Our Future Environment

Even before Obama was president-elect, probably as soon as he secured the democratic nomination for President of the United States, I began thinking about how I would attend his inauguration. For me, Obama winning the election was more than just getting rid of Bush or buying into hype, it was the first time I had volunteered my time and energy into politics and caught a glimpse of how democracy could work when enough people are invested.
The night of November 4th I watched the election votes come in at my friends Gregory, Michael and Jenny’s house. That night we celebrated and decided to journey together to the inauguration. As the days dragged on between November 4th and January 20th we reserved a zipcar, Jenny made housing arrangements with a friend of hers who lives in D.C., and we all applied for tickets through our new york representatives and senators. Only Michael ‘won’ a ticket but we were all going to go anyway.
We decided to leave Sunday, January 18th and come back Wednesday the 21st. We didn’t actually leave until early afternoon on Sunday but it turned out to be a traffic free and music filled road trip.  Driving down I-95 towards D.C we saw numerous Obama bumper stickered cars and trucks. We even exchanged waves and smiles with passing Obama supporters.  Somewhere in Delaware, or maybe Maryland?, we stopped to refuel at a rest stop full of Obama buttoned people using the restrooms and buying coffee. We talked with a few ladies about our Shepard Fairey Obama decals littered on the back and sides of our ‘vehicle for change’ (a silver scion).

We arrived in the D.C. neighborhood of Trinidad about 6:00 p.m. where we were to stay with Jenny’s, and soon to be our, friend Kelly. Kelly has a beautiful two story townhouse with an amazing coffee maker. She works for the Washington Post and had a few anecdotes for us about the inauguration coverage frenzy.  I am so thankful she let us stay with her.
Sunday night we settled in, met her neighbors, and went out for drinks and food at Sticky Rice. We enjoyed Sticky Rice, it is a pan-Asian bar with an upstairs restaurant. The crowd was a little hipster, a little local, but all excited. We sat at the bar for a while waiting for the table and I wrestled tator-tots out of a bucket with chopsticks and nursed my jameson and soda. When we finally sat upstairs I ordered the dirty vegan- a tofu, peanut sauce, noodle extravaganza- and Jenny talked to our waiter about his nike rip-off black t-shirt printed with “just doin’ it and doin’ it and doin’ it well”.

Monday morning we slept in. I read the actual paper version of the New York Times and Washington Post on a warm fuzzy couch and had coffee with my cold leftover noodles.
On Monday afternoon Michael left earlier than us to take the 10 minute bus ride in to Union Station and pick up his silver ticket on the capitol grounds.

Monday afternoon, an hour or so after Michael left,  Gregory, Jenny, Kelly and I drove to Union Station, parked a block away, and walked towards Independence Avenue. I stopped at a street vendor and bought a black, MLK inspired Obama t-shirt for a friend before we decided to wait in a hot cider and croissant-filled coffee shop for Michael.  Michael said he stood in the ticket line for a while but he and others basked in the pleasantly present sun despite the freezing temperature. Once in the government building where he picked up his ticket, Michael said he was able to roam around and no one seemed to be watching or giving directions.Once we all met up in the cafe we decided to walk towards the west front of the capitol, then down the mall passing the Washington Monument and all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial. As we started on our way it was slightly after 5:30 and the sun had set. Many people, although not crowded, were wondering around the streets in capitol hill. We stood on the south west corner of the capitol with hundreds of others. We took pictures of the news crews and inauguration organizers setting up equipment, adjusting camera angles, and patrolling the area.

We soon met up with a few other friends who had come from New York and elsewhere and we then walked further west down the mall.
Walking down the national mall was a strange mix between a carnival and a political event of a new millennium.Vendors sold hand clappers with Obama’s face stuck on, Obama themed condoms, neon bracelets, horribly designed yellow sweatshirts, endless amounts of buttons, hand warmers and whatever else one might want to buy. A few times I paused on the mall and turned ’round to observe the visual spectacle i was in; The capitol in its iconic glory, lights bathing me like a football field and the Egyptian monument ramming up from the ground. As we passed between 3rd street and 4th street we saw a large, frenzied crowd drawn to the msnbc lights like bugs. Everyone was screaming and waving at the camera hoping to be on one of the most popular cable news shows of the day. We watched David Shuster talk in a glass enclosed studio and hoped to see Keith Olbermann’s head. We watched a nearby screen with the live msnbc coverage of the exact place we were standing; I experienced an eery mirror effect. Since no Keith was to be found (sorry Jenny) we walked further down the mall. After a quick pit stop in the port-a-potties and a failed encounter to buy hand warmers we approached the Washington Monument. Around the Washington Monument were tall police surveillance apple pickers; the same ones you can find in the rough parts of my Brooklyn neighborhood. Close to the Washington Monument were dramatic crisscrossing light beams but I’m not sure what they were meant to do or signify. I should also mention that as we are walking down the mall we pass a dozen or so ‘jumbotrons’ set up for the morning proceedings. Some of these jumbotrons were on and projecting an amazingly bright 56th inauguration logo or msnbc coverage.

We crossed 15th street and slightly paused to take in the tall, narrow obelisk. Michael and I were in the midst of a discussion about the possibility of lost evidence buried deep within this planet telling of us advanced ancestral civilizations. We wondered whether a million years from now our surviving artifacts would tell people that a man of middle-eastern descent, who led a great empire, was celebrated with the construction of a middle-eastern inspired structure. In a million years it may be difficult to understand the difference between 2009 and 1884, the year the Washington Monument was completed.
As we walked around the monument and alongside the physically, although not symbolically, frozen reflecting pool we saw a group of people pulling police barricades out of the frozen water. These people were not workers as I first assumed, just regular citizens concerned that the inauguration barricades should be set back in order.
Reaching the end of the reflecting pool we walked as close as we could get to the Lincoln Memorial. Workers were taking down the stage and barricades from the celebrity infused concert the day before. Many tourists waited in line to enter the memorial but we just walked on. My knees and face were fairly frozen by this point. We paused at a bronze Vietnam veterans statue titled “The Three Soldiers” and then walked out of the mall.
We walked quite a ways to 20th street and Pennsylvania avenue. Here we waited for a table in an impressive restaurant, Founding Farmers. Founding Farmers is housed in a certified green building, is owned by a collective of American family farmers and claims to serve local, organic fare. I opted for the grilled cheese (Gruyere and cheddar!) and tomato soup. It was perfect for such a cold night. After dinner we took an unnecessarily long cab ride with a driver who assumed we didn’t know where we were. However, on the ride home I talked to my roommate who miraculously acquired a ticket for me in the extremely close blue section. I couldn’t believe it.

When we finally arrived home Monday night we were exhausted but excited. I had to get up the earliest out of everyone because I was to meet my roommate, her boyfriend and his D.C. friend Barbara at the blue gate entrance at 8:30.

Tuesday morning. January 20, 2009. The 56th Presidential Inauguration. Soon to be President Barack Hussein Obama.

I woke up at 6:45, threw on layers of clothes, stuffed everything in my pockets and carried a small blanket to the bus. I rode by myself to what I thought would be Union Station with mostly local residents. The bus driver stopped at N. Capitol and H street and announced that this was the closest to the perimeter he was allowed. I didn’t realize at the time that I was close to Union Station and was a little confused about where to go. I could see the capitol building and the thousands of other people walking in front of me so I just followed and hoped for the best.  As I approached the west front of the capitol I realized this was going to be a hectic day. There were no posted maps, no designated helpers, simple if any signage, and plenty of people. What was most amazing to me is how everyone was exiting their various buses and public transport areas and were converging on a single point, the purple gate, but were still in many fairly organized lines. Once I talked to a nice gentleman who shared his map with me I realized I had to walk to the exact opposite side of the capitol, the blue entrance. Along my route two military trucks passed by towing the cannons I assume were used for the 21-gun salute. I saw a lot of important looking older people exiting their homes and joining the sidewalk crowd.
After about 30 minutes I approached the sign for the blue gate.
I thought this would be the end of my struggle to get in BUT I was in for a surprise. At Washington and C the crowds were beyond capacity. It was now 8:15 and a line snaked out from the blue gate but quickly lost shape or purpose. People immediately around me said they had stood in line from 7:00 and I later saw these same people unable to get in at noon. These were all people with tickets to the blue section! This same mess happened in the purple section and it is not clear to me (or most others) why or how this happened. My phone, text function and email capabilities were mostly jammed from 8:30 to 1:30 but I was able to sparingly communicate with my roommate. I was afraid I would never find my roommate or get in to my section so I considered abandoning my plans to meet my roommate and instead walk down to the 18th street mall entrance for non ticket holders. I knew if I did this I could get in to the mall but I would be alone in a crowd of millions.  I climbed up on a concrete barrier to look out over the lost crowd and weigh my options. Two citizens, a young caucasian man and woman, were on the barrier yelling out information to people. They took the initiative to help so many people and were greatly needed. No police were available. No information was available.

At this point I had decided to leave the area I was in and walk down the mall. But at this same moment my roommate, Georgia, was able to reach me via phone.  We finally found each other, quite miraculously I might say, in the part of the crowd overlooking the infamous tunnel of doom. At this point it was 10:00 or so and I was tired, frustrated and disheartened. We tried to find a line to stand in but it was too muddled. People were everywhere and no one knew what to do or where to go. Amazingly, people were in general good spirits and asking each other from where they had traveled. I talked to several Brooklynites and one Hawaiian.
After abandoning the line we walked toward the Botanic Garden. We climbed on a metal gate perched on the raised steps of a building on 2nd street SW. That worked well for a few minutes until a police officer asked us to get down. There were several people across the street in trees, so apparently a tree is a more acceptable perch than a gate. We finally rested on the steps by the Botanic Garden and could see and hear the stage. I stood on a lamppost. At this point it was about 11:30. I was sad that I was not with Michael, Jenny and Gregory. I was happy I was with Georgia.
I was sad I did not feel the rush of the mall crowd but glad I was not packed to the point I could not see. But as Bush and other leaders took the stage, as Aretha Franklin sang, as the presidential music began I realized this was a moment to cherish and remember.

The crowd around me cheered and booed at the culturally appropriate times. When Obama finished the oath, joy spread through each person like the flu. I admit I cried. I cried not specifically because of Obama himself but because I had made it to this physical point, with my good friend Georgia, in a democracy I could be proud of, on a day when millions gathered in D.C. not to protest but to celebrate.
As soon as the cheering ceased I wiped my eyes and jumped off my lamppost because everyone around me had suddenly huddled together in bands of 8 to 12 people. Obama addressed the world during those next 18 or so minutes  and everyone had found others who had radios, blackberries, iphones, regular cell phones, and battery powered TVs. There were at least a dozen of these impromptu huddles around me and everyone was silently listening to both Obama yards away and a delayed but clearer voice through their shared device. This moment was a tangible convergence of politics, community, technology and humanity; one I’ll never forget.

*see my flickr set and Michael’s for more photos

Filed under: politics, future, fostering identity, observations and opinions on January 26th, 2009