The One

From the Brookline Tab, an an Obama inauguration celebration:

Barbara Simonetti of the First Church in Brookline estimated more than 200 people at a celebration held there Tuesday night.

“I personally think this is an incredible breakthrough,” Simonetti said of Obama’s election. “We certainly made an incredible statement to the world today.”

Simonetti said the First Church, a Unitarian Universalist congregation, was very community oriented, as, she said, was Obama.

“He’s telling everybody, our hand is open and our arm is out,” she said of Obama’s inaugural address.

As such, Tuesday’s celebration was all about community, with friends and families sitting together at tables and eating lasagna prepared by Simonetti’s husband and a team of cooks. The partygoers ate together and watch a rebroadcast of Obama’s swearing-in and speech together, cheering as he took the stand, booing the outgoing administration, and punctuating Obama’s sentences with choruses of “Yes!” and “Tell them!”

Simonetti was running around all evening at the church, making circuits between the kitchen and two rooms packed with partygoers. “I’m exhausted, and elated, and there’s just a joy in this room and in the country,” she said.

The celebration was held in a small chapel at the church, with a cardboard cutout of the new president standing behind the altar, “so we can take our picture with him,” Simonetti said.

I question the appropriateness of having such a political celebration in a church. Apparently the Universalist's universe doesn't include supporters of President Bush. Beyond that though, putting a life-size image of Obama behind the altar? Do you think they would ever put a cross there? I thought the Obama-Messiah bit was just a joke. Maybe it should be taken seriously. Here's a pic from the event:

The sign says "Brookline MA Stands Up For Obama. Yes We Can!