In the comments of an earlier entry I asked Jason Hodge a few questions. Here is his response and night before the inauguration report:

A friend of mine recently asked me what the point of life was. I replied
that we give ourselves our own points. We create our own sense of purpose
and we should measure ourselves against that. Some of us will find a
purpose, a fine point to life and sharpen it like a weapon and wield it with
accuracy, power, and precision that leads to success. Others will go through
life with a dull point, a blunt object at best smashing their way through
the world hit and miss. Some people will have no point at all, They live
their lives like moss.

I've tried to live my life with a sharp point. Since I was a child I've
wanted to make a difference in people's lives -- to make the world a better
place. My degree, my associations, my energy has always been focused on
getting to the place where I can do the most good. But now I feel as though
I have reached a moment in my history that could either be a high water mark
or just the high tide that takes me out of the sheltered harbor and into the
battle for real. I believe the world is on the precipice of a turning and if
we aren't all involved and committed than we may fail to make it better.

I believe that tomorrow we may have a leader who will get us involved again.
It will be a seminal event in America's history -- post hyper commercialism,
post rampant egoism, post partisan. People will be willing to help one
another again. We survive together.

That why I found my candidate in Feb 2007 over a year before the primary. I
had a long talk about the election with a good friend and he ended in "I
think he's the real deal" and at that point I did, too. I've followed,
preached, cajoled (broke a rule to never give personally) and donated. I
believe that he is the man who can lead us to a better age.

As for memorabilia, there was a guy with light-up Obama buttons attached all
around his trench coat. He looked like a weird trash alien. There are some
great shirts here and trinkets. I bought a paper doll Obama kit. It has cut
outs of all the families and the shirtless Obama has a perfect six pack.
Cracked me up. (Note from Brian: They are now called Barack hard abs.)

The short version, because I'm dying for sleep, is we went to a live
recording of the slate gabfest at this historic synagogue. Afterwards we all
got to come down and chat and ask questions. It was a great, casual show and
everyone came out and answered our banal and insightful questions all the
same.