Inauguration Day

The long awaited day, a new chance, a new start. Now the right wing has played up that Obama is being played up as the Messiah and after being in Washington for a few days among his most fervent followers, I can’t say I disagree with them. I’m all about being optimistic but one man doesn’t make a miracle worker outside of the movies.

People need to realize that the new President really is in a world of you know what. Putting out the fires that exist today while promising “change” for the future. It is hard to make change, turning the ship of federal bureaucracy around while getting sniped at from the right and the left on every possible move that he makes. Right wing radio has already ripped Obama’s “socialist” policies and I have said before there is just not enough revenue to fulfill the left’s dreams of more social services and aid to education and the environment. I’m unsure if the polarization of the past 16 years is reparable, I think we are a nation with way to much pressure from the edges, this pressure causes intellectual paralysis. Will an Obama administration with a frustrated middle in Congress of both parties be able to overcome the gridlock, to make real change and home and abroad. Wow, now that would be a real American revolution.

Another Sickie Morning
Elena was sick again in the middle of the night, she seems to throw up and then feel better. It’s still touch and go with her digestive system but we’re off to inauguration. It’s cold this morning in DC, colder than yesterday with a wind. We got on a crowded bus, again people don’t really understand public transit and of course don’t understand their surroundings, one woman said that Elena could sit in her lap, and even as a guy who believes in the kindness of strangers, we’re not about to hand over our daughter to some weird lady in a fur coat talking into a voice recorder. A woman finally gave her seat to Becky and Elena, preventing them from falling down on the metro bus. We got off on Washington Circle and started down 23rd towards the Lincoln Memorial. For some reason, taxis were still allowed down this road but not the buses. So it was just some bicycle rickshaws, taxis and National Guard humvees. People were pouring out of the GW/Foggy Bottom stop into a ad hoc flea market that had been set up outside with Obama merchandise. No McCain merchandise to be seen anywhere. The only merchandise that I found really annoying were the American flags with imagery on them. The American flag stands for us all and should not be used for personal gain or celebration, burning a flag is one thing, it makes a statement, but adding one’s personal touch is an insult to us all.

We managed to leave Georgetown a little after nine, TV reported that people were arriving long before dawn. Our objective was to be somewhat realistic; you just can’t spend that much time out in the cold with your toddler and I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be close enough for a clear sight anyway. We were happy with the jumbotrons and set sites for the Lincoln Memorial.

The Crowd and Setting
I love the Lincoln Memorial. The idea of Lincoln keeping the country together in reality and his seeming overlooking of the Capitol and the country as a whole in some sort of eternal marble vigilance. Also as the place where King made amongst his greatest of speeches in a place of one of the greatest of gatherings. A lot of people had the same idea as we had and took a seat along the steps, we spent sometime and took some photographs among the Lincoln Memorial and then headed down into the throngs of people around the Mall. There were some nice volunteers in red knit caps wishing everyone a good morning with a smile that I later deemed the prozac patrol.

The beauty of DC is despite a million, two million people whatever, there was still enough space available to move around, as long as you didn’t need to have your face pressed up against the window upfront. Where we were going, security was limited, meaning while there were hundreds of guardsmen around and other security folks, you could carry bags, strollers, whatever. A couple of smart people had actually brought chairs and as much as I know could have had flasks of bourbon (taking notes for my next historic DC event). There were some bottlenecks of barricades and people who are either electronically or intellectually distracted and didn’t really understand the nature of crowds and that they did not move at their whim. Also for the tens of millions that were spent on security, 100 sheets of Xeroxed paper with some arrows point where you could and couldn’t go would likely have been helpful. I can save that for my after action report.

The crowd had an amazing energy and incredible diversity. I would estimate that 40% or more of the crowd consisted of African American families from all around the country, as contrasted with the large underclass of Black people in the District itself it was amazing to see these extended groups of families and friends, students from HBCU’s, sororities and fraternities joining in the celebration. It looked beyond King’s dream to Cosby’s creation. When Elena started to cry, she was offered cookies by a father of twins with Down syndrome, it was a crowd that was ready to cheer, as if a heavy weight had been pulled off them. As I have said the cult-like adoration was somewhat disturbing but if this enthusiasm can be channeled into work and service then maybe this country has a fighting chance after all.

By this point about a half hour or more before the swearing in, Elena finally had enough, it wasn’t that she was cold but “her belly”. And just starting uncontrollably crying. Nothing we could do about it, there were a bunch of folks around but still room for people to move around. Kids were playing, people stomping their feet to keep warm, walking around, some stupid people who had brought bikes through the crowd, stupider people who had brought dogs, and a stupid guy who was rollerblading. The jumbotrons were cool, but we had a sightline through a leafless tree in exchange for more room to wander around. The sound was great, occasionally picking up on live mikes just general chatter on the stage.

The Ceremony

Slowly dignitaries, including the living Presidents (OK, bringing Lincoln himself would have been kind of gross) were introduced getting jeers and cheers by an overwhelmingly Democratic partisan crowd.

Rick Warren came out to do the prayer. Rev. Warren has been under some fire for his homophobic tendencies, many of which are shared by many of his evangelical flock. I’ll say this, outside of this, I do like Rick Warren. He reverse tithes, giving 90% of his money to the church and is concerned about economic and environmental justice issues. I’m not nearly conservative enough to join his church but I like to hear him speak. He gave a fairly long prayer and a Christian prayer at that which may be disturbing to our non-Christian friends but Rick Warren and his followers can be a positive if unlikely ally to the Obamamaniacs. He stresses service both to God and to his fellow man. Certainly there will be a great deal of disagreement between progressives and evangelicals but both of them have some common views on a few important issues. Evangelicals make up 20% of the US population, anointing Rick Warren despite his views on homosexuality pay homage to those folks and maybe a bended ear to the Oval Office by a leader of the Evangelical community, some may call it pandering and some a reach across a dangerous chasm of misunderstanding. There was limited reaction in my area to this, some sneers from some of the more “progressive looking” folks but mostly just listening in anticipation to the main event.

The swearing in of VP Biden brought a small clamor from the crowd and Aretha Franklin really warmed them up. Then came the main event, the swearing in of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States. Wow, people just started going crazy, the equivalent of Elvis or the Beatles, or just hundreds of thousands of people celebrating. I was as if the Sox had won the World Series in front of 1.5 million people live in 2004.

Unfortunately Elena’s crying had become crazy and we had to leave as the President made his speech. (More comments on that tomorrow). I carried her back up past GW to the bus, as efficient as the buses were getting people in, is as confusing as getting people out, the buses and stops lacked appropriate marking, showing the focus on the complicated instead of the simple like signage. We made our way back and were able to warm-up nap and watch the parade on television, how sweet it was to see Barack Obama snap out those first salutes as commander in chief.