jet City.
A young guy who works at Ben’s Loan said he’s pro-gun and therefore anti-Obama.
Like the other bicyclist, a middle-aged woman cycling through Renton offered fiery words.
“I’m hoping Obama will do some good for people like me for a change,” she said.
She then referred to former President Bush as a “sack of” you know what.
But she said she didn’t want her name or photo in the paper. Maybe if the question was about the Cedar River, she said.
It seemed the question about our new president wasn’t so innocuous after all.
Even a prominent Renton Republican wouldn’t answer the question.
“I don’t care to discuss this,” she said on the phone. “Find someone else,” she added.
Not surprisingly, the chair of the King County Democrats had something to say.
“It’s a very proud, beautiful moment,” Susan Sheary said.
She and her Renton officemates toasted Obama’s inauguration Tuesday morning with Obama-Biden raspberry champagne made by a Burien winery. They further celebrated at a meeting Tuesday night.
Renton Mayor Denis Law agreed with Sheary. Obama’s inauguration was a beautiful moment.
“The swearing-in ceremony today was exhilarating,” he said.
Law also said he is hopeful that Obama can help jumpstart a meaningful economic recovery in Renton and the rest of the United States.
“Obama is a master at instilling hope, pride and a desire for Americans to work together in addressing the significant challenges that face this nation,” Law said.
