Obama comes to town.

January 12, 2011, President Obama spoke at a memorial service in honor of the victims of Jared Loughner's shooting rampage. I anticipated a long wait to get into McKale Center, but it also seemed like a rare opportunity to have the President come to town. Plus, I knew I could work this speech into my teaching, which I did.

Turner and I joined some other friends in line about 2:30 pm. And we waited and waited. Turner made plenty of friends. Margot arrived and they played baby turtles.

The doors opened at 6 PM and by 7 PM we were going through security. The speech started a little late, at 7:10 PM. We didn't wait in our seats long before the devil, um, Jan Brewer arrived on the floor, hugging and greeting suits. President and Michelle Obama emerged from the left stage and walked with little fanfare to their seats. I mean, we were all clapping and on our feet, but they waved once or twice, graciously shook hands with the beast in blue, and took their seats. There was a Native American blessing. Nancy Pelosi spoke (missing her). Others spoke. Jan Brewer graced us with some incoherent babble.

Then President Obama came out on stage and spoke of political unity and he criticized a humanitity divided by ideology. He memorialized the victims, telling us personal stories about who they were/are and how they ended up in Tucson, AZ. At the end of his speech, he charges us to go into the world with a greater respect for one another. With some love in our hearts for other Americans who may not look like us, think like us, or even believe in us. But that an "us" is an important component of being American. I was left to wonder how all those folks in Mexico feel about the unity of Americans. They are, after all, inhabitants of North America and yet are never included in the rhetoric of American patriotism. I didn't speak on these things, though, when I was interviewed by a couple of news sources on the outside of McKale Center. Instead, I praised Obama's speech and his willingness to come here and spread a hopeful message to a community devastated by such loss. I did not feel the impact of these shootings as deeply as others, but they made me scared to live in a state that respects gun rights by allowing for very little regulation. Who needs access to thirty bullets in less than a few seconds? Someone who wants to snuff out the life of a community.

There are several cute stories from our long wait in line. I'll share one.

Turner picks up a newspaper. He's walking around in the grass with this newspaper, flipping the pages, stopping to stomp his foot occasionally, and pretending to read and think over the paper's content. I ask him what he's reading. He is quiet. Hey Turner, Tell me the story about what you're doing.

Without looking up he says, "I'm an old man reading a newspaper."

His back is bent a little. His feet are shuffling along in the bermuda. A group of young college men behind us start laughing. "Watch that kid. He's acting something out." The young men stop their joking (and horrid tales of last weekend's conquests). They watch Turner. He never comes out of character. He turns one last page. Folds the paper to his chest and looks at the boys.

"Hey. What you acting out?" One of them asks.

Turner smiles, "I'm old man reading the newspaper."

The guy laughs. "Bravo. Very convincing performance."

Turner, embarrassed, comes to my side and buries his face in my leg and asks for Skittles.

As you can see, fatigue was high by the time we made it inside. Turner took a power nap at the end, missing some of the best parts of President Obama's speech. But, he'll forever remember the hours of waiting in line. I'm happy to recount the other parts to him as time moves along.