GULLIXSON: 750 memos to a new president

Twenty-year-old Jeannine Miller of Santa Rosa was scrambling on Thursday to find handwarmers. "I went to a bunch of drug stores," she said. "They said, 'We don't carry those.' And I said, 'Of course not, this is California.' "

She finally found what she was looking for at a hardware store of all places.

Kimberly Jay, a junior at Sonoma State University, was getting a flash drive for her camera and taking orders for souvenirs. Her grandmother wants a Barack Obama pen. Jay also was celebrating her good fortune in getting tickets to the inauguration through Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office. "I really lucked out," she said. According to CNN, one D.C. broker was asking $20,095 for a single ticket.

Meanwhile, Julie Norris, 40, of Novato took time from her trip preparations to pay tribute to a childhood friend in Alabama. "I remember it like it was yesterday," said Norris. "I was in first grade. My best friend was a black girl named Lisa Carter. And when we were going to have a birthday party, I wanted to invite her. They told me I couldn't. I just didn't understand. They told me it just wasn't done . . ."

Another thing that isn't done is to elect a black man as president of the United States. But it has happened. And on Jan. 20, Miller, Jay, Norris and somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million others -- including 8,000 police officers and 10,000 military personnel -- will be on hand in D.C. to observe and celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president.

The three students are part of a group of 14 from Sonoma State University that arrived on the East Coast this weekend to begin a 10-day educational tour of D.C., complete with seminars, discussions and meetings with political, academic and media leaders.

Readers will be able to follow the experiences of these SSU students and interact with them as they blog and share photos and videos via The Press Democrat Web site. (Just go to pressdemocrat.com. To see the students' itinerary, go to the Inside Opinion blog.)

Last week, we published a story about 18 Slater Middle School students from Santa Rosa who also are going to the inauguration and parade. So are 40 Petaluma High School students.

Does anybody remember seeing such enthusiasm over watching a swearing-in ceremony? Inaugurations were such remote and exclusive affairs in the past. But Obama has somehow brought this event down from a high shelf somewhere and made it more accessible to everyone.

It's a good thing. The nation is in need of this kind of stimulus -- one of hope and enthusiasm. Also, the money being spent on these D.C. trips won't hurt the economy any.

The SSU trip was organized by David McCuan, an associate professor of political science, through the nonprofit Washington Center. It cost each student about $2,800. McCuan said he started organizing the trip in August. "The interest was strong but obviously it became overwhelming in the week of the election," he said. "We filled up within days of the election itself."

The SSU group will be joining students and faculty from 47 states and 14 countries participating in the center's Presidential Inauguration Program. Despite the high price, the fact that the size of the group was expanded from 500 to 750, and that each college was limited to 15 students, the center still ended up with 1,000 students on a waiting list. Thirty were on the wait list at Sonoma State.

Given that the students also will be earning four units of credit, they'll have some work to do. They will be finishing "Memo to a New President" by Michael A. Genovese and are required to write their own memo to Obama. McCuan said the letters from all 750 students will be compiled and left with the White House before the students leave.

Raleigh Souther, 21, a Sonoma State senior from Orange County, says he plans to use his memo to encourage the president to increase funding for NASA. Given the planet's problems with global warming, "exploring the galaxy and getting out there is probably the most important thing we can do," he said.

But Souther and others have sent a clear message that there's nowhere in the universe they would rather be this month than in the nation's capital -- cheering for a Obama.

"I'm just looking forward to seeing history -- seeing all the people who are going to be there and witnessing this great moment," said Jay.

"Nothing in history will ever happen like this again," said Miller. "This is only going to happen one time, and I'm going to be there for it."

"I never thought I would see the day," said an exuberant Norris, who said she grew up a Democrat in a sea of Southern conservatives. In those days, "the attitude was, 'It will be a cold day in hell' before this (a black man becoming president) would ever happen."

Make that a cold day in January -- Jan. 20, 2009.

(Paul Gullixson is editorial director for The Press Democrat. E-mail him at paul.gullixson@pressdemocrat.com.)