Ryan Benjamin | It's all about the attitude

This Tuesday I woke up in D.C. at the crack of dawn to watch Barack Obama say the words, "I will execute the office of president of the United States faithfully." Or was it faithfully execute? Whatever it was, I was there to see it happen - well, sort of.

My brother, cousin and I were fortunate enough to score some "blue" tickets to the inauguration - three of over 250,000 total tickets, of the millions who wanted them. But some of us didn't quite make it to the ceremony.

Oh, we braved the bitter cold and the 410,000 people who decided to take the Metro that day. But though we waited for hours to go through security, we never actually made it. According to the Inaugural Committee, due to crowd overflow "several thousand people" could not enter the area.

For three hours, we waited, moving about three feet every five minutes, in a throng of tens of thousands - kind of like a highway toll where you have 10 or 12 lines that are supposed to converge.

Understandably I was disappointed that I couldn't get in. But as I stood in that sea of citizens, unable to move an inch, I thought, 'How can I complain?' Actually, how DARE I complain?

How we act in life is all about spin. Turn on any news show - even the best, like Meet the Press - and you'll hear the party strategists spewing talking points "spun" from the bare facts.

They'll "cherry pick" one positive line from a presidential debate and keep repeating that one line until they create a falsely positive image of the candidate's holistic performance. In the mainstream, spin has a negative connotation - Bill O'Reilly even has a portion of his show called the No Spin Zone meant to tell facts without bias (supposedly). But there's no reason for it to be bad.

Whenever something - anything - happens, we react, and we have a choice to react positively or negatively. You fail an exam, for example. You can cry endlessly, but in my view the smarter choice would be to use your transgression as a reminder to study for the next exam, bearing the pain of the grade while appreciating the experience for what it's worth.

And at the inauguration, around 11:45, the police closed the gates, ending all hope that we could enter.

The massive collection of humans still outside then crisscrossed the area in every direction. We caught a glimpse of the Capitol and the tiny people from the Health and Human Services building, but without any sound and Jumbotron.

But it turns out several people had those old-fashioned things called radios, so we gathered round to listen to Vice President Biden, Aretha Franklin, Chief Justice Roberts, and finally, President Obama. The scene came right out of Slumdog Millionaire, when millions of people are sitting around televisions in small circles throughout India, yearning to catch a clear image of Jamal, the millionaire-show contestant who grew up in the poorest areas of Mumbai.

While listening to the inaugural address, I spun this potentially frustrating experience into a positive one. It was the only way, in fact, to enjoy myself and my place in history. Before, some people were crying because they couldn't get in. Once Obama spoke, the same people were crying watching the first black president be sworn in. The opportunity to be part of the excitement of the day, with people zig-zagging every which way, was enough for me.

My less-than-ideal inauguration experience was just one that we, as Penn students, can take as an example. We can make the effort to appreciate what we have rather than complain about the history paper we have to write or how we couldn't get into Ed Rendell's class. Every setback brings an opportunity to learn something new, both about yourself and in general.

Originally I thought, 'Someone's losing a job over this.' But really - who cares?

Clearly, some people screwed up.

But I was part of under the half a percent of the country able to see the inauguration of the 44th president. And I was able to faithfully execute - or execute faithfully, if you want - my ability as a U.S. citizen to watch a public, peaceful transition of power. How's that for spin?

Ryan Benjamin is a College senior from New Haven, Conn. A Connecticut Yankee appears on Fridays. His email address is benjamin@dailypennsylvanian.com

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