Opiyo Oloya
21 January 2009
guest blog
Sunday, January 18th, 2009, Buffalo International Airport, New York, USA. 11:08 a.m.
The journey to Washington to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama continues. We are now cooling our heels at Buffalo International Airport in New York.
Our flight to Baltimore Washington International Airport is not for another two hours. I am sitting right in front of Jakes, a restaurant inside the terminal. Ten minutes ago, we cleared the rigorous pre-boarding security screening by the Transportation Safety Authority (TSA).
The drive to Buffalo this morning was fairly slow because of the snowy conditions in the trip from Toronto. The roads were slippery and it required all my attention to keep from slipping into the ditch. We did see a number of vehicles that spun out of control and were in the ditch.
For inauguration day, I would prefer a snowy condition to a dry and brutally cold one. The temperature is usually a lot warmer when snow falls. Rain will be absolutely no good either because one would be wet and cold. So, unless we can have a warm sunny day, say above 10 Celsius, snow would be the next best alternative.
It is snowing outside as I write, and the planes and airport service equipments are covered in snow. The runways are all covered in snow, and every so often, an armada of snow-removal trucks speeds down the runway pushing aside the white stuff. They look like battle tanks caught up in a swirl of white sand.
All departing airplanes must be de-iced before they take to the sky. I still recall the January 1982 Air Florida crash into the Potomac River, just outside of Washington DC, and only three kilometers from the White House. It was a cold snowy winter day, and investigators would later determine that ice had accumulated on the jet’s wings, making them impossible to manouver. 78 people died at the time, but a number of people escaped the tragedy. The story was told of a passenger named Arland Williams who kept on passing the rescue rope to other passengers so that they may escape the frigid water, but who then ended up drowning. He was hailed as the hero because of his unselfish act.
Right now, Americans are basking in the glow of another real-life hero—not Barack Obama—a pilot who brought his crippled jet safely into the river thereby averting a catastrophe. Every news item has been filled with how the pilot, a former F4 fighter pilot who fought in Vietnam, remained cool-headed after both his engines sucked in Canadian geese. With the engines dead, and unable to return to La Guardia Airport in New York, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger decided to bring his Airbus A320 plane into the Hudson River. After crash-landing in the frigid river, Sullenberger stayed behind to make sure every single one of his passengers and crew had left the doomed plane, before exiting the sinking aircraft. How many people do you know who can act with such class and professionalism and with little regards for personal safety?
In any event, I trust that when it time to board, our plane will be de-iced and the journey uneventful—these days, uneventful is good.
Meanwhile the man who is the focus of this trip—Barack Obama—made his way to Washington last night aboard a train. He stopped along the way in Wilmington to pick up his vice-president Joe Biden, and then rolled on toward Baltimore and finally to Washington. The two truly seem to be enjoying themselves, having fun and connecting with the American people. Thousands greeted them in Baltimore where Obama addressed the huge multitude. You would not know that the man was already elected just by hearing speak. He seemed to be stuck in perpetual campaign mode, exhorting Americans to stand up and do what is needed to return the country to its former glory.
At this time on Tuesday, he will be just about ready to take the oath of office to become the 44th president of the United States of America. We shall be there, rain or shine.
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