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I went! I did it! That's right, I stood on the mall in Washington D.C. amongst 1.9 million of my fellow Americans and cheered, laughed and cried while the first African-American president, Barack Obama, was sworn in!
My brother Jack lives in Reston, Virginia, a short car ride from the last Metro stop in Virginia, so it was kind of a no-brainer for my wife and I to make the trip to see history in the making. We got there on the Sunday night before and had Monday to chill and make our plan. We had a great dinner with some old friends and family and set the alarm for 5:15 AM. When we got to the train there was a line a couple of hundred yards long. It moved quickly though and we were on the train by 7:30 AM. It was packed and moved at a crawl. A trip that should have taken 30 minutes stretched out to nearly 2 hours. Finally we emerged from the station across from the Ronald Reagon Building at around 9:15 AM and stood on line to use the restroom in the Gipper’s building. It wasn’t moving and when we realized they were checking to see if you had tickets before they let you in (we didn’t) we bailed and made our way onto the mall. It was a good thing because they closed the mall about 15 minutes after we got there! It was cold! We were prepared though. We were dressed in layers and had hand warmers, feet warmers and the warmth of a huge crowd of proud Americans showing the love!
The crowd stretched from one end of the mall to the other, the biggest crowd I’d ever seen! I’ve placed pictures on my Myspace site ( http://www.myspace.com/timmycarbone ). We stood for a while right in the center. There were jumbo-trons with huge loud speakers everywhere but where we first stood was easily 100 yards from the nearest one and when someone spoke it was difficult to hear. I volunteered to reconnoiter a better spot. After telling everyone to stay put I looped back around closer to the Washington Monument and found a fairly open space right in front of some huge speakers and 20-30 yards from another jumbo-tron. An added bonus was the spot was within hailing distance of a hot chocolate stand...perfect! I circled back and collected the crew and we took up our position and settled in for the long wait. It seemed like the sound crew left the mikes open all the time. Between the various performances of the Marine Corp. Band, children's choirs, etc. you could hear lots of greetings and snippets of conversations going on back stage as people were being announced and taking their seats. At one point you could clearly hear John Kerry greeting Ted Kennedy, “Great to see you! You’re looking good...”, the conversation trailed off. Ironically it would be Kerry who held the ailing Senator Kennedy’s head after he passed out and had a seizure at the luncheon that followed the inauguration.
As I looked around the mall, it was a sea of American flags being waved by people of every color and race. People were high fiving, laughing, dancing and celebrating. It seemed to be a collective sigh of relief. Interesting details were on display on the jumbo-tron if you were paying attention. I noticed when the remaining living presidents gathered in the vestibule to be announced, Jimmy and Roselyn Carter hugged Bush the Elder and Babs but barely took notice of Bill and Hillary. I had read somewhere that Carter blamed Clinton for squandering his opportunity to make real change by “Not having sex with that women.” The relationship sure seemed as frosty as the weather we were standing in.
The crowd jeered a little when Cheney showed up looking like Dr. Strangelove in his wheelchair. I was just waiting for him to grab his leather gloved hand to prevent it from raising, (you’ll have to see the movie). I yelled out,” Unscrew the top of his head and see if he’s really a robot!”. The crowd immediately around me mostly laughed. I couldn’t help myself.
Eventually the time arrived for which we were all waiting for. Joe the vice-president was sworn in and then Chief Justice Roberts botched his part as he swore in our 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama! I cried. I didn’t see too many dry eyes tell you the truth. When it was through a huge cheer went up. It wasn’t as huge as I thought it would be though. I guess it was because you could really only hear the people in your vicinity. I looked all around at the thousands and thousands of waving American flags and had that same feeling I felt on election night. There was a shift in the universe. A positive gear clicked and fell into place. And I could tell on the looks of the smiling, teary eyed faces around me that I wasn’t the only one who had this feeling.
The speech was great. Basically...here’s the problem and how it used to be dealt with (cue camera on Bush as he squirms with a look on his face that says, “ Now wait a minute. He’s talking about me ain’t he?” Yes W he was.) and here’s how I’m going to deal with it but not without your help and understanding.
We had planned to try and see the parade but the one glitch in an otherwise well organized event was they made everyone exit the mall on Independence, the opposite side of the mall from the parade. Unfortunately they never announced this so hundreds of thousands of people made their way to those exits (us included) only to get bottled up. This scene repeated itself a couple of times as we tried various ways to get off the mall. In the process we lost one of my brothers as he was swept away by a crosscurrent of humanity. Cell phones were useless so after waiting exactly where we stopped after discovering him missing for 20 minutes we decided to head for the Metro and head home. By that time the parade had already started. We slowly made our way to the 12th St. station only to find it closed. We heard that the 7th st. station was open so off we went. Turning onto 7th, the crowd stacked up and we wound up standing on a small, grassy knob with a clear view of the station which we were informed would not reopen until 5:30PM. Just as I was mouthing the word f$%! I look to my right and to my astonishment, see my lost brother Doug mouthing the same word! 45 minutes and about 500,000 people later, there he was standing right next to me!
The only way home seemed Foggy Bottom, 2 1/2 miles away passed the Lincoln Memorial. Along the way we bought souvenirs and chatted with all sorts of folks. Everyone was in an ebullient mood despite the cold and relative chaos. When we got down towards the Washington Monument the presidential helicopter flew over head taking the Bushes to Andrews Air force base for their ride into the sunset. As we were waiting for some of us to pee an elderly black man asked if we knew where he could get the train. We said, “It’s a long way but come along with us. That’s where we’re going!” Along the way we learned he was from North Carolina and had lost a son to the Civil Rights Movement. He still could hardly believe he lived to see the day to see a black president. You could see the pride in his eyes and hear it in his voice. What an amazing day.
We finally reached the train and got our friend on the blue line and ourselves on the red. 3 or 4 trains went by too crowded for a single other soul. Finally a young black women with a bullhorn came strolling down the platform. She was in great spirits as she said, “I’ve been here for hours.” She spied our Obama buttons and flags and said, “I didn’t even get a button or a flag or nothin’!” My wife quickly gave here a button and I handed her a flag (I had 2) and she said, “I’m gettin’ you on that next train!” When it arrived and the door opened she stuck the megaphone in and said, “Ya’ll got to move in! Come on, give Mama some love!” We barely got in, my wife pulling on my arm while the girl with the megaphone shoved me with her shoulder like a Japanese subway packer. The door closed and we watched as she waved her flag and got smaller on the platform as the train pulled away. As she disappeared from view the last eight years went with her. A bad dream we finally have woke from only to find the real and extreme damage left in it’s wake. It was no dream and our president has his work cut out. I can’t think of a better man for the job and I can say for the first time since voting in my first election for Jimmy Carter...I love my president!
4:32 PM
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