Inauguration Day 2009

Thanks to John for the gifts of a plane ticket and 2 inauguration tix (which were thanks to his friend Andy Speth who is chief of staff for Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin!), I had the opportunity of a lifetime to witness President Obama take his oath of office on January 20th! The icing on the cake was being able to stay with my dear friends Denise & Bill Sisson, who live just across the river in Arlington.

Sunday afternoon Denise whisked me away from Reagan Int'l Airport straight to the Roslyn neighborhood of Arlington, where we took the metro to the wonderfully-named Foggy Bottom station and then hoofed it to the National Mall for the "We Are One" concert.

Hoards exiting the metro, headed for the concert.

It was too exciting to really pay much attention to the who's who list of performers (Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Sheryl Crow, Will.I.Am, Usher, Mary J. Blige, etc). The concert was held at the Lincoln Memorial, but the closest you could get was the Washington Memorial. The crowd was about 500K strong, and it was just a preview of the energy and camaraderie we'd see on Tuesday. My favorite example of this was in line for a women's bathroom at the George Washington University student center. No surprise, they had run out of TP hours ago. One smart woman had brought her own. But instead of quietly using it inside her stall and saving it for later, she simply pulled off a few squares and passed the roll behind her. Each woman in line did the same, and continued passing it back until it was gone.

Signs of patriotism were abundant, and moving.

It was also a real treat to meet up with Ken Kozicki and his friend Craig that afternoon! It was Ken's text-messaged account of his spontaneous bike ride to Chicago's Grant Park on election night, and the stranger-hugging celebration there, that inspired me to be part of the inauguration crowds. We met up with Bill for dinner later on, and then all went back to the Sissons' for a few hours to watch part of the concert (and youtube videos!) on their big screen.

Tuesday we arose at 4am (about 3 hours of sleep for me, who stayed up late, bubbly with excitement, emailing everyone to spread the love), found a spot at a parking garage in Roslyn, and made our way to the metro with a thousand or five of our fellow Americans. It took over an hour to go 2 stops, and it was a bit creepy sitting for long periods inside the tunnels. But finally we emerged and began what would be a 10-hour odyssey of pedestrian navigation. We (and everyone else in the vicinity) were delighted to see this creative tribute as we were exiting the metro.

We made our way down Constitution Avenue and realized that the "Blue Gate" for us blue ticket-holders was on the opposite site of the Capitol. Thanks to Denise's local knowledge, we were able to loop around behind the Capitol instead of trying to fight the crowds in front of it. Finally we arrived at the LINE for the gate, just a few minutes before it was due to "open" at 8am. At a little after 8, the inching began. And continued...and continued..for about 3 hours.

This is a view of the "line" behind us. It was FRIGID but we were all in great spirits. Never have I been with a group of such friendly, supportive, good-humored people especially in such uncomfortable and frustrating circumstances; it was really remarkable.

Chants of "Yes, We Can!" eventually turned into "What's Going On?" (ever so politely), but even the police officer nearby admitted he hadn't a clue. As the time approached 11:30am, we began realizing that our coveted blue tickets might not be so special after all. Unless something dramatically changed, we would never make it through the security screening in time to witness the inauguration. And from where we were standing, we could neither see nor hear anything going on on the Capitol steps. The once-boisterous crowd grew quiet; I have no doubt we were all thinking the same thing - the injustice of making such a long trip, and enduring the crowds and the cold, only to be caught out of eye- and ear-shot of the inauguration. Maybe that cozy sofa in front of the TV at home was the way to go after all. I was ready to cry, but Denise was convinced we could maneuver our way to a better view. And that we did. Ultimately we made it to one of the public viewing spots, where we could at least hear the ceremy, and even had a decent view of a jumbotron far off in the distance.

yep, we had 'em ready alright...

This, ultimately, was our view of the ceremony. No complaints in the end!

It was absolutely thrilling to witness Obama take that oath. To have a crowd of 1.8 million gathered for that moment, and respecting that moment with their collective silence, and then their shared celebration...it's beyond words.

Leaving DC after the ceremony was a story unto itself! Even the police officers and official volunteers did not understand the complex system of roadblocks, security fences, and closures that had been set up. We were directed towards one "exit" only to find that it was closed, and the only way back was to go back where we started and inquire from there. You've heard of a corn maze; this was a human being maze. Due to the size of the crowd, it was impossible to know whether exits were blocked, until you got there. After the first couple of dead ends, people who had aleady turned around and were doubling back began sharing their knowledge ("You've got to turn around! They won't let you go that way!"). I had just finished 'The Grapes of Wrath' for book club, and was reminded of the Joad family and all of the others who fled the Dust Bowl to the promised land of California. Although they confronted many families who had already learned the terrible truth, they had to go and find out for themselves. Finally we (meaning thousands of us) found an open route, and although we were shoulder-to-shoulder, we were at least moving. Until, that is, we came to a dead stop. It was impossible to know why we were stopping. Finally it became apparent that it was a simple intersection of human bodies. Thousands of people trying to go in 2 or 3 different directions all at the same time. I tried to relax and just soak up being in the middle of this melting pot cross-section of America. "Hello, fellow American!"

On a March day in Philadelphia almost a year ago, Obama said "we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place but we all want to move in the same direction - toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren". I am so inspired by those words, and can't wait to be part of Organizing for America.

But it strikes me as funny how apropos those words were to our trivial little challenge of getting home that day! We formed human chains with strangers of every color who were going the same direction. Finally, finally we arrived at the Potomac, and by then had concluded we would simply walk out of DC rather than attempt a metro or bus. I couldn't wait to get home, but I hated to leave.