Because I am at heart, a jerk, this post at FDL struck me as kind of funny:
So, I don’t even know how to write about this without it sounding like bitter grousing, and frankly, I’m a little embarrassed to have to report that after five hours of standing in the bitter cold, getting pushed and shoved to the point where you start to feel for your safety, and being herded to and fro, the most I can report about the inauguration is that the 21-gun salute is really loud.
So loud, in fact, you can feel it outside the security perimeter.
That’s right, despite having in hand magic purple tickets, and lining up hours before the gates opened, I saw nothing. I heard, beyond the guns, nothing.
I followed all the signs, I went to the appointed spot. . . and what? There was almost no one who had a clue of what was to happen next. Some people who seemed to know what they were talking about stood on the back of a garbage truck and shouted–sans any amplification–so that all anyone could make out was that they were pointing in a certain direction. Most of us followed.
Read the whole kvetch and recognize how very smart you were to stay at home and watch the inauguration in HD. Don’t get me wrong, it does suck that these people went through this, and it would have been nice if things had gone better for some people, but it didn’t exactly take a visionary to predict this would suck for most people who went to see it in person. Someone asked me if I was going, and my response (via memory, as I can’t find the email) was: “There is no chance in hell. Half the roads are shut down, every hotel for 100 miles will be booked and charging 300 a night, and no one in their right mind would be in DC that day.”
jenniebee
It was great to see all those people turn out though.
And I don’t care what the anchors thought of it. When George W. Bush made his first appearance since the last inauguration before a crowd his handlers hadn’t hand-screened, the crowd booed and sang "Hey Hey, Goodbye," and you know what? If he’d made himself available to the American people any time in the interim, they might have treated him a little more respectfully. He didn’t, and frankly, he earned having to hear, just once, what people really think of him.
Ding dong, the asshole’s gone! Now where’s my pony?
bago
I went snowboarding on a sunny day to make it perfect. I made sure to download video of the event onto my phone to ensure that it actually happened, and stopped at a gas station to watch Bush go away in a helicopter. Very theraputic.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Add me to the not in their right mind column then. Maybe it’s because I’ve been downtown for the 4th of July, but I knew it would be a mob and the mob was a much nicer, happier, non-belligerent mob than the 4th of July mob. Maybe it was the cold, the lack of booze or the fact there were MPs all over the place but I didn’t see a single altercation and that was a first.
Karen
I had a perfect view & was able to hear everything as I sat in my den, watching it on the television. I wasn’t surprised in the slightest to hear about all the confusion with the tickets & the numbers of people trying to get in. Too many people, too many tickets & not enough space.
I was even able to see Bush appear to sink in his chair during the speech when he realized a lot of what was being said pertained to him & his "leadership". The only good thing he did was make the transition smooth. Oh & he left. That was better.
MattF
I went to the Mall, and it was all OK by me. Note that my expectations were modest: get to the Mall, watch the proceedings on a Jumbo-tron, freeze my butt off, mark the day. Success.
Additional notes: Mass transit worked OK, everyone was in a good mood and fairly relaxed. All of DC south of Dupont Circle was pretty much shut down, National Guard all over the place. Friend who was a high-level Dem staffer in the 80’s noted that even the people in the seated, invitation-only section can’t see what’s going on.
Brett
Apparently the problems related to a section of the Mall reserved for ticket holders. Back where we were, there was no problem. Lesson: if you try to exclude people, some people will end up being unfairly excluded.
wilfred
Blessed are the cheesemakers?
Jennifer
I’m with John on this one. Many years ago, I made the mistake of leaving France to go to London, unaware that it was the day of Andrew and Fergie’s wedding. I did the thing any reasonable person would have done, and headed straight for the bus station to get the hell out of town. As luck would have it, though, the post-wedding parade came right by the bus station so even though I would have avoided being in town that day had I known, I got to see Andy and Fergie in their wedding carriage while waiting for my bus. Not meaningful like seeing Obama inaugurated would have been, but then again, I didn’t have to freeze my ass off for 5 or 6 hours in the middle of a crowd of 2 million to see it. I don’t like people enough to voluntarily sign up to be in the middle of a big crowd of them – hell, I can’t even stand going to a store during Christmas shopping season.
Adolphus
I’m already starting to hear stories from friends, none of whom were excluded from their areas, and their tales all remind me of friends who went to other huge events like the Preakness, We Are the World, or the Indy 500. Everyone was miserable, but they’d do it again. The worst time they ever loved.
You can have my share, thanks.
PS: It sounds like the City did fine. Given how many people converged on the Mall, did we think there weren’t going to be some mistakes?
Media Browski
As a group, we Washingtonians chose to stay home and leave the insanity to tourists, masochists and sherpas. We all know that DC can barely handle the morning rush; 5 million extra people who aren’t even sure where they’re going was never going to work out well.
That said, it’s been 8 long years since coming to work in the city felt like coming onto safe ground, our side’s ground. The Dark Tower is once again in the hands of the good guys.
Robin G.
From what I heard from some friends who also had purple tickets, the crowd had pushed down the rope barricades fairly early in the morning and flooded into the area, ensuring that several people with tickets would not get into their designated areas. I think this was perfectly fair, in my commie-pinko opinion — people who got there at three AM in the cold should get a better view than the people who showed up at ten AM and wanted to get the best spots. First come, first serve. But I can see how people who thought they had reserved areas would get frustrated.
I can see the desire to be there — to say, essentially, "I was in DC on this day." But anyone who expected anything beyond the joy of standing inside the city limits with like-minded people was being too greedy. Better to view anything beyond that as a bonus.
I considered going, but my HD TV is conveniently located nearby both a refrigerator and a bathroom, which was very much not the case on the National Mall.
Fwiffo
At first when I was watching it (from work), I was saying "I wish I was there." But then as it dragged on into it’s 140th hour, and the parade was still going on, the talking heads started complaining that the new limo was going too slowly and that the President was getting in and out of the car all out of schedule… Then later, there was more parading, and the first family was sitting in this giant bullet-proof trophy case, and the daughters were obviously as bored as young children who’d just sat through some really long boring adult bullshit…
Anyhow, I’m glad I wasn’t there in person. I’ve always hated standing in the cold watching parades, and I have every since I was a kid, and I had to stand in the cold watching a parade. I guess there’s not a story there. But parades are pretty intolerable even in nice weather.
I can’t decide if the highlight was Joseph Lowery’s benediction or when the President told Al Roker "it’s warm."
gravie
You go to the event to be in the middle of the energy and excitement, not to have the best seat or be assured of smooth sailing. When you’ve got a big, exuberant crowd things are not going to be tidy and orderly. That’s just the way it is.
I knew I couldn’t stand up for the multiple hours it would take to be there in person, so I watched it on the big screen at my work. My daughter, who is 23, had a spot in the crowd all the way back at the Washington Monument but wouldn’t have traded it for the world.
The Other Steve
Isn’t the 21 gun salute for events like this fired using artillery?
Yup… But what kind of gun is that?
found it
So yeah… they’re loud.
Lesley
We went to the mall and were turned back at several points by the sheer mass of people. My husband and friends wanted to push on, but deep, and ultimately correct, instinct told me that these people around us were going nowhere.
We broke off from the group and made our way to the Washington Post, where my husband works, and watched everything on a big screen, in a cozy room near rest rooms and food. Upstairs, reporters typed away about the clusterfuck outside. We had a great time there.
Our friends wound up far back on the mall, just before the oath, peering through trees at a jumbotron. They had scrambled over a freeway and security fences to get there.
Face
So Obama attracted 2+ million clinically insane and unitards to this swearing-in?
John Cole
@The Other Steve: People my age will recognize that piece as the go to artillery piece for early 1970’s GI Joe figurines. Olive drab, and after two days of play, guaranteed to have a completely mangled barrel.
Persia
This. I had a co-worker go down with her husband. Still don’t know what– if anything– they saw, but they wanted to be part of the crowd and the excitement.
uh_clem
It’s like Woodstock. Everybody who went was miserable, but they brag about it to this day.
20 year from now, they can say they were there. A few hours of inconvienence and personal discomfort is a small price in the greater scheme of things.
That said, you couldn’t pay me enough to put up with that crowd.
gex
I’m with you – I’m a stay at home and watch on TV kind of girl. But I am so glad that so many turned out, even if they saw and heard nothing. According to Ezra Klein, the turnout was so awesome that even jaded congresscritters were wowed, pulling out cameras to take pictures. If that gives any of them pause to reconsider being obstinate with Obama just for the sake of it, I’m glad of it.
colleeniem
I was there at 0500. I am still trying to unthaw.
I waited in an organized chaos OUTSIDE of a metro station for 2 hours to get in for the regular 25 minute trip home.
I was in front the Air and Space mueseum, the people on the platform looked like little ants. My view was the same as the tv watchers at home from the jumbotron.
It was worth it.
Deborah
The Purple People were evidently doomed. (Now you can have Purple People Eater stuck in your head.)
And yet, when I mentioned this tale to my husband as we talked about crowd estimates, he scoffed at the idea of showing up at 9 as the Purple Person on TNR did. The 105 year old woman got there at 5 a.m.; ticket or not you don’t show up after dawn and hope to get in. Or as someone said above, you hope to stand in a crowd of like-minded people, freezing.
I got all mushy watching, but really if I couldn’t be really close (because I was now a powerful member of the government, or closely related to one) I would prefer to find a gathering of like-minded people with a large-screen tv and C-span and indoor heating and no Depends.
Linda Wirthheimer, stationed on the steps of the Canadian Embassy, was being plied with beavertail soup. The lower-ranked NPR reporter on a flatbed somewhere was convinced they were probably handing out Canadian whiskey as well, while he froze.
Xecky Gilchrist
@gravie: You go to the event to be in the middle of the energy and excitement, not to have the best seat or be assured of smooth sailing.
Yup, this. I read that FDL post yesterday and kept looking for the punch line – but no, it’s an honest-to-god whine.
Just saying – FDL has some amazing coverage and writing, but I think there’s an undercurrent of poutiness among some of the writers there, and if I were to try to guess which liberal blog were to become a meaningless poutrage site in a decade’s time, it’s the one I’d tap.
TheHatOnMyCat
Reminds me of the time I let myself get talked into going to the Rose Parade.
Cold, miserable, desperate for a cup of coffee and a place to pee, having to fight a mob to see anything of the parade itself ….it was hours of torture for nothing other than being able to say, I went.
Never again.
Cris
One of our local news stations sent its senior news anchor to cover the inauguration, but she was stuck with one of the purple tickets. So her "video blog" consisted of her complaining that the gates slammed in her face.
It was kind of amusing and kind of pitiful, especially the fact that the station decided to broadcast it anyway. "Jill has nothing to show us, but she’s got seniority I guess."
Hawes
My wife and I organized a trip with 220 students (and our two small boys 7&5 years old). We got to the Metro station in Maryland about 5:30am. Arrived on the mall about 8am. Each group of about 8-10 students had a faculty member and they went off to find the best place to watch. Some struggled up close to Capitol in the crush of a million people. Some watched from the eastern slope of the hill where the Washington Monument is. Some from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. My family watched from the World War II memorial.
We were cold, tired from the overnight bus ride, and are tired still.
Absolutely worth every blessed misery. Worth the biting cold and the merry crowds. Worth the long wait and the butt busting bus ride.
Because, honestly, nothing exactly like this will ever happen again. Not even the Chelsea Clinton inauguration in 2020 will be the same.
Napoleon
@John Cole:
I loved GI Joe. My brother and I had several of those artillery pieces.
Martin
And yet 2 million other people managed to get in. Yeah, it was impossible to navigate through the ineptness of security…
When I got to work yesterday morning, I had a stack of email photos of the Capitol and other landmarks all taken by 5am that day. I think the key to successfully attending yesterday’s events is pretty clear.
The key to the Indy 500 is to camp out in the infield the night before with the Boy Scouts. You get the best parking and you are inside before the gates open, so you don’t need to deal with the traffic arriving or the rush at the gates. It’s wicked-ass fun. A few years back they did it for the F1 US Grand Prix and we drove out from Cali with the kids. I know they did the campout for the Indy 500 as well. Maybe the Brickyard too…
lewp
My 13 yr old daughter and I left our house around 10 a.m. We withstood a tight but wait-free metro ride into the district, and easily walked to the mall with the happy hordes, settling in front of a jumbotron by the Washington Monument well before the swearing-in got under way.
I could barely see the top of the screen during the proceedings, but could hear fine, and my daughter could see everything from my shoulders, and was giddily cheering and sending pix-messages to friends and family all over the country.
We brought a video camera, and before and after the swearing-in my daughter played the role of interviewer, asking, "Where are you from?", and, "What do you think of this day?!", and, "Did you like Aretha’s hat?", and, "Will you miss George Bush?", and, "Don’t you wish it had been McCain and Palin up there?" (mischievous one, she), etc., while the camera rolled.
Everyone was psyched, everyone was smiling, everyone was happy to be interviewed. There was barely a line at any of the porto-potties. We easily got coffee and pastries as we arrived, and lunch on exit (in Georgetown) as we hiked out to Rosslyn to catch another tight but wait-free metro home.
We had a blast, and she’ll never forget it.
par4
Blame it on Dianne Feinstein.
Shakerosalt
Yeah, imagine that, a member of the "in-crowd" going to the inauguration and being shoved about as outsiders, must have been painful for them. O-u-c-h. Yeah, I’m square but I was still "there" in spirit, ensconced in my office thousands of miles away.
Kilkee
@TheHatOnMyCat: On the other hand, I vividly recall watching live footage of the Berlin Wall being torn down, and thinking "damn, I should just GO there!" I didn’t, of course, even though it wouldn’t have been terribly difficult to do so, and regret it to this day.
Patrick
A friend up from Georgia and I brought our daughters ( 2 girls both age 4). We left for DC just before 9am. We got a message saying the parking lot was full which was BS. Maybe one of the three parking garages was full. We parked got street parking.
Got a seat on the metro. Not packed, but filled up on the way into the city. Getting off at L’Enfant was fun. Funneled our way to the escalators. Then we rode the sea of humanity south down Independence avenue. We were stuck for awhile at 14th street.
But once we got across 14th, it thinned out by the Washington Monument and WWII memorial. There were jumbo trons and speakers on the stretch of grass south of the reflecting pool – anyone could see anything. There were porta-potties galore with no wait. No lines for food / hot chocolate.
BTW – if you watched the swearing in, you didn’t go to the parade. You left. We walked past Lincoln north towards Foggy Bottom. Stopped for sandwiches and coffee at Casey’s Coffee and warmed up. Long wait outside Foggy Bottom metro entrance – since the platforms are only so big.
Quote of the day heard from young college girl talking on her cell-phone while we all stood there: "I think I’m hungover but I’m too frozen to tell."
Got back, Parade had just started so we popped some champagne.
Awesome, my daughter got to attend Obama’s inauguration with her friend and they’ll remember this forever.
Bey
On the way to work this morning, I heard NPR reporting on some emails they’d received. Seems a purple-ticket-holder did not get to his designated area and concluded that the inauguration festivities were "very poorly planned".
I laughed out loud.
Very Poorly Planned Indeed.
AND YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!
Phoenix Woman
What Everyone Else Said.
lou
I was there as a volunteer near the Lincoln Memorial and had to be there at 4 a.m. So I walked the Mall at 3 a.m. and people were already gathering. As the ceremony started and my volunteer duties ended, got a seat right by the jumbotron at the Lincoln Memorial. And it was pretty awesome to stand on the steps by the Reflecting Pool and look down the Mall toward the Capitol and see the sea of humanity gathered together.
Still haven’t thawed out though.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
Sure, stick two million people in a tiny area and expect them all to get a view with no situations? I expect these are the same people who stay until the last play of a game held at a six thousand seat stadium and then expect there will be no traffic when they try to find their car and go home too?
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
I did that once too, I too said never again. :)
lou
PS Those of us in the "peon" area didn’t have to go through security and stand in any lines. So maybe people should rethink being in "exclusive" areas — where you still have to look at a jumbotron.
The Bag of Health and Politics
For what it was, it was as orderly as possible. There were zero arrests on the Mall apparently. When is the last time a City of one million people went 6 hours without an arrest?
There were some problems. They forgot to put up a barricade, and the unwashed masses got into the ticketed area. This is why the security closed–they couldn’t let anybody else in or it would be too crowded.
It sucks for the people who got there later, but you had to be there at 5 in the morning if you wanted to be assured of getting where you wanted to go. The Mall was basically full by 9 a.m. The parade route was filled to capacity at 8:30.
I’m glad I went it was fun. This is what it felt like from the crowd:
Lefty Minion
I had learned the lesson "doesn’t really matter how close you are if it’s on Jumbotron" lesson just a few days earlier, at the Kickoff Concert, to which I did have tickets. It was cool that they got me in with less waiting than others, but even though I was up near the front of the reflecting pool, I still had a choice to look at: Big TV or rows of seats, not the stage. Tix not useless, but only good for so much.
Learned my lesson for the swearing in–just rode my bike down, never went through a checkpoint, comparison shopped among Jmobtrons, saw a lot of people, got cold, and rode home after the swearing in without having to wait.
Freedom of movement: worth sacrificing some "VIP access" for. Hmm, I wonder if that lesson applies to anything else?
Matt
I got on the Red Line at Silver Spring at about 7:45am, and it was wait free and not very tight. I then made the in-hindsight foolish choice to get off at Judiciary Square. It was as poorly coordinated as everyone says. No signs, arbitrary blockades, contradicting information.
I ended up waiting in a security line for about an hour, only to find out that this was for a parade security zone and access to the mall was impossible because PA Ave was shut down for the motorcade. At 11am they opened a crosswalk at 1st though. Then a run was all that was needed to get to The Mall, where I secured a partially obstructed view of a screen.
My biggest mistake though was getting back to Silver Spring by first heading south and walking around the Jefferson Monument, then continuing to walk 15 miles back to Maryland. I probably should have taken the Red at Dupont Circle.
So yes, it was a cold, uncomfortable experience when I could have watched it in HD from my bed, but I would do it all over again (although I would have used the Metro more effectively).
Argive
I had a silver ticket, entitling me to standing room behind the Reflecting Pool. I found it to be unorganized, but considering the number of people there, I really am not surprised. Quite frankly, Gregg Levine needs to realize that when upwards of 2 million people show up for an event like this things are going to go wrong.
After waking up at 4:45 am, shoving my way onto a packed subway car at 5:30, finally managing to get in a 6-block line at around 7:45, waiting in said line until 11:00, and being borne onto the Mall by a massive crowd past the remnants of trampled security checkpoints, I stood near a set of loudspeakers to listen to the ceremony (with a nice view of the Capitol). By the time I left, I had been standing/walking for over 6 hours, was freezing cold, bone tired, and completely dazed.
And I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. It was fun and absolutely breathtaking.
PS. I also went to the Rose Parade/Bowl and despite the crowds and cramped conditions, I’d do that again too. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment.
danny
I had tickets and barely made it in after a 3 hour ordeal. For the record, the snafu was worse than what you would expect. I expected delays, bone chill, and no view. I did not expect to be in serious physical jeopardy due to a complete absence of official guidance or communication.
So stop laughing please.
DarcyPennell
I had a silver ticket and my experience was almost exactly the same as Argive’s. I will only add that before the crowd broke through the barricade no one was moving, it got really crowded, rumors were floating around that we weren’t going to be allowed in at all, people were pushing from the back and there was noplace to go, and it was a little scary. But it all worked out, I got in, and it was worth it just to be there. If I had wanted a perfect view, warmth and a comfy seat, I would have stayed home and watched C-SPAN.
Zuzu's Petals
I went to Altamont. Does that count?
jonathan
It is always nice to allow people the comfort of believing they made the right decision. But, i think you should admit, Being in Washington over the last 2 days was worth any price. The nations capitol has never felt so filled with good will at any time in my lifetime. And further more, If you were smart enough to not do as told by the army of unbriefed officers corralling people in the wrong direction because -and this is the conspiracy theorists in me talking- the whole crowd control effort had the feeling of something run by micheal chertoff and the DHS. It was truly incompetent from a management point of view. and i say this in compelete repect to the army, national guard, border patrol and local law enforcement officers I met and talked to. All seemed to want to help. None were properly briefed. Seemed pretty Republican in its management style. Anyway, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything including 6 hours of jostling and 3 hours negotiating DC’s moronically designed transportation system. You all missed it big time. TV can’t possibly compete. Oh, I didn’t have a ticket and still ended up in the silver section.
jake 4 that 1
Behold the power of the MUP!
Of course, it was cold enough that I could have been hit over the head, stabbed and robbed and I wouldn’t have noticed. [Checks] Nope, no injuries and the wallet is present and correct.
Seriously, that is pretty damn amazing though a lot of credit must go to the legions of police both civilian and military.
DBird
The entire event was so poorly planned and run that I am shocked no one was killed. There were several moments where civility broke down – Union Station was very close to flipping over to chaos – and there was absolutely no one in authority who had a clue what to do.
You can’t allow a million and a half people in and then tell them they can’t get out. The handfuls of reservists manning the barricades eventually had to let the breaches go because the crush of people was in danger of causing a stampede.
Poor planning and miserable execution. No food or water for a million plus on the mall, and no exit (though the police had coffee and doughnuts on their little islands along the mall.) They really thought the people who arrived at 9 would stay out on the mall until 6? Absurd.
Jebk
I had a blue ticket, stood in lines that went nowhere for 4 hours, finally gave up, ran down the street and watched from the mall. it was a gong show, but i’ll never forget it.
nicethugbert
We owe those people a debt of gratitude for their hard work and for making the inaugural much grander than it would have been had there not been so many attendees. So many as to reinforce the notion that The People are united with each other and this President, not with the last. That sea of enthusiastic people was an awesome site to behold. I wanted to be there, at least until I heard it was such a cluster fuck. I’m not a herd type guy, but, I occasionally like to think it’s worth it for more then just cavalry or bayonet charges.
claude
So, was this, in fact (does/can anybody know) the largest gathering of Americans in one place ever? 2-3 million?
I’d say it is a meme worth pushing, unless someone has some hard evidence to the contrary.
ryan
I was there!!! I use the three exclamation points, because every time I think this thought in my head, it has three or more exclamation points. It was incredible. We had to wait in line for quite a while, but once we got there we had plenty of room. While waiting, everyone was talking and laughing and in a great mood, the energy of the crowd was unbelievable. I could definitely see how it would be unpleasant for people who don’t enjoy companionship or their fellow human beings, and I think it’s great that those people stayed home. But I had a wonderful time, and everyone I saw seemed to be having a wonderful time as well. Also, the weather was beautiful – sure it was a cold day, but that’s why we’ve invented things like jackets, and mittens, and hats. I was plenty warm all day. So a shout out to all the misanthropes – thanks for staying home!
D-Chance.
“… and no one in their right mind would be in DC that day.”
You’re correct. They weren’t.
Kevin Polk
Wow. Tough crowd.
I had a blue ticket and didn’t get in either. My mom and I were about 30 feet from the gate when the police swung it shut at noon.
Because of delays on the metro, we arrived around 7 a.m.
As others have stated, nobody was doing crowd control outside the fenced off area. What that meant for blue ticket holders was that there wasn’t actually a line. More like a series of vaguely connected crowds surging into and around each another as empty areas nearer the blue gate were identified and exploited.
We were jammed in together like dark roast Sulawesi Toraja Kalossi beans in a french press. Some fellow travelers shouldering toward the gate beside us had been there at least an hour longer than us but used the doomed tactic of staying in the line/herd they initially joined.
We were told by a cop who wandered past at one point that the security check area at the blue gate experienced an extended loss of power, which rendered their electronic security equipment useless and forced them to do manual searches. Given the large number of people going into both the blue and the purple sections, it immediately became physically impossible for so few checkers to get so many ticket holders through the gate in time.
Eventually the crowd realized that they wouldn’t get in and started chanting "Let us in. Let us in," to no avail, and booing those who attempted to bypass the "line" and force their way in right at the gates. I thought a fight would break out, but some of the offending line crashers backed off.
Didn’t hear anything about a fence being down between silver and blue or purple. Was told that a crowd in the silver section had crashed the fence to get into the silver section, which seemed true because that’s where we finally got in after being turned away from blue. We made the perimeter of both blue and purple and didn’t see any holes there at all.
I think they waited much too long to let us know we couldn’t get in. By the time they did, we had missed the inauguration.
My mom felt upset that she took the time and money to fly in from the west coast to such a disorganized mess. We did manage to catch Bush’s helecopter taking off, which was for me at least the cathartic moment of the day. I raised my arm and give him the only kind of salute I felt he deserved.
A little later we caught a break as we were walking down the street past the Aerospace Museum headed toward the Lincoln Memorial. Two white stretch limos emerged through the crowd. A group of teen girls ahead of us started shrieking and there was a mass movement toward the vehicles.
"Maybe it’s Obama," I said to my mom as we followed the crowd. One of the jubilant girls turned around, braces-clad smile beaming on her face, "No, it’s better than that . . .
it’s Beyonce."
D from CT
Count me among those not in his right mind – I paid $550 for a plane ticket, walked for miles in the freezing cold, there and back, so I could stand in a big crowd of happy people united in their joy, watching a jumbotron. Plus I helped to shepherd our group of about 15 people including 7 or 8 kids through the whole thing, worrying about keeping them together and un-crushed.
Those kids didn’t complain once, unlike some of you folks here who seem to have not understood that it’s cold in January and that predictions of millions of people means fighting big crowds. Someone else didn’t organize things well enough to ensure that you had a smooth and privileged experience? Boo-freakin-hoo!
No food or water?!?! BS! We had no trouble obtaining hot chocolate, coffee and hot dogs at the Washington Monument.
We got exactly what we expected – a long arduous walk, cold feet and hands, and one of the best days of our lives! We also got something unexpected – people of all races and ages and walks of life reaching out to help each other over the inevitable rough spots.
Thank God I didn’t listen to my rational self telling me I was crazy to do it and that I shouldn’t go!