09/27/2025
16 years ago this month, the Collar City welcomed a sitting President of the United States during an official visit by then-President Barack Obama to Hudson Valley Community College on Sept. 21, 2009.
The photo below was taken during the president’s remarks by yours truly (forgive the poor quality; smartphone cameras were still pretty crappy back then). Several days before the event, I had the chance to register as a volunteer for the White House advance team, and somehow I ended up positioned behind the dignitaries that morning at HVCC.
It was a wild day for a twenty-something political ju**ie, and this photo takes me back to that exact moment in time.
Today, we’re living through a very different version of the American experience, one dominated by extreme cruelty, obscene wealth, attacks on science, consolidation of media, and political retribution, all of it hyper charged by social media that’s fracturing our shared reality. It’s hard to believe how much has changed since that September morning in 2009.
Hopefully the madness of this current moment leads us to a period of renewal for American democracy. But, it will require all of us working together to turn the page and begin a new chapter.
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Visible in the photo foreground is Congressman Paul D. Tonko (L), then-Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and former U.S. Congressman Mike McNulty (center).
