Unusual mix of Utahns attending festivities

The hundreds of Utahns at Barack Obama's inauguration include an unusual mix: Republicans and Democrats, old political pros and people who never voted until this year, and veterans of the civil rights movement and students who had only read about it.

"It's history, when a person of African-American heritage is being sworn into the highest office in the land," said the Rev. France Davis of the Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, and a participant in some of the key moments of the civil rights movement.

"I was at the March on Washington in 1963. I was at the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965," he said. "I expected it (electing a black president) to happen, but not in my lifetime." He is traveling with about 25 people from his church to witness what he thought he would never see.

"It's a time of elation for the entire country, not just African-Americans. It may be most significant to them, but it is significant to all Americans. It's a time when people are reclaiming their country," Davis said.

In contrast, Alta High School teacher Rique Ochoa is in Washington with 26 students (and eight adults) who had only read about the civil rights movement. "But they can be a part of an event that is sort of the culmination of it," he said.

Ochoa began arranging the trip more than a year ago, not knowing who the new president would be. "I have to admit that I thought it would be historic, but thought that it would be the first female president," he said.

His group has standing-only tickets that will put them far away from the stage where Obama will take his oath, but Ochoa had similar seats when he took a different group of students four years ago to George W. Bush's second inaugural, and said it was still electric.

"We're way back. We're standing. We're not part of the big donor group. We're not part of Congress. A high school teacher and his kids are not going to get those kind of primo seats. But being there is still an exciting experience," he said.

The students are staying a week to see all the major sights. Ochoa will also focus on black history and do such things as take his students on a tour of the Shaw area of Washington, home of the historically black Howard University.

Rob Miller, vice chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, is going, as might be expected. But two guests he chose to invite to share his tickets to the swearing-in ceremony are a bit unusual: Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Todd Weiler, vice chairman of the Utah Republican Party.