Obama Inauguration from Luxor, Egypt

By Joe Byrd

My wife Linda and I were on a Gentrain tour of Egypt during the inauguration. We took inauguration day off and spent it at the Winter Palace in Luxor watching the inauguration on CNN International. It was a thrilling event for us and for all of the Egyptians we met who kept chanting “Obama, Obama” as soon as they determined we were Americans. My favorite comment was from an Egyptian we met in our hotel who said, “Bye, bye, Bush.”

During the day I was text messaging with my daughter who had traveled from San Francisco to video tape the inauguration crowd for a documentary she had planed. During the controversial invocation by Reverend Rick, the Islamic call to prayer began in the mosques around Cairo. It was a very touching moment made even more poignant when we heard the powerful words of inclusion delivered in the benediction. We and all of the local people we were proud once again to have an American president of true moral stature who could speak in words of more than one syllable.

The whole world was uplifted by that cold day in January, but the journey has just begun and we all must work together to fulfill the dreams that we all shared on that day.