Inauguration stills, stirs crowd of 2,500 at PPAC
2:17 PM Tue, Jan 20, 2009 | Permalink
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BY Karen Lee Ziner, Amanda Milkovits and Mike Stanton Some 2,500 people filled the Providence Performing Arts Center, where Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch hosted a free inaugural party that drew an assortment of college students, business people, political figures, schoolchildren, and ordinary citizens. People filled the orchestra seats, the balcony, the aisles, and even in the lobby, where televisions were broadcasting the inauguration live. The joyous crowd cheered when Obama strode onto the rostrum, the waves of applause from Washington echoing off the big screen and rippling through the gilded theater, up to the balcony. The lights from cell phone cameras capturing the moment flickered in the darkness. Many wept when Aretha Franklin sang, and they wept as Obama spoke. They stood when the oath of office was administered to Obama, saving their loudest cheers for the moment that he was proclaimed president. Obama's voice echoed from the theater to the outside lobby, where people stood silently, watching. Bela Kopylova, a Russian Jewish refugee, physician and U.S. citizen, said she knew as soon as she heard Obama speak at the Democratic Convention four years ago that he was destined for greatness. "That guy is an absolute genius. I'm so glad we have a brilliant person in office. When that guy opened his mouth four years ago, nobody knew him. And I said, he is going to have a future ... I was sure of this; that this man is going to be the president ... he's going to bring his decency and dignity" to the Oval Office. Kopylova said she became a citizen as soon as her five-year waiting period elapsed. "I'm so proud. I'm Russian in my heart, but there is no country like America." Ingrid Knapp brought her 10-year-old son, Nicolas Simijis: he called the event "exciting." "I thought it was such a wonderful and inspiring time in the United States, I just wanted to celebrate it with my son," said Knapp, who is from Cranston. "It's one of those moments in my life, and his life, that all the limitations we feel are within us and around us, we don't have to keep us back ... we can really do the things we dream." Knapp said her son has special needs, and because of that, "I'm also very hopeful my life will change when we have more health care ... that everybody's lives will change." "Impressive,'' said former Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty. "This guy has the weight of the world on his shoulders. But he has the hope of the people holding him up.'' In Rhode Island, which has seen dire straits for longer than the nation, Fogarty said that he hopes that the optimistic leadership emanating from Washington will infuse leaders here as they tackle the state's economic woes. "I'm an optimist,'' he said. 
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