The Eve of Inauguration – Jan 19, 2009
Through a friend of a friend of a friend, I got lucky and stayed some blocks behind the US Capitol building the night before the presidential inauguration. The roads had already been closed down, there were groups of young army boys on the street corners, sirens were going off at strange intervals, and the city was definitely bursting with an undercurrent of electrical energy. For those of you who were there, you know the feeling I am talking about. The anticipation was tremendous.
The Day-Of Jan 20, 2009
A normal 30 minute walk to the mall the morning-of took close to three hours. Throngs of people were swarming down closed city streets. We even had to walk down into the 395 highway tunnel to be able to correctly make the detour, treading where no non-suicidal man had dared to tread for a decade. Vendors covered in pins and buttons were selling their wares at every corner, as well as Obama themed gloves, scarves, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. I kept thinking, forget this souvenir stuff, I’m about to see the real guy and make a real souvenir.
My unticketed hands hiked to the back of the mall, in front of the Washington Monument. A jumbotron TV allowed us to see the proceedings, making my experience a mix of both worlds. I was there, lost in the crowd, standing on the mall, yet getting the up close and personal camerawork of the events on TV.
I was startled by the diversity of the crowd: young, old, man, woman, and every race and ethnicity I could guess and more. There were no protestors, anywhere, only people climbing in trees, on top of snack stands, on top of port-a-potty’s. So this is what 2 million people feels like, I thought.
The jumbotron TV fed us images - Cheney rolls by, Bush gets unanimously booed, and the Obamas are cheered one by one as they come out into the stands. Barack finally takes the stage and delivers as 17 minute speech chock full of eloquence, in which the tone is serious, no-nonsense, somber and yet committed to change.
Yes.
This is our president. My president.
BARACK OBAMA.
Enjoy the pictures. And for those of you out there who are not pro-Obama, I respect that too, and let’s stay friends. ?
