Inauguration Day and the Red Hat Club

Inauguration Day Continued
Where was I? Ah, yes, Kitty and I were arriving at the Mall, along with hundreds of thousands of other early risers, only to find that others had beat us to it. Well, it's a big mall, and not every space was taken yet, so we headed for the closest Jumbotron screen. We found ourselves standing with a fine group of people, soon to become our BFFs. There were high-school kids sitting on a blanket, playing cards; there was a school teacher and her young children sleeping under blankets, clearly having arrived very early in the morning to get a good spot; there was a young man, maybe in his late teens or early twenties, wearing a jacket with huge M&M characters on it (you would have loved it, Camille!); and there were some wonderful church women from Chattanooga, TN, who welcomed us into their fold.

Since it was 7:00 a.m. when we got there, and the President wasn't being sworn in until noon, I sat on the ground from time to time to give my legs a rest. People were moving through the crowd constantly, since we were occupying a spot between more than a million people and the Port-O-Potties. Whenever I was on the ground, the women from Tennessee would instruct people to step carefully because "there's a woman sitting on the ground" (by this time, most of the kids were no longer sitting down). Then they'd check on me: "You OK, Mary? You OK, hon?" I was more than OK, cold and crowded as it was. I was smack dab in the middle of history and so thrilled to be there. Kitty managed to stand through the whole thing!

As we waited for the world to take a giant step into the future, we watched the video from Sunday's "We Are One" concert on the big screen. The entire crowd acted as if we were witnessing the concert live, cheering, clapping, singing along, and dancing. Everyone seemed to know the words to every song. Neither age, nor ethnicity, nor musical affiliation seemed to make a difference: we all knew the songs and sang along. Woodstock had nothing on us, my friends. It was one big musical love-in in four-part harmony! (I told you we were standing with some church women.) I don't think anything could top Stevie Wonder singing "Higher Ground" with Shakira and Usher, but millions of people singing "This land is your land this land is my land" together, led by Pete Seeger looking all the part of a magical gnome, was awesome, beyond description. Those words have never sounded so true as they did on Inauguration Day, and we sang jubilantly, a living "amen."

The biggest star in this rocking galaxy? That would have to be the President-Elect. Loud cheers for Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Will.i.am, Stevie Wonder, and U2, but no roars could match those that greeted the President-Elect every time his name was mentioned. We were members of Barack Obama's biggest fan club. No dissenters for miles.

By about 10:00, the video switched to live coverage of people arriving for the Inauguration ceremony. Was that really Mohammed Ali, looking old and frail under that broad-brimmed black hat? Who else got the good seats? Martin Luther King III, Dustin Hoffman (Dustin Hoffman?), Gray Davis (OK, we're seeing the hand of the newly powerful Dianne Feinstein), the awesome Donna Brazile,, and John Lewis, American hero. Hard to remember who else was sitting in the places of honor, but it certainly wasn't anybody from Halliburton or Enron. The crowd warmed up as various VIPs were announced on the screen, and the sense of anticipation grew tangible. Who's that coming down the stairs? Military brass, the Supremes (justices, that is, not Diana and crew), senators, representatives. ("Come senators, congressman, please heed the call. Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall. For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled. There's a battle outside and it's ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times they are a-changin'." I just had to quote Old Bob, there, although it’s hard to protest when the world is harmonically converging.)

Military marches play, and flags wave across the Mall, as people look at each other and smile in unrepressed glee. I stand now, knowing that the opportunity to sit has passed as the crowd grows, taking up every square foot of space. Barney Frank is recognized on screen by one of the women from Chattanooga, who smiles at Kitty. “There’s one of your guys,” she says, paying homage to Kitty’s Boston home turf. I get credit for both California and Oregon connections, not that anyone recognizes the senators or reps from Oregon. Teddy Kennedy gets a big roar of approval from the crowd as he appears on screen. “He looks good!” we all agree hopefully.

I’m not sure if those watching this on TV noticed, but it was very clear from the video feed on the Jumbotron: There was a live mike near where the dignitaries exited the Capitol to take their seats. I kept waiting for someone to say something truly embarrassing. My hopes were particularly high when George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush walked down the steps, but no such luck.

When President Bush is announced, some in the crowd boo. “C’mon, people,” Kitty admonishes. “We don’t need to boo. That’s disrespectful.” Kitty is no fan of W. In fact, she can’t stand the guy. But she was absolutely right. “I didn’t like it when people booed Obama when he was mentioned at the Republican Convention, and I don’t think it’s right for us to boo Bush now,” Kitty explains. Luckily the momentary booing passes quickly and the crowd continues to watch and listen in a spirit of bonhomie. Cheney appears in a wheelchair

When the Obama family is announced, the crowd cheers joyously. And then it’s “the President-Elect of the United States, Barack H. Obama,” and people whistle, shout, clap, stomp their feet. Those with flags wave them wildly. Woo hoo!!! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! Paul McCartney, eat your heart out.

Observations on the Ceremony
DiFi (SF insider name for Dianne Feinstein) quote: “No triumph tainted by brutality could ever match the sweet victory of this hour, and what it means to those who marched and died to make it a reality…[Future generations] will look back and remember that this was the moment when the dream that once echoed across history from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial finally reached the walls of the White House.” That’s right. It’s not the fulfillment of the dream, because the dream goes beyond this moment, but so far the dream has led us to this day that so many who witness it thought would never happen in our lifetime.

On Rick Warren’s invocation: Such empty platitudes about love and inclusiveness from a man who has compared gay marriage to bestiality and worked so hard to keep rights from American citizens. “When we fail to treat our fellow human beings with all the respect they deserve, forgive us,” he implored God. Indeed. Kitty turned her back. I studied his face for some sort of transformative self-reflection, but I didn’t see it. Then he had the nerve to end his invocation with the Lord’s Prayer, a solely Christian prayer that even Christians can’t agree on how to say. I’m not knocking the Lord’s Prayer. It has great meaning to me, no matter which version. However, saying it as part of the swearing in of the President of the United States suddenly creates a Christians-only moment that is inappropriate. Quite telling that the audience chose, for the most part, not to say it along with “Pastor Rick.” President-Elect Obama’s lips stayed still. I believe he understood why it would be wrong to say it then. However, I’ll bet rumors will fly all over the Internet that Obama “refuses to say the Lord’s Prayer.”

There is laughter across the Mall whenever anyone says, “Will you all please stand?” As if we had a choice, we all thought, but in a good-natured way, enjoying the humor of it all.

Question: Since Biden was sworn in as Vice-President before Obama was sworn in, is he actually President for a minute and a half? Let’s see if THAT one shows up on the Internet.

Re Chief Justice Roberts’s flub. Was he trying to avoid splitting a verb from its auxillary (“I will faithfully execute” vs. I will execute…faithfully”) as was posited by someone at the NY Times (and who else but the Times would have posited such an explanation?) ? Obama pauses to let Roberts correct himself, but it gets even more confusing, and Obama gamely goes on .

DiFi announces Obama as the President of the United States. There is crazy cheering and flag-waving and chants of O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! We all cry, moved by joy and amazement at the import of this occasion. We hug. We pass out tissues. We applaud and dance and jump up and down. “We did it!” we tell each other. “We did it. Yes we did!”

And then the speech. Such depth President Obama shows in the words he chooses to address the nation and the world. It’s not a speech filled with sound bites, but rather a speech made up of words carefully chosen to deliver his message. We face hard times. No denial there. But we as a country have faced hard times before, and we have come through. It is a time for unity, not division. We reach our hand out to the rest of the world and invite dialogue. Oh, what a welcome change from the last eight years. Highlights: “The time has come…to chose our better history.” “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them.” “The question is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” Amen and hallelujah!

Elizabeth Alexander’s poem: beautiful imagery. Reminded me of Whitman’s poems with their references and images of everyday people in everyday moments.

Rev. Joseph Lowery’s closing prayer/benediction was wonderful. The first part was from “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (thanks, Rick, for identifying it), AKA the “Negro national anthem.” And then those words from the Civil Rights Movement: “Help us work for that day when ‘black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, when white will do right.’ Let everybody say ‘Amen.’” Amen!

And then I sang the national anthem for all I was worth.

I grew up in a time when the American flag and patriotic songs were used to divide people. In the fifties, they were ways to separate the “real Americans” from the commies. In the sixties, they were signs of your belief in “America right or wrong” and the sentiment “America: love it or leave it.” I have finally come to embrace the Fourth of July (thank you, Boston, for making it real) and have been known to sing along with the Pops on “You’re a Grand Old Flag” after a couple glasses of wine. But patriotism has always made me nervous. On this Inauguration Day, I felt happy to be an American. Hell, I actually felt proud to be an American. Yes I did. Yes we did. An amazing experience. An amazing moment of grace.

About the Weather
Yes, it was COLD. But the sun shone, and the wind wasn’t too bad, or if it was, who could feel it with all those people around you (taller people might not agree with me on this)? Luckily, I was wearing very warm clothes, including faux-fur-lined Uggs knock-offs that were both warm and comfortable. Nonetheless, my toes were a bit frozen after standing in the cold for six hours. My gloves kept my fingers warm, for the most part, and my red knit hat, despite its tendency to slide up as time passed, kept my body heat from leaking out of the top of my head.

About the Red Hat Club
I was being facetious when I told people to “look for the red hat” if they wanted to see me on TV. I had no idea just how facetious that turned out to be. As soon as I got above ground from the early morning Metro ride, I saw that all the volunteers, those who stood in the cold morning air, telling us to keep going and happily starting “Obama” chants, were wearing red knit hats. So were the San Francisco Girls Chorus members. So was every fifth face in the crowd. And so was Mrs. Robinson, Michelle Obama’s mother. My red hat didn’t narrow it down much, but at least I was in fine company!

Nasty Thought 1
Cheney in the wheelchair was a dead ringer for Dr. Strangelove. After his expansion of the Veep’s power, maybe the only way they were going to get Cheney out of the White House was to strap him to a wheelchair and wheel him out.

Nasty Thought 2
Do you think George and Barbara Bush were wearing purple scarves to demonstrate their solidarity with Bishop Gene Robinson? Naaah. I didn’t think so. It was a decidedly bishop-like purple, though.

Stay Tuned
My next entry will show just how powerful the glow was in the face of a miserable wandering journey to exit the Mall, find an open Metro station, get on the Metro, and get back to the hotel to watch the parade, all on one bottle of water and a street-vendor hot dog. (I never got to have breakfast, nor did I find water before we got to the Mall. Probably just as well, since I never did have to use one of the dreaded Port-O-Potties.