Obama Whistlestop Tour: Ordinary Americans Invited
WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has invited a group of "everyday Americans" to join him and Vice President-elect Joe Biden on their Whistle Stop Tour to the nation's capital on the Saturday before Inauguration Day.
Obama's presidential inaugural committee announced the plans for the Philadelphia-to-Washington train ride on Wednesday, adding another element to the expanding horizon of parties and events associated with Obama's and Biden's oath-taking Jan. 20 at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.
"Each one of these families has their own remarkable story to add to our American story, and we're thrilled they've agreed to join us as we travel to Washington," said Josh Earnest, a spokesman for the inaugural committee.
Ten inaugural balls also are being arranged for the night of Jan. 20, including a "People's Ball" at the Washington Convention Center.
The invited guests for the Whistle Stop Tour include the following: Mark Dowell, Crestwood, Ky.; Matt Kuntz, Helena, Mont.; Jim and Alicia Girardeau, Kansas City, Mo.; Juliana Sanchez, Albuquerque, N.M.; Rosa Mendoza, Las Vegas; Lisa Hazirjian, Cleveland; Kirsten Meehan, Dover, N.H.; Roy Gross, Taylor, Mich.; Shandra Jackson, Arlington, Texas; Quincy Lucas, Dover, Del.; Patricia Stiles, Parker, Colo.; Gregg Weaver, Fairless Hills, Pa.; Tony Fischer, Cincinnati; Lilly Ledbetter, Jacksonville, Ala.; Mike and Cheryl Fisher, Beech Grove, Ind.; and Randy Wehrman, LeClaire, Iowa.
While the inaugural committee called the invited guests "everyday Americans," they are hardly unknown.
Ledbetter was a longtime supervisor at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s plant in Gadsden, Ala., who said sex discrimination was behind a series of decisions that left her pay significantly below that of men who performed similar work. She sued, but in May 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against her, largely because she waited too long to complain.
Mike and Cheryl Fisher appeared in an Obama promotional video at the Democratic Convention in August in Denver.
Kuntz, a former Army officer who heads the Montana office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has worked to improve mental health screening for soldiers returning from Iraq. Kuntz's stepbrother, Chris Dana, committed suicide after returning from the Persian Gulf.
Kuntz, who met Obama during a campaign stop last year, said he was impressed that Obama seemed to care about the issue of mental health help for returning soldiers. Obama told Kuntz he wanted to take the Montana Guard's program nationwide.
"The president-elect realizes that Montana is really leading the country on this issue," Kuntz said. "This was done entirely by the people of Montana. They demanded better treatment."
Hazirjian, a Case Western Reserve University history professor, recruited volunteers from the gay community in Ohio and Pennsylvania. She worked full-time for the Obama campaign in Cleveland over the summer and fall.
Hazirjian, 40, didn't meet Obama during the run-up to the election, but said while on the train she hopes to bend his ear over proposed legislation banning workplace discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.
Tony Fischer, 30, of Cincinnati, volunteered for Obama's campaign in the fall after returning from his second tour in Iraq as an Army gunner. He introduced Biden before a foreign policy speech in Cincinnati, where Fischer now teaches English as a second language.
Fischer said the Whistle Stop invitation caught him by surprise and generated a lot of excitement among his family and other area volunteers, whom he's proud to represent.
"It's an honor to be invited, and I'm just gonna enjoy that," he said.
Fischer said he'd like to talk with the president-elect during the ride about urban policy, transportation and a television show they both enjoy.
"I heard he was a big fan of (the HBO show) "The Wire," so I might end up talking with him about that, seeing which season was his favorite," he said.
The tour will start with an event in Philadelphia Jan. 17 and stop for events in Wilmington, Del., and Baltimore, en route to the nation's capital.
The inauguration will take place at high noon before a large crowd gathered at the Capitol and huge throngs of witnesses along the National Mall and the inaugural parade route.
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Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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January 7, 2009 09:08 PM EST |
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