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Jake and Carlee are two great friends from Bellingham who are some of the best people you could ever want to meet. Unless you're uncomfortable being mocked a little. In that case, go find other friends. They arrived Friday night and it was cold. By cold I mean -3 wind chill or something like that. If anyone from Wisconsin or Maine is reading this, sorry to complain about 11 degrees when you're in the middle of -45 degrees, and also, can you send me some cheese or lobster? It's just uncomfortable to leave the house right now.
Here are the highlights of the past couple of days:
1. Inauguration opening concert on Sunday the 18th. We knew we'd have to arrive early as only 3 musicians and actors in the whole country had been left out of the lineup. We wanted to get a prime spot but honestly there were so many performs I thought they might be taking up the prime spots. And I didn't want to have to push James Taylor out of the way just to get a better view of the stage.
We arrived at 7:30 am for a 2:30 show. Plenty of time? Barely. We got a pretty good spot near the front and next to tree we were hoping we could climb on a little to get a better view. Things filled in pretty quickly and we thought all was progressing nicely until Jake and Carlee left to get food. They almost didn't get back. As more and more people started arriving they just kept pressing forward. And forward. No room? No problem, just keep shoving in! You had to keep your extremities close to your body because if not before you knew what was happening there'd be a whole family camped out in between you and your arm. After they had returned victoriously with the food I made the mistake of having to go to the bathroom. I have never really fought my way through a crowd like this before. (Keep in mind we're still 3 hours away from show time here). I was able to reach the bathrooms (about 75 yards away) in only 10 minutes or so, but when I came out, someone on stage started playing. It was only a mic test but no matter, let's all 400,000 (actual number) of us press forward towards the stage anyway and crush all in our path! It was sort of like watching a tunnel collapse- instead of making your way through a maze, now you have to swim through the rubble. It took over 45 minutes for us to travel those 75 yards and people were not happy about it. The whole story's long but I almost got in a fight with two guys who just REFUSED to let me by. At first they were annoyed and then it became a matter of principle for them that I would not get by. At one point I tried to push past one of the guys only for him to reach out and push be back while yelling "Aint gon happen!" Basically everyone around us got involved and was arguing about whether or not I should be able to get through. Kim and Jake could see me and were yelling and when I finally broke through (at much personal risk to my own safety) the whole crowd cheered. It felt like something out of a cheesy Disney movie.
Ok, that was really long and I left out the crazy guy climbing our tree, falling out of the tree, barely missing Jake, but not missing 3 other people, one of whom got really crushed. The concert itself was good as each performer did one piece or a couple of them played together. We were close enough to really see all of them which was cool. Obama spoke which was cool too. People went crazy every time they saw him on the screen and then when he came on stage. Finally the show was over and we headed into town to get dinner... That was a whole nother adventure which I'll spare you.
On Tuesday we got up at 3:00 am, were at the metro by 4:30, rode into town, got off at our stop by 5:15 because the metro was already backed up from all the cars on the track, and then... Just stopped. The metro station was full. Just full. Like when a pot is full, the extra water spills out, this was like that. People were slowly crushing toward the exit and swarming up the stopped escalators. But the crowd was happy. Everyone was waving flags and cheering. We finally got up the stairs, out onto the street, now let's run to the mall! Wait, the streets are also full... We finally make it the 3 blocks to the mall and the street was closed off. We were on 7th and they said we'd have to go down to 12th to get in. Good grief, could this get more complicated? Oh yes, it can. The street was closed to traffic but we still couldn't walk on it because every police car and horse carrier from the NE United States was parked on that street. And the cops kept yelling for us all to get on the sidewalks. Have they seen the sidewalks? Nowhere near enough room. Finally we made it onto the mall, and by 6:15 had staked out a good spot in view of the capital, in view of a jumbotron, near some speakers. We were the only ones with chairs and sleeping bags because we ignored the "No Backpacks" rule. Suckers. The crowd crush happened all over again and by 7:30 there was no hope of going anywhere. And it was really cold. The ceremony was pretty cool. It was short and to the point. Barak's speech was very good. On our way home we quickly found streets closed and the metro stations jammed to overflowing. And when I say overflowing I mean several city blocks surrounding the entrances just crammed with people. I'd never seen anything like it. We walked home.
Ok, I'll just finish up with some thoughts for you.
1. It was truly amazing to be a part of history like this. You could feel it and see it in the faces around you. The crowd was so excited and didn't seem to mind the cold or the crush. I (Patrick) don't know if I've ever really felt involved in something so specifically American like that before. At the same time I felt a little bit like an outsider. The people around me seemed to be universally hailing Barak as the savior of the world, he who shall undo all past wrongs and make all things right. Let us trust ourselves into his strong hands and may his wisdom pour over us blah blah blah. But I wasn't feeling it. I voted for him, and I think he's exceedingly capable and intelligent. But I wouldn't ask him to kiss my baby. I'm worried about some potential Obama policies. It was just kind of funny feeling, feeling a part of something and yet somehow an outsider.
2. I never want to be in a crazed mob. It felt dangerous to be in a crowd like that where everyone was singing and talking to each other. I can't imagine if everyone was fearing for their lives and running.
3. While I'm still hoping that Obama really will usher in a more bi-partisan ethos in government (don't we say that every four years?), it didn't start at the inauguration ceremony, at least not with the crowd. When Bush was shown on the jumbotron the crows booed like it was their job. When Cheney appeared they booed louder. That didn't offend me. They probably deserved it. But booing George H W Bush and Martha Bush? He was a legitimately good president who embodied many of the things his son didn't. It was just a little disappointing to witness the same old "boo all Republicans and cheer all Democrats". And it would have been exactly the same had McCain won. Oh well. To be fair, Colin Powell got a raucous cheer, but maybe just because he endorsed Obama, who knows.
4. Altogether, it was amazing to be there and I'm glad we endured the early mornings and cold and having to pee. It was even better to do it all with Jake and Carlee. I even think I did a good job of not letting on how insanely jealous I am of all the traveling they've done.
5. Thanks for getting to the bottom of this and in a spirit of renewed American excitement, let me just say that I'm praying for Obama and his family and looking forward to where the next couple of years take us.
Here we are seeing them put the finishing touches on the stage just days before the big day.
This is the line to the concert. Thankfully we were towards the front.
Camped out for the next 7 hours while thousands of people try to crush us.
These are all the crazy people like us waiting to see the concert and hopefully Obama.
There he is welcoming us all to his inauguration weekend.
Yay we survived. This is the little lady that Patrick helped get through the crowds to the bathroom and back, she was so little.
Carlee and I trying to keep warm at 5:30AM on Tuesday. Note that at this point we all looked homeless.
Cheering for something, Oprah, Obama, or maybe even Beyonce or maybe just the fact that the inauguration was finally starting.
Jason (Jack's dad), Patrick, Me, Carlee and Jake enjoying our new President, waiting to check our real lives to see if all our problems are solved yet. Not knowing that the first thing he did in office was force us to walk 6 miles home...sucky.
This is a poster that I (Kim) asked our friend Conner Peirson to make. The faith people are placing on Obama just seems like the type of faith and hope we should be placing in Jesus.
