duncan228
01-21-2009, 02:55 PM
Mason on Obama, uncut (http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/2009/01/mason-on-obama.html)
By Jeff McDonald
In Tuesday's dead-tree edition of the Express-News, we printed a series of vignettes from local sports figures, on what the Obama inauguration meant to them. For that series, I talked to Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr., who in only a season and a half as an established NBA player, has gained a reputation as one of the league's most accommodating and thoughtful interviews.
Mason was born and raised in the Washington D.C. area a political junkie, so I thought he could lend a unique perspective to the Obama inauguration. And he did.
Unfortunately, space prohibited Mason's response from appearing in Tuesday's package.
I thought Mason's monologue was too good to go to waste, so here it is in all its glory:
"I went to President Clinton's second inauguration, in 1996. I went to Sidwell (Friends School) with Chelsea Clinton, the same place Barack's kids are going now. That's how I got a ticket. I remember what a big deal that was, seeing the President taking the oath.
"To see Barack on the same stage, it just makes you proud for our country. It shows how far we've come, not just for one ethnicity or race, but all of us. We're all a part of history. It's fitting that it's coming a day after Martin Luther King Day, because you couldn't have Barack without him.
"My family says it's crazy in D.C. right now. You can't even get in to see the inauguration without a ticket. My house (in D.C.) is full of people who came down for it. My aunt's house is full. My brother has a house in the city, and it's full. None of them have tickets. They just want to be there, in the city, when it happens. They want to feel it in the air. It's that kind of moment."
By Jeff McDonald
In Tuesday's dead-tree edition of the Express-News, we printed a series of vignettes from local sports figures, on what the Obama inauguration meant to them. For that series, I talked to Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr., who in only a season and a half as an established NBA player, has gained a reputation as one of the league's most accommodating and thoughtful interviews.
Mason was born and raised in the Washington D.C. area a political junkie, so I thought he could lend a unique perspective to the Obama inauguration. And he did.
Unfortunately, space prohibited Mason's response from appearing in Tuesday's package.
I thought Mason's monologue was too good to go to waste, so here it is in all its glory:
"I went to President Clinton's second inauguration, in 1996. I went to Sidwell (Friends School) with Chelsea Clinton, the same place Barack's kids are going now. That's how I got a ticket. I remember what a big deal that was, seeing the President taking the oath.
"To see Barack on the same stage, it just makes you proud for our country. It shows how far we've come, not just for one ethnicity or race, but all of us. We're all a part of history. It's fitting that it's coming a day after Martin Luther King Day, because you couldn't have Barack without him.
"My family says it's crazy in D.C. right now. You can't even get in to see the inauguration without a ticket. My house (in D.C.) is full of people who came down for it. My aunt's house is full. My brother has a house in the city, and it's full. None of them have tickets. They just want to be there, in the city, when it happens. They want to feel it in the air. It's that kind of moment."