Identifying with Obama
Kevin and Mary McKitric, who are in their early 50s, come from two different cultures and two different parts of the country.
He is an African-American who grew up in Burgin and has spent all of his adult life working in this area.
She is a Mexican-American who grew up in Luling, Texas. She met and married her first husband, who was in the military stationed in Texas, and they moved in the 1970s to Kentucky where he had been assigned.
But despite their cultural and geographical differences, the McKitrics share at least three things in common: love for each other, love for their children and grandchild, and love for the next president of the United States.
"On election night in November when Obama won, I said to Kevin, 'I want to go to the inauguration. I don't care if I can't get a motel room and have to sleep outside, I want to be there,'" said Mary McKitric.
Kevin McKitric didn't share his wife's zeal for roughing it, but he did share her desire to be there.
"When his election was announced, I said, 'Where do we get tickets?'" said Kevin McKitric. "Obama's inauguration is going to be a big moment in American history, and from the time it was announced that Obama had won enough votes, I wanted to be part of that moment."
The McKitrics long ago arranged to take time off from their jobs to accommodate their trip to Washington, D.C. He works at Philips Lighting in Harrodsburg, and she works at Farmers National Bank.
Mary McKitric also arranged to have her granddaughter, Mariah Crawford, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Bate Middle School, take time off from school to go.
"It will be special enough for Kevin and I to be there togther," she said. "But I think it will be even more special to have Mariah with us and give her the opportunity to see such an important moment in this country's history."
The moment is important to Mary McKitric because, among other things, Obama is bi-racial, like she is.
"I identify with him and am proud that he will be out first bi-racial president."
The moment is important to Kevin McKitric for the same reason, but he stated it from a different racial perspective.
"Yeah, Obama can be identified as a bi-racial man, but he also can be identified as an African-American, and that is his main identity to most Americans, including me," he said. "And as an African-American myself, I still can't believe one of us will be president, but I am so happy it's going to happen."
The couple's admiration for Obama goes beyond racial identity, however.
"Barack Obama is a very bright man who wants to move this country forward in so many areas, especially the economy," Mary McKitric said. "And most of all, he wants to be president of all people, no matter their race or age or anything else."
Kevin McKitric believes Obama has the intelligence and drive to "clean up the mess" in Washington.
"I really do think Obama is the man who can straighten out all the problems this country is having, from the economy to the war in Iraq," he said. "I think he is this country's chance for hope, maybe its last chance."
The main reason the McKitrics are counting on Obama to deliver on his companion messages of "hope and change" involves Mariah and other young people.
"We want a future for Mariah and other kids that is safe and secure, both in terms of war and in terms of the economy," said Mary McKitric.
Mariah hopes Obama keeps his promises as well.
"What (Obama) does as president will affect the lives of all the kids my age for many years," said the Obama T-shirt wearing teen. "He seems like a smart person and a good person, and I think he will be very good president."
Mariah said she and her friends rarely talk politics, but some of her friends, as well as teachers, are anxious to get a report from her on what the inauguration was like.
"I am really excited to be at an event that is so big and will have so many people seeing it," she said.
Mariah also plans to store those memories and share them with children that will be in her life years from now.
"When I'm an adult, I want to tell my own grandchildren what it was like being at the inauguration of Barack Obama," she said.
Inauguration-bound
