A New Birth of Freedom
Jan. 20th, 2009 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unforthStanding on the National Mall, surrounded by 1.8 million other people, I felt perhaps for only the second time in my life that profound sense of love for my country, a patriotism that begs me to acknowledge I that live in one of the greatest countries in the world, at yet one of many critical junctures in history. Much like the first time I felt that way, I suspect that this time the sense of awe, the feeling of brotherhood, will last for a far shorter duration than it ought, but I have the pleasure of knowing that this second time was not triggered by tragedy, as the first time was, but by joy and comradeship.
The story begins with a post by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sapphohestia, who some time back now posted an invitation to her friends to crash at her home if they wished to attend the inauguration. After several moments of wistful thinking, it dawned on me that I had nothing to regret - I could go! Though my efforts to actually obtain tickets failed, still I decided to go anyway, and so on Friday I made my way to Washington DC.
The weekend was spent pleasantly - antiquing and visiting Fredricksburg - which while perhaps not pleasant in the standard sense of the word, still was pleasing to me, in that I have found myself returning to an interest in the Civil War which has only been stirred to new heights by my re-visiting Fredricksburg, and remembering how it feels to walk in places where such things happened. It was very nice ofsapphohestia to come with me, too - she even let me babble about the battle to her, and she consulted her father (who, as it turns out, collects guns) for advice on helping me fulfill a long-time dream of mine - the purchasing of an actual Civil War rifle which, as it turns out, is still well out of my price range (hovering around 3k - 4k). Yesterday, meanwhile, was occupied with errands and a short trip to the National Gallery - a favorite place of mine, though it's not as great as the Met.
This morning dawned bright, and clear, and frigid - I can attest to this because we were up more than an hour before dawn, at the crack of 6 AM, in an attempt to get to Downtown earlier enough to beat at least a few of the crowds. After delays and complications, though, we didn't make it to Judiciary Square until nearly 8:45, having spent almost an hour on the Metro in pleasant conversation with a lady from Charlotte, NC, a couple from Orlando, and a woman and her husband who had come all the way from Wales. The spirit of good will was pervasive, and though there were crowds every where, it holds true for the entire day that there was hardly any pushing, basically no cursing, and generally patience at the immense waits that seemed to herald any place worth going.
Walking down to the third street exit, we passed Ben Verene, and paused to wait with a hoard of people for a few moments. However, we both agreed that waiting when we didn't know what exactly we were waiting for was pointless, and so we tracked down a cop nearby, who managed to tell us that there was no point waiting where we were before he had to go and stop people who were trying to storm his barricade. Within about 5 minutes, we'd heard three conflicting reports - go to 7th! Stay at 3rd! 12th is closed! Go to 12th! (wait, that's four reports!) and we resolved to head up town towards 7th. As we approached 6th, though, an ambulance blared that there'd been a watermain break and so 7th was closed. And so we proceeded until we found a mass of people at 12th. Everyone there seemed to believe that the line they were on (line: a formless mass of people, vaguely tear dropped in shape, from which people constantly leave at all points and other people constnatly join at all points, especially near the front) would gain them access to the Mall, and though I was skeptical, we briefly waited with them - 5 to 10 minutes - before finally we decided that this was a terrible idea - the guards were scanning every single person trying to pass through, and by our calculations, this meant they could process at maximum about 350 people per hour, and there were easily a thousand in the intersection of F (or maybe it was G?) and 12th, and so we moved on uptown. This soon proved to be the right choice - as it turned out, the 12th street entrance was for the parade route, though few actually in the line realized that, and we were routed up town, and towards 15th. 15th too was blocked by the parade route, though, and finally we got multiple reports that actually matched: go to 18th, young man!
Getting to 18th was a challenge, but traffic was generally flowing, and people were cheerful, and finally as 10 AM was approaching we reached our goal: the Reflecting Pool was before us! We'd crossed Constitution! The Washington Monument (where, earlier, I had commented that we might be afforded an amazing view if only we could GET there) was to our left! Victory! And, surprisingly, the crowds weren't this thick so far back. We took some pictures of the mentioned view, and then tried to make our way to the Mall proper, only to discover that 14th was completely blocked, and so we turned back - our fingers quite numb, but otherwise still somewhat snug.
We finally, at 10:30, settled on a nice spot in the sun just east of the Washington Monument, on the slopes leading down towards the museums. It wasn't that full when we got there, but y 11:30 when things of interest started happening (before that it was all, "here are the senators! here are the governors!" kind of stuff, and the glare from the sun so bad that we couldn't make out the jumbo-trons, and the music inexplicably cutting out to be replaced by helicopter rotor noises at regular intervals). The people around seemed pleasant, and all in all was anticipation, good cheer, and very, very cold.
I can't really describe the feelings of standing there and listening to the speeches, if not live, still in relatively close proximity. I didn't get to see Obama in person, nor hear him - all was jumbotron and speakers - but I was a voice amongst millions who raised a cheer, and waved a flag, and felt like I was part of something bigger than myself, who took of their hat in the frigid air to honor the national anthem, who went silent as the dead so as not to miss a single word that our new president had to say, who felt the weight of fear go off my shoulders as he actually took the oath. Four years ago, more than one friend suggested that we would never have another election, that Bush would never go, and while I didn't believe it, still I felt that lingering fright, and whensapphohestia pointed out much later that it was gone, I realized she was right, that it had lifted the instant that Biden started to take the vice presidential oath.
When I was young, I was ashamed of my country. Then, as I grew up, I realized I loved my country. Still later, though, I came to understand that the two feelings could co-exist, that I could be a patriot and still feel that there was so much wrong here as to bring tears to my eyes. Today, as on election day, I was reminded we can remedy that pain. We can change this country. We can come together from across the country, across the globe, across color barriers, across language barriers, across religious barriers, and all come together, and feel a sense of brother and sister hood that leads to goodwill towards all even as we slowly tried to combat the incredibly poor crowd control procedures post-inauguration. Even the obligatory protestors from the religious right seemed in better cheer, and were at least heartily ignored by all.
I hope this feeling lasts, and that we really can make change happen. Not everything that has been promised - but enough to make a difference, lasting compromises that suit everyone.
By the by, I have seen basically all manner of Obama merchandise one can dream up - shirts and hats and scarfs, blankets and flags, to incense, condoms, earrings, and my personal favorite - Barack Obama hand puppets. Tragically, there were no shot glasses to be had.
For any one curious for more, I refer you tosapphohestia's post on the same, which I took a care to avoid completely duplicating, and which includes some pictures!
HappyFreedom DayInauguration Day, everyone...
The story begins with a post by
sapphohestia, who some time back now posted an invitation to her friends to crash at her home if they wished to attend the inauguration. After several moments of wistful thinking, it dawned on me that I had nothing to regret - I could go! Though my efforts to actually obtain tickets failed, still I decided to go anyway, and so on Friday I made my way to Washington DC.The weekend was spent pleasantly - antiquing and visiting Fredricksburg - which while perhaps not pleasant in the standard sense of the word, still was pleasing to me, in that I have found myself returning to an interest in the Civil War which has only been stirred to new heights by my re-visiting Fredricksburg, and remembering how it feels to walk in places where such things happened. It was very nice of
sapphohestia to come with me, too - she even let me babble about the battle to her, and she consulted her father (who, as it turns out, collects guns) for advice on helping me fulfill a long-time dream of mine - the purchasing of an actual Civil War rifle which, as it turns out, is still well out of my price range (hovering around 3k - 4k). Yesterday, meanwhile, was occupied with errands and a short trip to the National Gallery - a favorite place of mine, though it's not as great as the Met.This morning dawned bright, and clear, and frigid - I can attest to this because we were up more than an hour before dawn, at the crack of 6 AM, in an attempt to get to Downtown earlier enough to beat at least a few of the crowds. After delays and complications, though, we didn't make it to Judiciary Square until nearly 8:45, having spent almost an hour on the Metro in pleasant conversation with a lady from Charlotte, NC, a couple from Orlando, and a woman and her husband who had come all the way from Wales. The spirit of good will was pervasive, and though there were crowds every where, it holds true for the entire day that there was hardly any pushing, basically no cursing, and generally patience at the immense waits that seemed to herald any place worth going.
Walking down to the third street exit, we passed Ben Verene, and paused to wait with a hoard of people for a few moments. However, we both agreed that waiting when we didn't know what exactly we were waiting for was pointless, and so we tracked down a cop nearby, who managed to tell us that there was no point waiting where we were before he had to go and stop people who were trying to storm his barricade. Within about 5 minutes, we'd heard three conflicting reports - go to 7th! Stay at 3rd! 12th is closed! Go to 12th! (wait, that's four reports!) and we resolved to head up town towards 7th. As we approached 6th, though, an ambulance blared that there'd been a watermain break and so 7th was closed. And so we proceeded until we found a mass of people at 12th. Everyone there seemed to believe that the line they were on (line: a formless mass of people, vaguely tear dropped in shape, from which people constantly leave at all points and other people constnatly join at all points, especially near the front) would gain them access to the Mall, and though I was skeptical, we briefly waited with them - 5 to 10 minutes - before finally we decided that this was a terrible idea - the guards were scanning every single person trying to pass through, and by our calculations, this meant they could process at maximum about 350 people per hour, and there were easily a thousand in the intersection of F (or maybe it was G?) and 12th, and so we moved on uptown. This soon proved to be the right choice - as it turned out, the 12th street entrance was for the parade route, though few actually in the line realized that, and we were routed up town, and towards 15th. 15th too was blocked by the parade route, though, and finally we got multiple reports that actually matched: go to 18th, young man!
Getting to 18th was a challenge, but traffic was generally flowing, and people were cheerful, and finally as 10 AM was approaching we reached our goal: the Reflecting Pool was before us! We'd crossed Constitution! The Washington Monument (where, earlier, I had commented that we might be afforded an amazing view if only we could GET there) was to our left! Victory! And, surprisingly, the crowds weren't this thick so far back. We took some pictures of the mentioned view, and then tried to make our way to the Mall proper, only to discover that 14th was completely blocked, and so we turned back - our fingers quite numb, but otherwise still somewhat snug.
We finally, at 10:30, settled on a nice spot in the sun just east of the Washington Monument, on the slopes leading down towards the museums. It wasn't that full when we got there, but y 11:30 when things of interest started happening (before that it was all, "here are the senators! here are the governors!" kind of stuff, and the glare from the sun so bad that we couldn't make out the jumbo-trons, and the music inexplicably cutting out to be replaced by helicopter rotor noises at regular intervals). The people around seemed pleasant, and all in all was anticipation, good cheer, and very, very cold.
I can't really describe the feelings of standing there and listening to the speeches, if not live, still in relatively close proximity. I didn't get to see Obama in person, nor hear him - all was jumbotron and speakers - but I was a voice amongst millions who raised a cheer, and waved a flag, and felt like I was part of something bigger than myself, who took of their hat in the frigid air to honor the national anthem, who went silent as the dead so as not to miss a single word that our new president had to say, who felt the weight of fear go off my shoulders as he actually took the oath. Four years ago, more than one friend suggested that we would never have another election, that Bush would never go, and while I didn't believe it, still I felt that lingering fright, and when
sapphohestia pointed out much later that it was gone, I realized she was right, that it had lifted the instant that Biden started to take the vice presidential oath.When I was young, I was ashamed of my country. Then, as I grew up, I realized I loved my country. Still later, though, I came to understand that the two feelings could co-exist, that I could be a patriot and still feel that there was so much wrong here as to bring tears to my eyes. Today, as on election day, I was reminded we can remedy that pain. We can change this country. We can come together from across the country, across the globe, across color barriers, across language barriers, across religious barriers, and all come together, and feel a sense of brother and sister hood that leads to goodwill towards all even as we slowly tried to combat the incredibly poor crowd control procedures post-inauguration. Even the obligatory protestors from the religious right seemed in better cheer, and were at least heartily ignored by all.
I hope this feeling lasts, and that we really can make change happen. Not everything that has been promised - but enough to make a difference, lasting compromises that suit everyone.
By the by, I have seen basically all manner of Obama merchandise one can dream up - shirts and hats and scarfs, blankets and flags, to incense, condoms, earrings, and my personal favorite - Barack Obama hand puppets. Tragically, there were no shot glasses to be had.
For any one curious for more, I refer you to
sapphohestia's post on the same, which I took a care to avoid completely duplicating, and which includes some pictures!Happy
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 03:27 pm (UTC)And yes, it is good to be a patriot! And a liberal! The Founding Fathers and Mothers certainly were. ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-21 11:35 am (UTC)I really want to visit Washington D.C. one day.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 10:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-22 12:48 pm (UTC)I'll defintely let you know if I go -- it'd be super-cool to meet up again, this time in our OWN country's capital!