We Are One crowd from above. The arrow points to where we were standing.

You know how when you’re hearing really great music performed live and you just feel like dancing? And if you’re with a few friends and they’re into the music, well, you can really get into it.

Well imagine 500,000 really happy people listening to some of the world’s best pop musicians… and you start to get a sense of what yesterday’s We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial was like. And let me tell you, when Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, and Beyonce (to name a few), start doing their thing, we all got into it. Even Barack and Michelle were bopping to the music! 

No words can really capture the feeling of what this concert was like, so I’m just going to let the pictures tell the story. Enjoy!

Annie, before the concert. See the Lincoln Memorial behind her? That's where the stage is.

The crowd, seen from the base of the Washington Monument

Telephoto shot of the Lincoln Memorial and frozen reflecting pool, taken from the base of the Washington Monument.

View from behind us, looking back towards the Washington Monument

The crowd watching the crowd

Garth Brooks singing "Shout"

Some of us joined in

Finally, President-elect Obama takes the stage

Jonathan from Miami, FL

Part of the fun of being here is talking with people who have traveled from all over the country to be a part of this moment in history. Often, when “history” happens, we don’t know it because it slips by disguised as an ordinary moment. You don’t find out until afterwards that something important actually happened while you were there.

But other times, you absolutely know history is being made and you always remember where you were and what you were doing when you collided with it.  

In the early afternoon of  November 22, 1963 I headed through the halls in Westbury Jr. High on my way to core. Jeffrey Tanin came up to me and said, “Did you hear? President Kennedy was just shot!” Jeffrey often made up stuff, so, I didn’t believe him. But a minute later when I walked into Mr. Kirsch’s class and saw his expression, I realized that for once Jeffrey told the truth.

Caitlin, VA

People are here in DC now because they want to be part of an incredibly joyful moment in history so they’ll never forget what happened here on January 20, 2009. Here are a few we’ve met so far:

Caitlin (age 22, waitress at the Coyote Grille & Cantina in Fairfax, Virginia):  I’ve never been to an Inauguration and this is the first election I ever voted in.  This is a really big moment in history because of  who we are electing into office. I think it would be a shame if I didn’t go, living so close to the nation’s capital.

From San Diego, CA

From Florida, but prepared for the cold

From South Carolina

From South Carolina

David talking with two men, one from SE Washington State, the other from Arizona

Duncan and Jessica, artists from Indianapolis, IN

Michael from Indianapolis, IN, won the ticket lottery from his congressman.