NURFC Botches Obama Inauguration

A packed house gathered in the 300 seat theater of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC) to view the historic inauguration of President Barak Obama. For many it was the culmination of a dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared with millions in his famous speach on the National Mall in Washington, DC in 1963, and in a BBC interview where he predicted a black president "within 40 years".

But just as that dream was about to come true, the NURFC had technical trouble with its internet feed. They had no alternate source lined up, and told the crowd to go somewhere else to witness the momentous occasion.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

-Langston Hughes

The few who stuck around wound up gathered around a small screen on the third floor, craning for a glimpse. "They didn't use TVs because it would have required 250 feet of cable wire and more manpower than they have," said a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter who was blogging the event.

The NURFC laid off 17 of its 64 staff in December for budgetary reasons. So presumably it's the taxpayers' fault for failing to fund the NURFC as lavishly as they'd like.