Anna and I found ourselves in the heart of it on Inauguration Day. I managed to "beg, borrow and/or steal" tickets from Senator Crapo's office the day before when, for 30 short minutes, I put my hand over my heart and pledged allegiance to the great state of Idaho.
Bright and early we made our way west of the Capital building. We dutifully took our place at the end of the line - which happened to be through the "7 levels
of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and ... the 395 Tunnel" (meaning over ONE MILE away from the entrance gate).After waiting our place in line for over two hours, Anna pointed out that unless we started cutting asap - we would never make it in. The crowd was beginning to exhibit mob behavior.
But we took our lives in our hands as we quickly developed a system for cutting (tutorials offered to DC-ites in prep for July 4th lines).
By the time we got to the front of the front of the tunnel, the line had broken down and formed into a scene from the Apocalypse. At one point, I thought Anna might join the mob. 
We pressed forward. For once, being small had its advantages as we squirmed our way the crowd. We found ourselves in the midst of a crush so thick, I didn't need to move my feet to move and Anna contemplated using the coat in front of her as a tissue because she couldn't reach her pocket. Soon we found ourselves near a gate where three people were checking the tickets of the thousands who'd spent all morning in the tunnel in the midst of a group that alternated between chanting, "Let! Us! In!", "Pur-Ple! Ti-Ckets", "O-BA-MA" and, at the Silver Ticket Gate, "that's not in the spirit of Obama" when people started pushing. It was scary and patriotic all at once.
Long story short, we pressed through the crowd, ran passed the metal detectors, got pulled over a 4 foot stone wall by a comarade-in-arms and made it to the back of the seated folks in time to hear Aretha's hat sing.
As an aside, it was a moving experience to see nearly 2 million gather on the Mall. A Native American man behind me had traveled from a reservation in Oklahoma, the black woman ahead from DC, an older white woman from Connecticut. I listened as a woman translated President Obama's speech into Spanish over the phone, and another man into Hindi. I imagine that President Obama can't possibly live up to the expectations that have been heaped upon his shoulders. But I do know that it's been a long time since I've heard people speak about the government with such optimism and we can all do for a little more "hope and virtue" in our lives. And for that, I'd stand all night and day in a tunnel under the Capital lawn.
3 comments:
WOW! That is awesome that you guys were actually THERE! A moment in history for sure! I love your spirit!
Sounds snug! Pressed in with a mass of humanity.
How incredible to be a part of that. Watching it with a preschool class, who kept telling me, "Obama is the new president," was not quite the same thing. However, I still found the experience moving and felt a little pride and optimism for our country.
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