Inauguration

Living on Capitol Hill means that we were extra popular this past week. Elaine's cousin Molly, who as a 19 year old managed to be a delegate from Iowa at the Democratic convention, flew out to stay with us for the inauguration along with her friend Justin. Also, my old friend Billy was in town this month from Beijing and he stayed with us before the inauguration as well.

Originally, I was planning on staying home all weekend and avoiding the crowds, but with guests in town I started to waiver. The tipping point came when my cousin Adam came into town to help with the sound at some of the inaugural balls. Everyone wanted to go to the 'We Are One' concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday. Since Elaine was more than happy to stay home with Owen, my sense of adventure took over and we ventured out to vie with the masses for a piece of the experience.

Despite the bitter cold, the concert turned out to be tremendous fun. We managed to find a good spot right on the edge of the reflecting pool to watch the concert from. The coolest part (aside from hearing Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Pete Seeger and many more all play at one concert) was turning around and seeing hundreds of thousands of people all the way back to the Washington Monument. After the long walk home from the Lincoln Memorial (and some hot chocolate to warm back up) the whole adventure was too much fun not to try it again on Tuesday.

We decided the key to a good time on Tuesday was to manage our expectations and try to avoid standing out in the cold for too long. There would be plenty of people willing to stand out on the Mall starting at 4 am for a prime spot, and we clearly were not those people. After a nice leisurely morning, Billy, Molly, Justin and I left the house around 8:30 am to walk down to the Mall. We saw on television before we left that the Mall was already filling up all the way back to the Washington Monument with the crowds gathered around the jumbotrons. Our best bet was to head south of the Mall and see if a little local knowledge of my old neighborhood could help us find a way to the Mall. By the time we got down by the House office buildings it was clear we'd have to get creative to get pass the ticketed lines. The orange tickets jammed Washington Ave., and the purple tickets were in a line that went all the way through the 395 tunnel. We cut through some of the orange ticket crowds to get to the highway, then with the help of a salt truck climbed a wall to make it to the other side of the highway. (Molly just made it before the driver decided he didn't want people climbing on his truck.)

Once on the other side of 395, we just needed to make our way to Independence Ave. and walk down far enough so we could find a space on the Mall. The problem with this plan was that we needed to cross the mass of people with silver tickets waiting on 3rd st SE. We started our way across the line, but it quickly became apparent that we were stuck. Slowly but surely the mass of people started moving, guided by hundreds of police and national guardsman forming a human barrier at the edges of the crowd. When we finally made it free of the crowd we weren't on the other side of the line on Independence Ave., we were inside the Silver gate! After trying a few spots we ended up with an amazing view just behind the center of the Capitol reflecting pool, and we had hard time believing our luck.

As Barack Obama took the Oath of Office it was hard not to feel a sense of civic pride in watching this peaceful transition of power from one President to the next. Turning around we could see from our vantage point on Capitol Hill literally a million people crowding the length of the Mall and waving American flags, all here like us to witness this moment in history. There was a palpable sense of amazement that we were watching, "a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant" stand before us and take this most sacred oath. Listening to his inaugural address, a tingle went down my spine as I heard this great orator say,

With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

On our walk home, there was one more moment that perhaps the most poignant of all. Having skipped past the crowds waiting for the metro, we walked up First Street on the east side of the Capitol just in time to see Obama, Biden, and their wives standing on the steps as now former President Bush and his family took off in what was once Marine One to start their journey back to Texas and into private life. In the picture below, President Obama is waving goodbye to President Bush. It's not a moment of partisan gloating, it is a moment between two people who now share a bond from experiencing the ultimate burden of power and responsibility. Two people who have a most intimate experience of that peaceful transition of power enabled by the wisdom of our forefathers. Two people who have sworn to the best of their ability to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States.



(click here for pictures of the concert)
(click here for pictures of the inauguration)