Diary: Inauguration 2009

Robin and I were up at 6:30AM and out the door by 7AM. We made our way down to the Rosslyn metro station, carrying a bag that held a blanket, a thermos filled with hot cocoa, snack bars, magazines, books, and our MP3 players. We first attempted to board the B38 but learned that Homeland Security shut the Key Bridge down to all traffic, including buses. We rode the escalator down to the metro station only to find the platform was packed eight-people deep. Three trains came, each one filled with bodies, and none of them accepting any additional passengers. We decided to walk – around three miles in the blistering cold – because it was worth it.

We missed the festivities on election night. We watched the returns with friends and didn’t realize the extent of spontaneous partying that was going on in front of the White House and down on U Street until the next day. I’ve been an Obama supporter since he exploded on the national scene in 2004. Robin’s been a supporter since…well…Hillary dropped out of the race. We were elated when he won and we still regret missing the celebrations on election night; we weren’t going to miss the inauguration.

So we walked. We knew some shortcuts, thankfully. We took the bike path along the Potomac and crossed the Memorial Bridge, entered DC from behind the Lincoln Memorial, and managed to get to the Mall-area bypassing all security checkpoints and bottlenecks. The area wasn’t too packed by the time we got to the Reflecting Pool; most of the people that far west set-up shop on the steps on the Lincoln Monument and everyone else was walking towards the National Mall. Robin and I headed east, looking for a good spot to lay out the blanket and wait for four hours.

We made it all the way down to the Washington Monument. The Mall itself was already packed and not very inviting. The Monument-area was filling in. We figured a jumbotron is a jumbotron and it doesn’t matter where we watch it from as long as there were people around, so we double-backed to the WWII Memorial and picked a nice spot in the grass to sit back and enjoy the concert replay.

By the time the jumbotrons switched to a live feed our area was pretty packed. People were standing shoulder-to-shoulder and chest-to-back as congressmen and women and dignitaries took their seats on the capitol steps. Everyone cheered for Ted Kennedy and Al Gore and Bill Clinton and all of the other well-recognized liberal politicians. I cheered for Jim Webb because the man tries to sneak guns into the capitol and Roland Burris for providing me with many hours of entertainment over the past several weeks and Mark Warner because he’s a good looking guy. Everyone in my area booed George W. Bush – I abstained and was even a bit peeved at the lack of class in the audience. It’s over – it’s done – let him go home and mull over the complete failure that was the past eight years. Inaugurations, especially this one, are about new beginnings. The booing just seemed to really cheapen a great moment. It made it all seem so petty.

Barack finally comes out and the crowd erupts into cheers. Flags waving, various chants, cameras flashing, and people crying – it was euphoric. Then Rick Warren came out to do his prayer thing and no-one really cheered except for the handful of people who didn’t fully understand why the moment was kind of awkward. Rick Warren delivered an incredibly hypocritical speech that mentioned civil rights and liberties and all men being created equal and I think I finally fell off of that organized religion fence I’ve been sitting on, thereby checking off one of my New Years Resolutions.

Anyway – it was time for Biden to take his veep oath. Everyone cheered and the energy was back and we were all tensing up and getting ready to explode after Obama’s oath and then…we pretended to care about Yo-Yo Ma rocking the cello.

But then! Then Obama came up to take the oath! Well, stumble through the oath thanks mainly to Roberts’, the Chief Justice of the highest court in this mother fucking nation, safeguard of our US Constitution, messing up the oath which, I should remind you, is specified in the US Constitution. Obama paused because, you know, there are already challenges to his citizenship and presidency working their way through the court system all the time, and didn’t want to give the wingnuts anymore “He Ain’t my President “ fuel. Despite the pause Obama STILL fucks up the oath and FreeRepublic.com probably has a digital orgasm on its servers.

While all of that cynicism was going on in my head the crowd was cheering and hopeful and positive. I managed to get my head back into the game, celebrate with them, and enjoy the inaugural address.

I don’t get the media’s assessment of the inaugural address being all doom and gloom. That was just the set-up – the take home was that we’re going to work through it because that’s what America does. I thought it was an inspiring speech. It was about personal responsibility, working for change, constant improvement, and, in turn, making the country better. Critics found it depressing, this whole “taking responsibility for actions and exhibiting self control thing.” Oh, wait – isn’t that SOCIALISM? Oh…not, it’s not.

Anyway, we pretended to listen to the closing poem and cringed a bit when Lowery said something about yellows mellowing and whites being cool for once. Then we headed west, went back over the memorial bridge, took the Arlington Cemetary/110 bike path up to Courthouse, sat down at Four Courts and had some beef and Guinness stew and whisky coffee in an attempt to bring our frozen extremities back to life.

We went back home afterwards to rest our feet after a day of walking and freezing. After an hour or so of convalescing, we headed back to DC.

The metro stations were nowhere near as packed as they were in the morning. There seemed to be an even mix of people who were off to one of the various balls and people who were just out to enjoy the city. It was an interesting mix – for the people in the tuxes this seemed like just another inauguration. They were joking about this-that-and-the-other-thing, taking pictures of each other, and looking like people who were just going out to some routine fancy party. Everyone else was genuinely beaming, however. Smiles ear to ear, reviewing photos, and talking about their inauguration experience. The haves and the have-nots sharing a train, and it was the latter that seemed to truly appreciate this day for what it was. This inauguration goes beyond politics. It goes beyond Bush and it goes beyond civil rights and MLK Jr.’s post-racial America. It’s about hope and optimism. And as stupid as that may sound to some people, hope and optimism is what the have-nots need in order to become haves.

The real problem with the past eight years is that no-one believed in shit. Lame Duck president squanders all of his goodwill following a tragic attack on our financial and military infrastructure by fucking every single thing up that he touched. The government was piling on the debts, the people were losing their jobs, the civil liberties where being threatened, and we were losing American lives in a baseless war while the war we were all fired up to win was being neglected. The problem with the past eight years is that when all’s said and done no-one really cares about anything. It’s all shit, after all, right?

Look, Obama’s not perfect. He’s going to fuck up. But he inspires the people to do more with their lives, to make America great again, and the people will answer in time. His message isn’t Bush’s post-911 message of, “Go buy shit.” His message is to work for the country and the country will work for you in return. Then go buy shit. It’s inspiring. It’s mature. I honestly can’t believe the American people, who’ve grown fat, lazy, and compliant over the past eight years, are buying into it. I guess we’ll see.

Anyway, we ended up at Big Hunt, had some dinner and some beers, but got very tired, very quick. We left at around 9:30 and crashed upon returning home. While at Big Hunt Robin and I talked about the coming Obama presidency. We were both glad we decided to go to the inauguration, saying it’s the kind of story we’ll tell our grandkids one day. By the end of the day we were frozen, tired, and even a bit cranky. But we were hopeful – and that’s something.

Labels: editorial, politics

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