The inauguration

Dudley Square was quiet. The everyday pan-handlers, drug dealers, and addicts weren't on their everyday corner, loitering in front of Dunkin' Donuts. One could hear the streets' silence; few cars passed. Even the lowliest recite OBAMA. President Bush splinters a smile just for the cameras; Vice-President Cheney is sitting comfortably. Michelle Obama is poised and polished like Jackie Kennedy. (I thought about the assassination of JKF for a moment.) The small American flags are shimmering as hundreds of thousands of people await OBAMA. Here he comes. His face, priceless. You sense he is thinking his way to the double doors. The doors open, they announce "President Elect Barack H. Obama." The crowd roars. As I sat in our conference room at work, all of us silent and inspired, I remembered the 13-page document from the United States District Court of Massachusetts that sat on my desk. As I awed over the hundreds of thousand of Americans gathered in the National Mall, I thought, "Wow, the United States of America vs. Jeremiah Thomas," a 20-year-old facing 15 years in federal custody.