City’s ex-pat community waits, and hopes, for Obama

It’s times like this when being an ex-pat must prompt a certain amount of homesickness. As two million plus people surge to “be there” in Washington today to see the inauguration of the 44th president of America, those living in Greater Manchester will be celebrating here – but also wishing they were there.
Self-confessed Yancunian Kate Feld summed it up with a post at her Manchizzle blog this morning; “It’s hard being an expat today, thinking of all my friends in DC for the inauguration celebrations and wishing I was there.
“I feel cut off over here, but I guess that this is payment for all those times I smugly joked about hating Bush so much that I had actually left the country, like some pinko draft dodger who made a run for the border. And bragged about having universal healthcare and state maternity pay.”
The city’s branch of Democrats Abroad will be celebrating at a formal dinner tonight after getting together to watch the ceremony during the afternoon.
Organiser John Pierson said the group, which has been active in the city for the past ten years, was thrilled but under no illusions about the future challenges facing the new President.
He said: “We are all extremely excited. I mean I have been around a long time. I shook Bobby Kennedy’s hand on the campaign trail and saw JFK in Philadelphia, so my links to the Democrat movement go back that far.
“Obama’s inauguration is bringing to a close some of the awful issues that arose during the 60s with civil rights – it’s a big step forward and, for young people, the Bush years have weighed heavily so we are all overjoyed but we do realise the size of the task ahead.”
The Democrats Abroad is a political organisation for Americans living away from home which meeting in Manchester on the 1st Tuesday or each month for an informal get together known as a “speakeasy”.
I shall be joining the democrats this afternoon to find out more about their hopes and fears for the future. You can follow that activity via this blog and I will also update the live Twitter stream @Sarah_Hartley during the afternoon.